Another maiden win
Two teams, Toksport WRT and Team WRT, celebrated their maiden wins in the ADAC GT Masters in the opening round at the Lausitzring and so it continued on Saturday at the Nürburgring with SSR Performance, who became the third team to triumph for the first time in the Super Sports Car League. "I can hardly believe it! Second race weekend - first victory," said a delighted Michael Ammermüller, who also secured the Munich-based outfit's first pole position in the Eifel.
Trophies for Grasser
GRT Grasser Racing are contesting this season with a practically new line-up and secured their first trophies of the year at the Nürburgring, as Lamborghini works drivers Franck Perera and Albert Costa Balboa took podiums on Sunday. "Third place was some small recompense for us," said Perera. "It's not a win, well not yet, but it almost feels like one, because we've been working like mad to get ahead. Our current good form makes me feel optimistic about the upcoming races. We'll work even harder and provided we don’t make any mistakes, wins will be our testimony. There's still a long way to go in the championship and we will fight to the end." Tim Zimmermann also achieved his first finish on the podium in the Pirelli Junior classification on Sunday. "I'm very happy with the weekend," he told us. "It shows we're on the right track. We made good progress during the first two weekends. Things are definitely on the up with ninth place in the world's toughest GT3 championship and our first Junior podium."
Wishofer is best Junior for first time
The Austrian Mick Wishofer clinched his maiden victory in the Pirelli Junior classification on Saturday aided by Dorian Boccolacci, who has joined the series from Formula 2. With fifth place overall, the duo also gave Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing their best result of the race weekend in their home fixture.
Joy short-lived
21-year-old series newcomer Jannes Fittje's (Küs Team75 Bernhard) joy at finishing second overall and first in the Pirelli Junior classification was short-lived on Sunday. He and team-mate David Jahn were handed a penalty retrospectively that dropped the team down the field. "I wanted to play safe during the pit stop and set off a fraction of a second too late. In the end, it was an unsafe release. We don't know whether it would have happened had I left the pits three or four tenths sooner. It's a learning process for me. I'll just have to stick to the limits next time. We got a 30-second time penalty as a result. We know the speed is there, especially in the races. I still have work to do in the quali so that I can qualify a bit further up the grid, and then we'll be able to repeat our good results sooner or later.” But there's some small consolation for Fittje, as he still leads the highly competitive Junior class in the ADAC GT Masters.
Successful debut
Team Joos Sportwagentechnik were satisfied with their first appearance in the ADAC GT Masters. The outfit from Balingen near Stuttgart fielded Michael Joos and Julien Andlauer for their outing at the 'Ring' and were positive as they summed up events: "We've now had our baptism of fire in the ADAC GT Masters with our Porsche 911 GT3 R. Thinking about it, I would say we're quite satisfied with P12 and P17 in the races. We're already looking forward to our next appearance in the series at Hockenheim.” Michael Joos will share the 911 with Marco Holzer next time out.
Firm fan favourite
The new style of reporting from Rutronik Racing on social media certainly attracted a lot of attention. Regular live reports from the race weekend were posted on the outfit’s Instagram account. There were also videos whose content was mainly technical. In particular, the 'digital autograph session' where fans could say what they wanted to see via live chat was a runaway success and will be repeated in the upcoming races. "It's terrific to see how well we were supported on Instagram over the weekend. We definitely intend to continue and are always open to new ideas," said Valerie Priszlinger, the team's social media manager.
Audi pick drivers and teams from the ADAC GT Masters
Audi Sport announced their line-up for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring immediately after the round in the Eifel. Seven drivers from the Super Sports Cars League have been invited to join the works team that races for the brand with the four rings. The seven are, including last year's champion, Kelvin van der Linde, Mirko Bortolotti, Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies, Frank Stippler, Dries Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock. What is more, two outfits that compete in the ADAC GT Masters, Car Collection Motorsport and Land-Motorsport, will join forces with the Audi Sport Customer Racing team and will both operate an R8 LMS in the endurance classic.
Porsche hat-trick
Together with the two victories achieved so far this year, Porsche have won the last three ADAC GT Masters races at the Nürburgring. All in all, the Stuttgart-based company has taken five wins at the 'Ring'. The last time a manufacturer won both races there over a single weekend was with Audi in 2015.