Sebastian Asch (29, GER) and Luca Ludwig (26, GER) rounded off the first half of the 2015 season in perfect style at the Lausitzring on Sunday, claiming a victory from pole position in their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG that was watched by Brandenburg's Minister President Dietmar Woidke. This second race win of 2015 crowned an impressive first half of the campaign: in the eight races so far, the Zakspeed duo, who are both sons of famous motor racing fathers, have consistently finished in the Top Four. They now go into the summer break as 'halftime champions'. Andreas Wirth (30, GER) and Daniel Keilwitz (25, GER) in a Callaway Competition Corvette finished second. In an exciting and hard-fought duel, Klaus Bachler (23, AUT) and Martin Ragginger (27, AUT) brought their GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 home in third place. "We cut a reasonably fine figure," quipped Asch modestly after the victory. "The result is perfect, but we still have eight races to go this year. A lot can happen in that time. But now we can take a breather and look back with pleasure on our successes in the first half of the season."
Keilwitz dominates first stint of Sunday's race for fourth time in a row
The first half of the race was a re-run of the previous three Sundays in the ADAC GT Masters. Corvette driver Keilwitz went into P1 on the first lap from grid position four and was still in the lead at the driver changeover. After the pit stop, Asch in the Mercedes-Benz put pressure on front-runner Wirth, moving into the lead on Lap 26. Asch then opened up a gap on the Corvette which increased to as much as five seconds at times. In the end, he clinched the win 2.6 seconds up on his adversary. He and Ludwig subsequently accepted the winner's trophy from Brandenburg's first minister, Dr Woidke.
"Luca handed the car over to me in second place, and I had to push very hard to take the lead," said Asch. "Our pit stop was perfect; the Corvette was then unable to match our speed, and I took over at the front when Wirth made a small mistake. We're delighted that our car was so fast in these extreme temperatures."
"I'm just very happy that our season has been so consistent and has gone without any mistakes so far," said Ludwig, who also shone in the race by posting the fastest lap after securing pole position. "We're always well towards the front in qualifying, which is the place to be if you want to post good results. Today's victory was extremely important after missing the podium yesterday, but we must continue to work hard, because we have some tough challenges ahead of us in the second half of the season."
Superb battle for P3
The fight for third place was exciting until the very end. In a tough scrap for the final place on the podium, Ragginger in the Porsche fended off the BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert Z4 of Saturday's winners Dominik Baumann (22, AUT) and Jens Klingmann (24, GER). The two Audi R8s fielded by kfzteile24 MS Racing produced a strong team performance. Daniel Dobitsch (31, AUT) and Edward Sandström (36, SWE) in fifth place posted their best joint result of the season, while Florian Stoll (33, GER) and Marc Basseng (36, GER) took the chequered flag in sixth position.
Luca Stolz (19, GER) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (33, NL) in the Bentley Team HTP Continental GT3 beat off competition from the BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert Z4 of Claudia Hürtgen (43, GER) and Uwe Alzen (47, GER) to place seventh. The second Bentley Team HTP pairing of Clemens Schmid (24, AUT) and Fabian Hamprecht (20, AUT) finished the race in ninth position. Rahel Frey (29, CH) and Philip Geipel (28, GER) brought home their YACO Racing Audi R8 LMS in tenth place, just as they had done on Saturday.
Third win of season for Corvette driver Lips
Remo Lips (32, CH) goes into the summer break as the leader in the Gentlemen standings. Ably assisted by RWT Racing Team co-driver Sven Barth (34, GER), the Corvette man achieved his third victory of the season to further extend the championship lead which he established on Saturday. Jakub Knoll (24, CZ), class winner on Saturday in the Senkyr Motorsport BMW Z4, finished the second race as runner-up.
Both races at the Lausitzring were characterised by extreme heat, with the thermometer peaking at 38 degrees. "The weather this weekend has presented the drivers, teams, organisers and even the spectators with special challenges," said ADAC Director Motorsport and Classic Lars Soutschka. "Despite the very high temperatures, everyone has kept a cool head, and we have seen great motor racing on all three days. Special thanks go to our dedicated track marshals who have done such an extraordinary job this weekend in these extreme temperatures."
After the race at the Lausitzring, the ADAC GT Masters takes a six-week summer break. The second half of the 2015 Super Sports Car League season resumes on the weekend of 14th 16th August at the Nürburgring.