The opening round of this season’s ADAC GT Masters at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg produced some fascinating facts and stories. The Paddock Radar from the “Festival of Dreams”.
Well-attended event The “Festival of Dreams” proved very popular: 80,000 tickets were issued, creating a great backdrop at the Hockenheimring on the Saturday and Sunday. As well as the feast of racing action, there were also many attractions for fans in the paddock. At Dreamers Plaza, visitors were entertained by a number of talks, some presented by Steven Gätjen, with well-known personalities including Toni Garrn, Paul Ripke and Walter Röhrl. Alvaro Soler put on an exclusive live concert on the Saturday evening.
First time in the ADAC GT Masters Twelve drivers made their ADAC GT Masters debut at the Hockenheimring. The most successful of the rookies was Finn Gehrsitz from Team Joos by Racemotion. The 18-year-old claimed his maiden victory in the Sunday race. Together with team-mate Sven Müller, he lies second in the Drivers’ Championship.
New teams In Hockenheim, five racing teams got their first taste of ADAC GT Masters action. FK Performance Motorsport, Haupt Racing Team, Huber Motorsport, Huber Racing and NordPass by Juta Racing took their place on the starting grid for the first time.
Inspiration from a Formula 1 icon Benjamin Hites caught the eye with his provisional qualifying record on the Saturday. The Chilean took inspiration from Formula 1 world champion James Hunt: his black helmet design was reminiscent of that worn by Hunt.
Extra shift for Huber Racing Huber Racing had plenty of work to do before the opening race of the ADAC GT Masters season. After suffering serious damage at the official test for the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Christopher Huber’s mechanics were forced to replace the chassis of the Porsche 911 GT3 R. The effort paid dividends: Tim Zimmermann and Jaxon Evans claimed the first victory for the team on its debut in the series. They also lead the Drivers’ Championship with 38 points after the first race weekend of the year.
A visit from the DTM DTM drivers Laurin Heinrich, Luca Engstler and Jusuf Owega stopped by in Hockenheim. Würzburg’s Heinrich visited Huber Racing, with whom he won the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland in 2022. Engstler gave the two young international drivers in his father’s team – Dylan Yip and Kwanda Mokoena – some valuable tips. Jusuf Owega dropped in to see his brother Salman Owega at Landgraf Motorsport.
Record-breaking Philipp Eng’s qualifying record at the Hockenheimring had stood for six years. That was before Benjamin Hites shaved roughly two tenths of a second (1:37.358 minutes) off that time on Saturday in the Grasser Lamborghini. However, the Chilean’s lap was not to remain the fastest for long: one day later, that time was smashed by Arjun Maini (Haupt Racing Team) in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The Indian took just 1:36.961 minutes to complete his flying lap of the 4.574-kilometre racetrack – a new record!
Two Porsche victories Huber Racing and Team Joos by Racemotion presented Porsche with two victories, as the new 911 GT3 R, based on the 992 series, made its debut in the ADAC GT Masters. The last time the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart won two races on the same weekend was at the Nürburgring in 2020, courtesy of Herberth Motorsport and SSR Performance.
Start your engines Christian Gericke, CEO of bitkasten AG, gave the field the sign to “Start your engines” ahead of Saturday’s race. Bitkasten is a platform for sharing information and sending post digitally. The company’s logo is visible on the front windscreen of all the super sports cars in the ADAC GT Masters in 2023. One day later, actor and Porsche enthusiast Richy Müller took responsibility for the start procedure.
Non-stop Patrick Simon was faced with a busy schedule at the “Festival of Dreams”. The 48-year-old commentated on the first two races of this season’s ADAC GT Masters as the circuit announcer and for the YouTube livestream. Simon was also on the microphone for Eurosport as a commentator on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He then took to the track himself, as the Porsche Sprint Challenge Classic made its debut in Hockenheim.
Le-Mans flair Fans of the 24 Hours of Le Manas were in their element at the “Festival of Dreams”. Porsche showed the 100th anniversary of Le Mans live in the Le Mans Bar. The Eurosport team, led by Patrick Simon and Lukas Gajewski, presented the race live from Hockenheim.
Lots of equipment Grasser Racing brought plenty of luggage with them to Hockenheim: as well as the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 for the ADAC GT Masters, they also transported Clemens Schmid’s DTM car and the Lamborghini, with which the Austrian team had started in the GT World Challenge in Le Castellet, in the south of France, the previous Saturday.
