Round four of this season’s ADAC GT Masters at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps produced some fascinating figures and stories. Here is the Paddock Radar from the ADAC Racing Weekend at the Ardennes Rollercoaster in Belgium.
New qualifying record in the ADAC GT Masters
Finland’s Elias Seppänen set a new qualifying record in the opening session on Friday evening, stopping the clock at 2:15.923 minutes. In doing so, he smashed the previous record, set by Bernd Schneider in 2015, by 2.581 seconds. And the story gets even better, as the five-time DTM champion is currently supporting the Landgraf team, including Seppänen, as coach this season.
Close battle in the “Road to DTM” competition
20-year-old Mercedes-AMG driver Seppänen from the Landgraf Motorsport team won the “Road to DTM” competition in Spa with 46 points. However, it was a close-run thing, as he beat his team-mate Tom Kalender and BMW driver Leon Köhler by just one point. Maxime Oosten, who shares a BMW M4 GT3 with Köhler in the FK Performance team, was also hot on his heels with 43 points.
Former champion on the support programme
Sebastian Asch not only won the second ADAC GT Masters race at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 2015, but also the championship alongside Luca Ludwig. The racer from Ammerbuch was again to be found around the ADAC GT Masters at round four of the season in Spa. This time, however, he was not racing in a GT3 car, but together with his father Roland Asch. The father/son pairing were sharing a Ford Sierra RS 500 in the historic series ‘Tourenwagen Golden Ära’ – The Golden Era of Touring Cars.
History repeating
When the ADAC GT Masters last went racing at the 7.004-kilometre circuit in the Ardennes back in 2015, it was a BMW Z4 GT3 run by BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert that won the opening race of the weekend. Victory in race two went to a Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. And it was a similar picture last weekend. In this case, it was not the same teams, but it was once again Mercedes-AMG and BMW who claimed victory at the spectacular Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
DTM feeling in the ADAC GT Masters
Current DTM drivers Luca Engstler and Maximilian Paul swapped their steering wheel for the pit radio at round four of this season’s ADAC GT Masters. Both Engstler (Liqui Moly Team Engstler) and Paul (Paul Motorsport) took on duties within their family teams in Spa.
Fach Auto Tech introduces next generation to the ADAC GT Masters
The youngsters in the ADAC Tourenwagen Junior Cup were given a comprehensive impression of the ADAC GT Masters on Saturday evening, courtesy of Swiss team Fach Auto Tech. Team principal Alex Fach gave the young drivers a tour of the garage and introduced them to the Porsche 911 GT3 R. Also on the programme were career planning, car set-up and communication with the engineer. For the young racers, this was a unique opportunity to familiarise themselves with the ADAC GT Masters environment.
Drama in the final metres
Just as he looked set to take another victory in the ProAm class, Alexander Fach ran out of fuel on the final lap. Prior to that, the Swiss driver from Fach Auto Tech was embroiled in a battle with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Walkenhorst Motorsport, until the Porsche came to a standstill on the Kemmel straight. However, the reason for the failure to finish was not a miscalculation, but a fault with the scales that weighted the fuel tank. As a result, the car was ultimately lacking ten kilograms of fuel. Before Sunday’s race, team principal Alex Fach joked: “That won’t happen again. We have enough juice in the tank today.” With sufficient fuel on board, the two drivers Fach and Alexander Schwarzer promptly claimed their next ProAm victory in race eight of the season. Second place overall was also their best result of the season so far.
Last-minute effort from FK Performance
BMW team FK Performance claimed their third win of the season on Sunday. However, it could have been a very different story, as there was still a flurry of activity around the car of Maxime Oosten and Leon Köhler until just before it headed out onto the starting grid. The reason for this was an issue with the clutch on the BMW M4 GT3. The team from Bremen ultimately managed to get the car out on the track. Victory for the German/Dutch duo at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps ensured the title race remains a close and exciting one.
Double shift for Fittje
Jannes Fittje from Haupt Racing Team had a busy race weekend in Spa. As well as his main commitment in the ADAC GT Masters, Hesse also lined up in the GTC Race series. The 25-year-old finished runner-up on Saturday for the Schnitzelalm Racing team, who also raced in the ADAC GT Masters at the Nürburgring earlier this year.
