Weekly Racing Roundup (9.21.20)

Porsche and Audi split ADAC GT Masters Wins

Audi’s Patric Niederhauser and Kelvin van der Linde took over the ADAC GT Masters championship lead with victory in Race 2 at Hockenheim.

Last year’s champions van der Linde and Niederhauser came from sixth on the grid as the former powered the Rutronik Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 to the lead on the opening lap.

From there the South African extended his margin at the head of the field as Christopher Haase made his way into second.

Van der Linde handed over to Niederhauser as the Swiss driver brought the No. 28 car to the chequered flag first.

Haase and Max Hofer were second in the No. 21 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi while Rolf Ineichen and Mirko Bortolotti were third for Team WRT.

In Saturday’s Race the SSR Performance Porsche 911 GT3 R of Christian Engelhart and Michael Ammermueller emerged victorious.

Engelhart made a pass for the lead on a restart before making way for Ammermüller who won by 1.8 seconds to van der Linde and Niederhauser.

The GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Tim Zimmermann and Steijn Schothorst rounded out the podium in third.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2

Audis Battle it Out in DTM Nürburgring

Robin Frijns won a dramatic first DTM race at the Nürburgring which saw three safety car interventions.

Frijns launched into the lead at Turn 1 as pole-sitter Rene Rast fell to second position before an early safety car following contact between Loic Duval and Timo Glock.

Audi’s Nico Mueller was caught between a pair of BMWs and then hit by fellow Audi driver Jamie Green sending the former spinning to the rear of the field.

Another two safety car periods came after Duval went into the barriers on Lap 16 and the third occurred when Fabio Scherer was launched into the path of Duval after hitting the BMW of Lucas Auer.

Frijns beat Rast to the chequered flag as BMW’s Marco Wittmann was third and Muller recovered to fifth.

In Sunday’s race, Muller claimed his fifth victory of the season after passing Frijns in the early stages.

Frijns held onto second after coming under pressure from Rast while Sheldon van der Linde was the first of the BMWs in fourth place.

RESULTS: Nürburgring

Spin and Win for RAM Racing Mercedes at Donington Park

Sam De Haan and Patrick Kujala survived an opening lap spin to win for RAM Racing at Donington Park in the Intelligent Money British GT Championship.

The Mercedes duo claimed the team’s first win of the season in Sunday’s three-hour race.

De Haan ended up facing the wrong way on the first lap but a safety car triggered by a separate incident allowed him to rejoin at the back of the pack.

The RAM Mercedes worked its way up to sixth in the opening 45-minutes until De Haan handed over to Kujala who benefitted from rivals’ penalties.

The Finn then made a decisive move on the McLaren 720s GT3 of Michael O’Brien and went on to win by 3.4 seconds at the chequered flag.

A bold strategy call on Lap 1 paid off for Barwell Motorsport as the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Adam Balon and Phil Keen finished second.

O’Brien and co-driver James Baldwin managed a podium result in third aboard the Jenson Team Rocket RJN McLaren.

The result leaves RAM’s De Haan and Kujala nine points clear in the driver’s standings of Rob Collard and Sandy Mitchell who wound up sixth in the No. 78 Barwell Lamborghini.

In the GT4 ranks Jordan Collard and Patrik Matthiesen were victorious in their HHC Motorsport McLaren 570s GT4.

RESULTS: Donington Park

Ten Voorde Victorious in Carrera Cup Le Mans Race

Fresh off winning the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup title, Larry ten Voorde claimed victory in last weekend’s Porsche Carrera Cup Le Mans support race at Circuit de la Sarthe.

The Nebulus Racing by Huber driver took top honors in the joint Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and France race on Saturday, which started in wet conditions in a bumper 53-car field of identical Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machinery.

Guest driver Loek Hartog jumped into an early lead after getting around pole-sitter Florian Latorre and ten Voorde at the start.

Ten Voorde took a 1.028-second win over the T3/HRT Motorsport Porsche of Leon Kohler, following a race-long duel, with Porsche Junior Ayhancan Given completing the overall podium and taking top class honors out of the France entries.

The 45-minute contest featured two safety car periods in a race that also saw Michael Fassbender in a Porsche AG-entered car. The German-Irish actor, who is competing in his maiden season of the European Le Mans Series, also in a Porsche, finished 38th overall.

RESULTS: Race 

Maxson Clinches TC America Championship at COTA

Tyler Maxson clinched the 2020 TC America TCR championship with two wins out of three races on the weekend at Circuit of The Americas.

The Copeland Motorsports driver was victorious in Races 1 and 2 in his No. 74 Hyundai Veloster N TCR, rebounding from a pair of challenging rounds at Road America.

Scott Smithson, who scored two of the three wins in the last round, returned to victory lane in Sunday’s Race 3, where Maxson finished one lap behind in fifth.

Toby Grahovec (Race 1) and John Capestro Dubets (Race 2) scored TC class honors of the weekend, with Race 3 featuring only TCR and TCA class cars in the makeup round for St. Pete Race 2.

Kevin Boehm won Races 1 and 2 in TCA, with Mat Pombo breaking through for top class honors in Race 3 in his MINI JCW.

RESULTS: Race 1 / Race 2 / Race 3

Other Racing Action

***Tim Heinemann picked up his sixth consecutive victory of the DTM Trophy season at the Nurburgring. The 22-year old German steered his HP Racing International Mercedes-AMG GT to the top step of the podium in both of the weekend’s races to further extend his points lead to 94 points and put one hand on the championship trophy.

***The KTM X-Bow GT4 Evo won both of the ADAC GT4 Germany races at the Nurburgring. Florian Janits and Reinhard Kofler came out on top in Race 1 after starting 12th before doing the double in Race 2 after a hard-fought battle with the Team Allied-Racing Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport.

***Kikko Galbiati, Giovanni Venturini and Alex Frassineti won the Italian GT Endurance Championship race at Vallelunga. The Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 trio crossed the line ahead of the sister Lamborghini while BMW Team Italia rounded out the podium.

News and Notes

***Intelligent Money has extended its British GT Championship title sponsorship until the end of 2025. The FCA authorized and regulated investment provider’s original three-season partnership began at the start of 2020 and the extension will now see IM windscreen banners on all cars until 2025.

***Tom Blomqvist will join ROWE Racing to contest the upcoming Nürburgring 24 Hours driving the No. 98 BMW M6 GT3 alongside Marco Wittmann, Lucas Auer and Philipp Eng.

***The 2021 GT World Challenge America powered by AWS schedule is expected to be released this week. It follows the 2021 provisional calendar for GTWC Europe.

***Pirelli GT4 America competitor John Allen has withdrawn from the remainder of the SprintX season following damage sustained to his Mercedes-AMG GT4 in last month’s round at Road America. Allen has vowed to return to SRO America competition in 2021, however.

John Dagys contributed to this report