LMP3 cars from three manufacturers line up in the Netherlands. American Danny Soufi has his sights set on another win. Defending champion Markus Pommer looking forward to extraordinary circuit.
Sun, sand, and the sound of the surf. The breathtaking atmosphere around Circuit Zandvoort on the North Sea coast of the Netherlands is not the only wow factor at round three of the 2024 Prototype Cup Germany season. The 4.259-kilometre track, familiar from Formula 1, is also extremely popular with the drivers. The series organised by the ADAC and Creventic lines up in Zandvoort with a fascinating field and prototypes from the three manufacturers Duqueine, Ginetta and Ligier. Two guest starters will also be out to challenge the established teams. All of this promises to deliver real drama. The two qualifying sessions and races in the Prototype Cup Germany can again be watched free of charge in a livestream on the ADAC Motorsport channel.
Danny Soufi (20/USA) and Torsten Kratz (53/Mönchengladbach) travel to the Netherlands as championship leaders. The duo in the Ligier JS P320 claimed two race wins last time out at the Dekra Lausitzring – the first two victories ever for the experienced Konrad Motorsport team in this series. As such, the team arrives in Zandvoort full of confidence and determined to back up that success. “It is obviously great to be top of the table. However, it is still very early in the season. I am very much looking forward to the coming race weekend. Zandvoort is one of my favourite circuits. I particularly like the first sector and the start of sector two. There are blind turns, bumps and banked corners – a bit of everything. Zandvoort is really fun in an LMP3 car. We are ready and want to produce a good performance. That is what we are focussing on,” says Soufi. “Our goal is to win again. To achieve that, we must work hard and find a good set-up.”
Another with his sights set on race wins in Zandvoort is Markus Pommer (33/Untereisesheim), who shares a Duqueine D08 with ADAC Stiftung Sport driver Valentino Catalano (18/Westheim) for the Gebhardt Motorsport team. They currently lie second in the table and have already taken their place on the top step of the podium once this season. “I have always been really successful in Zandvoort, and have fond memories of Formula 3, when I produced one of the best races of my career in Zandvoort. The section around Scheivlak is particularly breathtaking,” says Pommer, looking ahead. “Zandvoort is a fast and flowing track, which is just really good fun. You can take the final banked corner ahead of the start/finish line at full-throttle in an LMP3 car. That makes for some interesting slipstream battles and a good overtaking opportunity ahead of turn one. We want to challenge for the podium places in Zandvoort and take the lead in the championship. The big goal for this year is to win the title.”
The champion team from 2023, Racing Experience, returns to the Prototype Cup Germany in Zandvoort. The team from Luxembourg is introducing two new drivers to the series, in the form of junior Tomas Granzella from Uruguay and Frenchman Laurent Prunet. Momo Gebhardt Racing is also making a guest appearance. The team from Sinsheim will run a Ginetta G61-LT-P3 for former ADAC GT Masters Trophy winner Sven Barth (43/Eberbach) and Michael Herich (46/Bruehl). The British Ginetta is racing in the Prototype Cup Germany for the first time in 2024, adding greater diversity to the field. Former ADAC GT4 Germany driver Jacob Erlbacher (23/Böblingen) is set for his first outing of the season alongside Maxim Dirckx (20/BEL) in a Gebhardt Motorsport Duqueine. Also at the wheel of a Duqueine are the third-placed pairing of Julien Apothéloz (23/CHE) and Riccardo Leone Cirelli (16/ITA, both BWT Mücke Motorsport), as well as Keanu Al Azhari (16/UAE, Mühlner Motorsport), who starts alone.
Rounding out the Ligier contingent are Klaus Abbelen (63/Barweiler) and Felipe Fernández Laser (35/Leipzig, both Frikadelli Racing Team), Robert Doyle (64/USA) and Jaime Guzmán Corcuera (34/MEX, both AF2 Motorsport), and solo starter Antti Rammo (41/EST, MRS GT-Racing).
