The outfit celebrated its first victory in the Super Sports Car League with the BMW M6 GT3 recently at the Red Bull Ring, and so, things were looking really good for the Oschersleben-based team. However, bad news in the run-up to the races at the Lausitzring has served to dampen spirits.
BMW works driver Nick Yelloly has tested positive for the corona virus and will thus be unable to compete alongside Henric Skoog as his team-mate in car number 10. British driver Yelloly will be replaced by 21-year-old Sheldon van der Linde from South Africa, who has raced for BMW in the DTM since 2019 and took his maiden win in the series earlier this season at Assen. The brother of current ADAC GT Masters champion Kelvin van der Linde competed in the Super Sports Car League in 2016 and 2017 and won the title of runner-up in his second season.
The team are very keen to end their first season back in the series on a high despite this unexpected change of drivers. Success for Yelloly and Skoog in Saturday's race in Austria was instrumental in confirming that they could still be top contenders in the ADAC GT Masters even after a year's absence. It was Schubert Motorsport’s first victory since 2015 and their eleventh overall in this top-class GT3 series.
Schubert Motorsport still have a score that they would like to settle at the circuit to the south of Berlin, as both of the team’s BMW M6 GT3s finished out of the points at the season opener in early August. Schubert's engineers made tremendous progress with setup for the second race after a couple of tough practice sessions and a disappointing Saturday. Yelloly qualified twelfth on Sunday morning and managed to re-establish the connection with the Top Ten but was forced to retire from the race while heading for a points-scoring finish following a contact that was not his fault.
Their second appearance at the Lausitzring should give them the chance to make good and also serve to indicate how much progress they have made since the opener. Skoog and Yelloly may have provided the outfit’s first major success of the year with their victory, but team-mates Joel Eriksson and Aidan Read are still hoping to secure their first top-class result of the season. The weather is forecast to be autumnal with low temperatures and frequent showers of rain, which should spice things up at the Lausitzring.
Team Principal Andre Schubert: "We were all very upset when we heard about Nick's infection and hope he can get well soon. With Sheldon van der Linde, we have found a really high-calibre substitute to drive the car and know that he will be a worthy stand-in for Nick. We are in a positive frame of mind too as far as the weekend is concerned, definitely. Our win at the Red Bull Ring has given the entire team a big boost for the final push to the finish. Everyone has worked tirelessly for this success and we feel that we are now finally back in the ADAC GT Masters and aim to end the year on a high. It's obviously a pity that Zandvoort has been cancelled, but competing twice in a season at the same circuit is not as boring as you might think. We had a very tough but instructive weekend at the Lausitzring opener. Racing there again will give us a chance to see what we’ve learned since. We intend to pass the test and secure another top-class result."