Weekly Racing Roundup (10.24.22)

Marciello Wins ADAC GT Masters Title

A fifth-place finish in the opening race of the final weekend at Hockenheim was enough for Mercedes-AMG driver Raffaele Marciello to clinch his first ADAC GT Masters title.

Despite a high-scoring event for challengers Christian Engelhart and Ayhancan Guven, Marciello did enough to maintain the large points lead he had accumulated over a strong second half of the season in the Mann-Filter Team Landgraf Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

The Swiss driver, who raced at Hockenheim his fourth co-driver of the season Daniel Juncadella, ended up on 193 points to beat Engelhart and Guven by a 15-point margin.

Engelhart and Guven won the opening 60-minute race in their Porsche 911 GT3 R after contact between leader Juncadella and fellow Mercedes-AMG driver Jules Gounon who tried to overtake the Spaniard into the penultimate corner with 15 minutes to go.

Gounon got through as both Mercedes-AMGs washed out onto the slippery run-off, but a few corners later the Frenchman slowed down with a left-rear puncture.

Juncadella briefly re-took the lead, only for Guven to power past the Landgraf car in which Marciello had led the starting stint.

Juncadella then lost more positions to Lamborghini drivers Franck Perera, Marco Mapelli and Jack Aitken, however fifth was enough for Marciello to be confirmed as champion.

The second race saw Gounon and Fabian Schiller reach the top step of the podium in their Drago Racing Team ZVO Mercedes-AMG.

Guven started from pole but Gounon overtook the Turkish driver around the outside at Turn 2 on the opening lap.

Gounon remained ahead through the stint, before handing over to Schiller who took the checkered flag just under two seconds ahead of the Land-Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Ricardo Feller and Jusuf Owega. Guven and Engelhart settled for fourth.

Despite Marciello winning the drivers’ championship, the teams’ title went to Lamborghini outfit Emil Frey Racing which benefited from Marciello and Juncadella retiring from Race 2 with a suspension failure.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2 / Standings

Phoenix Takes Second Straight NLS 1-2

Scherer Sport Team Phoenix chalked up its second consecutive one-two in the NLS as Kelvin van der Linde and Jakub Giermaziak won Saturday’s four-hour Nordschleife race.

Van der Linde brought the No. 16 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II home around half a minute clear of the sister Phoenix car driven by Frank Stippler and Vincent Kolb.

Marcel Marchewicz, Marek Bockmann and Kenneth Heyer finished third for Schnitzelalm Racing, earning Mercedes-AMG’s first podium of the NLS season.

Porsches started the race strongly, with Dinamic Motorsport driver Alessio Picariello overtaking Falken Motorsports’ Tim Heinemann for the lead on the first lap.

But Stippler was also on the rise, and the Phoenix Audi driver moved to the front after 18 minutes, out-braking Picariello in the stadium section after being forced onto the grass at the end of the Dottinger Hohe straight on the preceding lap.

The two Phoenix Audis, which gradually worked their way into first and second, then swapped around leaving van der Linde at the head of the field at the halfway mark.

The South African, making his first Nordschleife appearance since the Nürburgring 24 in May, then handed the No. 5 Audi to Giermaziak who delivered the win.

Bockmann put Giermaziak under significant pressure in the last half-hour of racing but the Schnitzelalm driver still needed to make his car’s final pit stop. When he did, his co-driver Heyer emerged behind Stippler to ensure the Phoenix one-two.

Falken Motorsports’ new 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R only completed one lap, with Klaus Bachler later explaining that an accumulation of autumnal leaves in the radiator caused the water temperature to spike.

RESULTS: Muensterland Cup

Triple Eight Wins Only Race of Bend Weekend

Broc Feeney and Prince Jefri Ibrahim won the opening Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS race at The Bend Motorsport Park, which turned out to be the only race of the weekend as the second contest was canceled due to poor weather.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering pair bounced back from a 15-second time penalty to win Saturday’s 60-minute encounter in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Feeney’s late overtake on Audi driver Fraser Ross completed the recovery task after Ibrahim was sanctioned for turning pole-sitter Yasser Shahin around at Turn 1.

