When Guy Smith embarked on a career in professional motorsport in the early 1990s, many of the current crop of ADAC GT Masters drivers weren't even born. The 41-year-old Englishman ranks alongside Boris Said as one of the veterans in this year's field of contestants. Despite his long career, Smith claims not to be suffering from race fatigue: "I love new challenges - and entry in the ADAC GT Masters certainly counts as one."

In 2014, Bentley brought Smith back on board as a works driver to take forward the revived GT3 project in the shape of the Continental GT3. In 2003, together with the British luxury marque, he celebrated the greatest success of his motor racing career to date: victory in the general classification at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Another major achievement came in 2011 when he won the title in the American Le Mans Series: "The triumph at Le Mans was, of course, magnificent. I get asked about it all the time, and I'll certainly be telling the tale to my grandchildren. But that was quite a while ago. Now I'm focusing on the ADAC GT Masters."

Guy Smith made his Super Sports Car League debut in 2016 as a member of the newly constituted Bentley Team ABT and has formed a very positive impression of the series: "There are a lot of teams, a lot of drivers and a lot of different manufacturers. The times set in qualifying are very close to each other. In the races, your paintwork frequently gets scratched; I'm not used to that, having come from prototype racing. But the best part is the fantastic support you get from the fans. Most of the tracks are also new to me. But by way of compensation, I know the Continental GT3 really well. Most of the drivers have had to get used to all the new models in this year's line-up."

Guy Smith and the ADAC GT Masters are the perfect fit for each other. Despite the initial acclimatisation period, he and his team-mate Fabian Hamprecht have managed one decent points finish: P5 in the first of the two Sachsenring races. "Fabian may be relatively young at 20 years of age, but he is also talented and fast. He has a great future ahead of him. I enjoy sharing my experiences - both good and bad - with him. There is potential for our entire team and for the car. We now need to bring everything together, and after that, the successes should come thick and fast."