Round three of this season’s ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring provided some fascinating facts and stories. The Paddock Radar from the ADAC Truck Grand Prix in the Eifel Mountains.
ADAC Truck Grand Prix draws big crowds The Eifel region was transformed into a place of pilgrimage for truck enthusiasts from all over the world at the weekend. More than 130,000 visitors provided a mightily impressive backdrop to the ADAC Truck Grand Prix. The spectators followed the two ADAC GT Masters races with great delight from the packed grandstands along the 3.629-kilometre sprint variant of the Nürburgring.
Swapping Majorca for the Nürburgring On Saturday, Iris Hagemann, Head of Business Development at bitkasten AG, got the ADAC GT Masters field up and running with the “Start your engines” sign, presented by series partner Herrenausstatter.de. One day later, pop singer ‘Schürze’ swapped his microphone for the start board. Last year, he took Germany by storm with his hit ‘Layla’. On Saturday evening, he entertained fans with his songs in the Müllenbach-Schleife section of the Nürburgring.
A whole different scale Fans at the racetrack and watching on TV could hardly have believed their eyes in the run-up to the two races. The field set off behind an incredible lead car. It was a truck setting the pace at the Nürburgring. At 3.80 metres tall, the vehicle really caught the eye as it dwarfed the comparatively small GT3 cars in the ADAC GT Masters.
One for the history books GT cars from Italian premium manufacturer Lamborghini have been racing in the ADAC GT Masters since the inaugural season back in 2007. On Sunday morning, Marco Mapelli (I) secured the historic 50th pole position for a Lamborghini in the ADAC’s popular GT racing series. And there was more: the Lamborghini works driver smashed the previous qualifying record at the Nürburgring, held by Frank Stippler, by more than four tenths of a second, with a time of 1:25.231 minutes. Together with team-mate Benjamin Hites (CHL), Mapelli also claimed the first victory in the ADAC GT Masters for the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2.
Big names from the DTM Two of the current crop of DTM drivers took their place on the grid at round three of the season at the Nürburgring. Two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann from Fürth shared the cockpit of the Project 1 BMW M4 GT3 with Sandro Holzem (Polch) and headed home with a trophy, thanks to second place in the sixth race of the season. Petru Umrarescu (ROU) and Arjun Maini (IND) from the DTM shared the driving duties in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Haupt Racing Team, as they had done previously at the season-opener at the Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg. DTM driver Jusuf Owega also dropped in to support his brother Salman.
Unusual broadcast venue On Saturday evening, “Ps on Air – The Ravenol ADAC GT Masters Talk” aired on the free YouTube channel @adacmotorsports. However, presenter Patrick Simon had selected a rather unusual location for his programme. For the third episode of the year, he clambered into the driver’s cab of a Landgraf Motorsport truck. Before entering the cab, however, Simon and all his guests had to observe the rules laid down by Landgraf trucker Slawa: “Shoes off”.
Successful guest starters Three teams were making their first appearance of this season’s ADAC GT Masters: Paul Motorsport, Project 1 and Schnitzelalm Racing. Nordpass by Juta Racing ran an additional Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo2. Lamborghini team Paul Motorsport made it onto the podium in race five of the season, with Maximilian Paul (Dresden) and Simon Connor Primm (Großschirma) finishing third on Saturday. Wittmann and Holzem picked up the runners-up trophy for Project 1 and BMW on Sunday afternoon.
A host of juniors on the grid No fewer than 13 drivers were eligible for the Pirelli Junior competition at the Nürburgring. The youngsters really put themselves about in the two ADAC GT Masters races. Juniors Salman Owega (Cologne) and Elias Seppänen (FIN/both Landgraf Motorsport) won their second race of the season with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 on Saturday. One day later, in race six of the 2023 ADAC GT Masters, Lamborghini driver Benjamin Hites (GRT Grasser Racing Team) celebrated becoming the first Chilean to take first place in the iconic GT series and also won the Pirelli Junior competition.
Promising debut Schnitzelalm Racing produced a great display at their first start in the ADAC GT Masters. Colin Caresani (NL) and Marcel Marchewicz (Schwetzingen) guided the Mercedes-AMG GT3 into the top five from eighth place in Sunday’s race. “The competition is very good in this series, and the standard is brutally high. I also really liked the way the ADAC GT Masters is organised. The whole experience at the ADAC Truck Grand Prix is great for motorsport. I am very happy and satisfied. We will gladly come back again,” said team principal Thomas Angerer.
Double shift Haupt Racing Team put in a double shift last weekend. As well as the two Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the ADAC GT Masters, Hubert Haupt’s team also ran two cars in the GT World Challenge Europe in Misano, Italy.