Liam Talbot took the early lead and built an eight-second advantage before the pit stops when he handed the Shannons-liveried Audi over to Ross.

After serving 15 seconds in the pits, Feeney emerged further back in the field but charged through during his stint and was let through by his teammate Jamie Whincup to mount an attack on Ross, which proved to be successful.

Whincup and Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim took third, ahead of Shahin and Garth Tander.

Although Race 1 took place in dry conditions, the arrival of a weather front overnight led to heavy rain that caused Sunday’s race to be called off.

RESULTS: The Bend

Other Racing Action

***Marvin Dienst and Berkay Besler became the inaugural Prototype Cup Germany champions at the Hockenheim season finale. Despite a weekend sweep from WTM Duqueine duo Torsten Kratz and Leo Weiss, Toksport WRT’s Dienst and Besler ended the campaign with 14.5 points in hand. Dienst and Besler retired from the first race after a collision but scored enough in the decider to seal the title. Race 1 / Race 2 / Standings

***The Nova Race Honda pairing of Jacopo Guidetti and Leonardo Moncini won the Italian GT Championship Sprint title after finishing third and first in the season-ending races at Mugello. BMW factory drivers Jens Klingmann and Timo Glock, who has parted ways with the German manufacturer, took second in the standings. Race 1 / Race 2

***ADAC GT4 Germany also concluded last weekend with a pair of races at Hockenheim, where Hugo Sasse and Mike David Ortmann won the championship in their PROSport Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4. The title was earned after they finished a narrow second in Race 2 behind the Porsche pairing of Lukas Schreier and Finn Zulauf. Vincent Andronaco and Leo Pichler won the opener in a Porsche weekend sweep. Results

News & Notes

***Rutronik Racing will switch from Audi to Porsche next year, the German squad announced on Friday. The team, best known for its ADAC GT Masters exploits, will run the new 992-generation Porsche 911 GT3 R. It fielded a 991.2 Porsche in last year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa but was eliminated in a multi-car accident at Raidillon.

***Lamborghini has named the regional winners of its in-house esports competition, The Real Race. Niklas Houben (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Renan Negrini (North and Latin America) and Lucas Birss (Asia-Pacific) will go head-to-head for the overall title, which yields the official role of Lamborghini Esports driver.

***Ukraine has committed to the FIA Motorsport Games GT Cup with Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Ivan Peklin, who will share an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 run by Germany’s PROSport Racing. PROSport has been Aston Martin’s full-time GT3 representative in NLS this year.

***Pirelli has been named as the official tire supplier for the FIA Motorsport Games. The Italian company’s P Zero DHF, which was introduced this year, will be used in both the GT Cup and GT Sprint. The endurance event for LMP3 and GT3 cars has been scrapped.

***Scott Andrews and Gerry Kraut will return to the Michelin Le Mans Series next year after previously entering the series and winning two races in 2021. The Australian-American duo will share a United Autosports Ligier JS P320 Nissan.

***Formula 1 has ended its system of rotating between two race directors, with Niels Wittich holding the position alone for the rest of the season. It means that FIA World Endurance Championship race director Eduardo Freitas is no longer in the role. The decision to stop rotating between the pair was made after an investigation into the use of a recovery vehicle on-track during the Japanese Grand Prix, which Freitas directed.

***Audi Sport factory driver Markus Winkelhock will contest the final two rounds of the Thailand Super Series, sharing a B-Quik Absolute Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Vincente Floriendo. Winkelhock is set for his TSS debut.

***Former Asian Le Mans Series entrant Viper Niza Racing has purchased a new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and will run the car in next weekend’s TSS round. Dominic Ang and team owner Douglas Khoo will share the wheel. Malaysia-based Viper Niza, which last did Asian LMS in 2019-20 as an LMP3 squad, has also bought a new Vantage GT4.

On this weekend: FIA Motorsport Games (Paul Ricard)