Weekend Racing Roundup, 8.17

Weather played a major role in the races held this weekend, with the ADAC GT Masters and GT4 European Series rounds at the Nürburgring hit by heavy rain. A quick roundup of what happened in Germany in this week’s Sportscar365 Weekend Racing Roundup, plus the winners of DMV GTC and GT Cup.

ADAC GT Masters
The C.Abt Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra of Nicki Thiim and Jordan Lee Pepper had the best strategy in the mixed conditions in Race 1 on Saturday, with two rain showers hitting the track that began to dry out in between the downpours. They were first to cross the finish line, but the Audi drivers were handed a 30-second time penalty for overtaking during a safety car period and assigned fifth place after the race. That meant victory went to the MS Racing Audi of Edward Sandström and Daniel Dobitsch, who secured the first win for Audi in the GT Masters this year. Rahel Frey and Philip Geipel stuck with slicks for the whole race and finished second in their YACO Racing Audi, ahead of Stefan Wackerbauer and Kelvin van der Linde the No. 1 C.Abt Racing Audi.

On Sunday it was the other MS Racing Audi of Marc Basseng and Florian Stoll that crossed the line just ahead of Race 1 winners Sandström and Dobitsch, making it a one-two finish in another rain-affected race. Martin Ragginger and Klaus Bachler in the Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3-R finished in third place, thereby closing the gap to 30 points on championship leaders Luca Ludwig and Sebastian Asch, who came tenth in the Zakspeed Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. The duo had to start both races from the back of the grid after their car was found to be below minimum weight after qualifying, while they also received penalties during the race.

Race 1 – 1. kfzteile24 MS Racing (D. Dobitsch/E. Sandström) Audi, 2. YACO Racing (R. Frey/P. Geipel) Audi, 3. C. Abt Racing (K. van der Linde/S. Wackerbauer) Audi.

Race 2 – 1. kfzteile24 MS Racing (M. Basseng/F. Stoll) Audi, 2. kfzteile24 MS Racing (D. Dobitsch/E. Sandström) Audi, 3. GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport (K. Bachler/M. Ragginger) Porsche.

GT4 European Series
PROsport Performance drivers Peter Terting and Carsten Struwe won the first of two races of the GT4 European Series at the Nürburgring on Sunday. After the pit stops Sascha Halek led the race in the KTM X-BOW, but he ran wide, allowing Lotus driver Lefterov to take the lead. The Bulgarian was then given a stop-and-go penalty for a too short pit stop, but new race leader Jorg Viebahn was unable to keep former DTM and WTCC driver Terting behind him in the rain. Conditions deteriorated, resulting in a red flag and no restart.

The second race was also held in wet conditions and Terting dominated at the front, quickly extending his lead. After the pit stops teammate Struwe was unable to keep up with the pace of the Lotus Evora GT4 of Pavel Lefterov. The Bulgarian driver passed Struwe and went on to win race two, with Struwe/Terting taking the Pro-class honors.

Race 1 – 1. PROsport Performance (P. Terting/C. Struwe) Porsche, 2. Las Moras Racing Team (J. Viebahn) BMW, 3. Ekris Motorsport (S. Knap/R. Severs) BMW.

Race 1 – 1. ASC Bulavto Racing (P. Lefterov) Lotus, 2. PROsport Performance (P. Terting/C. Struwe) Porsche, 3. V8 Racing (D. Huisman/L. Braams) Camaro.

Other Series
The sixth race weekend of the DMV GTC series was held at the Lausitzring. Pertti Kuismanen won the opening race with his Chrysler Viper GTS-R, while Bernd Haid and his Porsche 997 GT3 R won race two.

Paul Bailey and his Aston Martin Vantage GT3 won round sixteen of the GT Cup at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit on Saturday. Richard Chamberlain and his Porsche 935 replica claimed victory in the pit stop race, after the leading Aston Martin of Paul Bailey and the Audi of Phil Burgan collided.

Vincent Wouters contributed to this report