Christian Engelhart can feel well pleased with the way December turned out. He took a class victory in the Gulf 12 hours staged in Abu Dhabi in mid-December, driving a Porsche entered by ADAC GT Masters outfit MRS GT-Racing. In addition, he was invited to Munich to receive the accolade of ADAC circuit racing champion (Southern Bavaria) for the fourth year in a row.

Also in the month of December, Philip Frommenwiler was involved in an unusual advertising campaign to publicise the ADAC GT Masters. Frommenwiler and his motor racing activities featured in a commercial that was screened in more than 800 McDonald´s restaurants across Germany. The video was recorded during the ADAC GT Masters weekend at the Sachsenring. Frommenwiler was accompanied by a camera crew who filmed him before, during and after the race. "This short film shows the ADAC GT Masters as a top-class racing series", said Frommenwiler. "It is all about raising awareness among the general public of the very special fascination exerted by motorsport. Obviously, I was delighted to be part of this project."

ADAC GT Masters champion Kelvin van der Linde did some arithmetic at the end of the season. The Audi driver travelled to the race weekends in the 2014 campaign from his home in Johannesburg in South Africa and spent a total of 253 hours on the plane – the equivalent of 10.5 days.

2013 ADAC GT Masters champion Daniel Keilwitz together with his sponsor ROLLER has been looking for talented young racers to drive a BMW on the famous Nürburgring North Loop. Applicants attend one of three 'auditions' where they are asked to post a fast lap in the ADAC GT Masters Experience 2014 video game (devised by official series partner RaceRoom) at the wheel of a virtual ROLLER Corvette on the Hockenheimring. The session held in Cologne last weekend was exceptionally well attended. Keilwitz: "It was a great event, and I was amazed at how many youngsters put themselves to the test. You could see the number of applicants building up steadily hour by hour. I'm now looking forward to accompanying the finalists to the actual racetrack."

Keilwitz is not the only one bringing on the drivers of the future. Ex-Formula 1 man and former GT1 World Champion Markus Winkelhock has a key role in the new Audi TT Sport Cup. In December, he performed a preliminary assessment of candidates for the Audi brand trophy at the new Audi Sport site in Neuburg.

Prosperia C Abt have made a video of the season highlights to celebrate winning both titles – driver and team championships – in the 2014 ADAC GT Masters. It can be seen here via this link

ROWE Racing have also put together a video of their 2014 campaign. The film about the debut season in the Super Sports Car League for this Mercedes-Benz outfit can be found at the following link

Just because it´s the official winter break doesn´t mean that ADAC GT Masters contestants can put their feet up. Several of them will be getting themselves into the mood for the forthcoming season at the 24 Hours of Dubai this weekend. On the grid will be last year's winner Christian Engelhart, Martin Ragginger, Jaap van Lagen (all Porsche), Jeroen Bleekemolen, Andreas Simonsen, Patrick Assenheimer, Marko Asmer (all Mercedes-Benz) and Nathan Wolf (Corvette).

The next event on the calendar after Dubai is the 24 Hours of Daytona in Florida at the end of the month. Competing in this endurance classic on the Atlantic coast will be the likes of ADAC GT Masters champion René Rast, Markus Winkelhock, Christian Engelhart, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Jens Klingmann and Mario Farnbacher. Klingmann will be making his debut for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW works team in a factory BMW Z4 GTE. All of the other ADAC GT Masters drivers will be battling for victory in the GT3 class.