Schubert BMW Wins NLS3 After KCMG Penalty

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/BMW

Schubert Motorsport claimed victory in the 57th Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy on Saturday following a costly penalty for the pole-sitting KCMG Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that eliminated it from contention.

Robin Frijns took the No. 77 BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a 21.759-second win over the No. 911 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Ayhancan Guven and Matt Campbell.

It came after a hard-fought battle between Guven and the No. 64 HRT Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Patrick Kolb in the closing stages of the four-hour Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie contest.

The two cars collided while in a Code 60 zone, where Guven was given a warning for pushing another car, although no penalty was issued to the reigning DTM champion.

Kolb managed to complete the SP9 Pro and overall podium with co-drivers Dennis Olsen and Frederic Vervisch.

Frijns, meanwhile, shared the winning BMW with Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann.

It came after the Yokohama-shod BMW led the majority of the four-hour, although came under pressure on multiple occasions from the No. 47 KCMG Mercedes-AMG.

David Pittard led the race from pole, extending into a 16-second advantage until his first stop until the Schubert BMW of Wittmann emerged in the lead.

While Edoardo Liberati challenged Eng for the lead, the Italian driver was forced to serve a stop-and-hold plus 85-second penalty late in the third hour due to a Code 60 violation when co-driver Jesse Krohn was in the car earlier in the race.

It dropped the Hong Kong-flagged squad to a fourth place result, which saw Nordschleife GT3 rookie Kamui Kobayashi complete the final 35 minutes in the car and make up one position.

However, the Toyota Racing WEC team principal finished only 85 seconds behind the winning BMW, well within the margin of claiming victory if for not incurring the costly penalty.

The No. 75 Max Kruse Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was fifth overall and the top AT 1 class car for alternative fuel, ahead of the No. 23 Gamatoa Racing BMW, which faded to sixth and took Pro-Am honors after mixing it with both the Manthey and HRT entries when Moritz Kranz was at the wheel.

Renazzo Motorsport’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 lost out on the SP9 Am class win at the last minute after Daan Aarow took the No. 5 Black Falcon Porsche to top class honors in seventh overall.

Falken Motorsports’ charge ended in the second hour when Benjamin Leuchter was handed a 87-second penalty for a Code 60 infringement in his No. 44 Porsche, which was then followed up by a puncture from suspected debris on track.

SPX race honors went to the No. 66 Reiter Engineering KTM X-Bow GTX in a class that saw the race debuts for two of the HWA EVO.Rs, the highest running car coming home 18th overall.

A number of notable drivers, meanwhile, worked towards securing their Nordschleife ‘A Permits’ including Porsche-contracted driver Harry King and Wright Motorsports team owner/driver Adam Adelson.

Adelson, who was entered in two cars, completed his necessary laps and is set to be part of the three-car HWA EVO.R effort in next month’s Nürburgring 24.

One Nordschleife rookie that was unable to complete his necessary race laps, however, was former 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGT3 winner Yasser Shahin, who suffered an accident in qualifying at the wheel of a Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport, with his car unable to start the race.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John