It´s a one, two, three, four finish to the campaign – first in the team competition, second and third place in the drivers´ championship and a total of four race wins. The 2015 ADAC GT Masters season has been the most successful yet for BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert. With the victory in the team classification, the Oschersleben-based outfit claimed their first title in the Super Sports Car League and can look back on one of their most successful seasons in GT racing. The team led by former Autocross European Champion Torsten Schubert also secured the first ever title for BMW in the ADAC GT Masters.
The owner and principal, who operates a total of eight BMW dealerships, has been entering BMW racing cars (and no other brand) since 1999 under the Schubert Motorsport name. After many successful years in touring car and endurance racing, the team began focusing on GT sport in 2010, fielding the BMW Z4. They made two guest appearances towards the end of the 2010 ADAC GT Masters before becoming a fixture in the Super Sports Car League line-up at the start of 2012. Claudia Hürtgen (43, DEU) has long been a regular member of the team. She is the most successful female competitor in the ADAC GT Masters, having driven a Schubert Z4 on all 34 of the race weekends since Schubert first registered for the Super Sports Car League.
The BMW specialists claimed a maiden series win on the final weekend of their first ADAC GT Masters season. Since then, they have notched up a further nine victories, no fewer than four of them coming in the now concluded 2015 season. In the past four years, BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert have been one of the most prominent teams in the series and were in contention for the title from the start to the finish of the season. Making a contribution to Schubert´s tally of seven podiums in 2015 were not only Dominik Baumann (23, AUT) and his regular partner Jens Klingmann (25, DEU), plus the pairing of Claudia Hürtgen and Uwe Alzen (48, DEU), but also BMW Junior Jesse Krohn (25, FIN) and DTM star Bruno Spengler (32, CAN) who helped out in the season opener and in the grand finale.
The new team champions are one of the most highly regarded outfits in the ADAC GT Masters paddock. BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert impressed their opponents not only by virtue of their great work ethic but also with their great spirit of fair play.
"The title in the team standings was fantastic for the whole team," said Torsten Schubert. "It was the target we had set ourselves for this weekend at Hockenheim, and it worked out in the end, so we are very happy. We finished first, second and third – winner of the team classification, second and third in the drivers´ championship. Winning the team title is our greatest success in the ADAC GT Masters; it´s our first title of any kind in the series. Second place in the drivers´ standings for Dominik Baumann, not forgetting Jens Klingmann, is also a massive achievement."
After this eventful season, BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert have no intention of putting their feet up. Next year, they will switch to the new BMW M6 which was unveiled in the Hockenheim paddock last weekend, where it attracted admiring glances from the fans. Schubert: "We will be doing some intensive testing with the BMW M6 over the winter months, especially with an eye to endurance racing. We´ll see how competitive we are and decide on whether we go straight into the new season with the M6 or fall back on our tried-and-tested Z4 for the first few races."