The tension is rising two days before the ADAC GT Masters enters its twelfth season at Oschersleben. Here are the key facts about the first race of the year at the weekend (April 13th - 15th). The two races in the Super Sports Cars League will be shown live and in full length by SPORT1 on Saturday and Sunday. The programme starts at 13:00 CEST. They can also be watched online via the livestream on sport1.de, adac.de/motorsport and youtube.com/adac.

- Motorsport Arena Oschersleben is hosting the ADAC GT Masters season opener for the eleventh time. 26 Super Sports Cars League races have so far been contested on the circuit near Magdeburg.

- The 2018 calendar comprises a total of seven race weekends in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and the Netherlands.

- The ADAC GT Masters will visit the Czech Republic for the first time in 2018. It becomes the sixth country after Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovakia to have staged the competition.

- The only new circuit on the itinerary is Autodrom Most. It is the 13th track to have been used by the series.

- Seven former ADAC GT Masters champions will be competing at Oschersleben: Christopher Haase (2007), Sebastian Asch (2012 and 2015), Maximilian Götz (2012), Daniel Keilwitz (2013), Kelvin van der Linde (2014), Luca Ludwig (2015) and Christopher Mies (2016).

- There will be two former motor racing world champions on the grid, namely two-time FIA WEC Champion Timo Bernhard and ex-FIA GT1 champion Lucas Luhr.

- Daniel Keilwitz has won more races than any other driver in the ADAC GT Masters - 19 in all. The Corvette driver also holds the record for the most victories in a single season: in 2014, he stood on the top rung of the podium six times.

- 19 drivers will be making their ADAC GT Masters debut at Oschersleben: Timo Bernhard, Victor Bouveng, Andrea Caldarelli, Jake Dennis, Christopher Dreyspring, Philipp Ellis, Jimmy Eriksson, Max Hofer, Mikkel Jensen, Lucas Luhr, Giorgio Maggi, Frank Perera, Timo Scheider, Kim-Luis Schramm, Jan-Erik Slooten, Oscar Tunjo, Aaro Vainio, Dries Vanthoor and Christopher Zoechling.

- There are two women in the 2018 ADAC GT Masters line-up - returnee Claudia Hürtgen and Rahel Frey. They are the previous winners of seven and two races respectively in the Super Sports Cars League.

- Two of the contestants are also team bosses: Timo Bernhard drives for KÜS Team75 Bernhard, which is jointly owned by the sports car star and his father Rüdiger. Jan-Erik Slooten will drive the Porsche entered by his team Iron Force by RING POLICE.

- The starting grid for the 2018 ADAC GT Masters will once again be highly cosmopolitan, with drivers from 15 different countries. Germany is the best represented with 35 drivers - almost half of the field - ahead of Switzerland (7), Belgium and Austria (4 each).

- The youngest driver in the field is Switzerland's Ricardo Feller, a distinction he carries over from last season. The Audi driver will still be 17 years old when the campaign begins.

- The 36 cars in ADAC GT Masters line-up, including Audis, BMWs, Corvettes, Ferraris, Hondas, Lamborghinis, Mercedes-AMGs and Porsches, muster almost 20,000 horsepower between them.

- The Audi R8 LMS is the most popular model in the ADAC GT Masters (13), followed by the Mercedes-AMG GT3 (six) and the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (five).

- Audi is also the most successful brand in the series, with a total of 31 victories, followed closely by Corvette with 29 wins and Lamborghini with 27.

- Newcomer Honda becomes the 18th brand to be represented in Super Sports Car League history. The local favourites of Honda Team Schubert Motorsport have opted for the NSX GT3.

- Ferrari are returning to the GT Masters for the first time since 2012. The Italian brand has three previous race wins to its credit (2007 and 2011).

- Callaway Competition were in at the start of the ADAC GT Masters in 2007. The 27 victories notched up over the years by the Leingarten-based outfit makes it the most successful team in the history of the series.

- BMW Team Schnitzer and BWT Mücke Motorsport together with ADAC GT Masters returnees Phoenix Racing and Team Rosberg have five DTM driver titles and 54 DTM race wins between them.

- There are no fewer than four teams making their debut in the Super Sports Car League - AutoArenA Motorsport, EFP by TECE, IronForce by RING POLICE und Team ISR

- First-class education: Several contestants in the ADAC GT Masters started their careers in the various ADAC junior formula series, including Klaus Bachler, Maximilian Buhk, Indy Dontje, Christian Engelhart, Ricardo Feller, Maximilian Götz, Mikkel Jensen, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Remo Lips, Giorgio Maggi, Dennis Marschall, Stefan Mücke, Mike David Ortmann, Jeffrey Schmidt, Kim-Luis Schramm and Luca Stolz. Max Hofer is making the step up from ADAC TCR Germany this year.