Walkenhorst Commits to NES2 With Three-Car Aston Effort

Walkenhorst Motorsport has confirmed a three-car Aston Martin effort for the upcoming four-hour Nürburgring Endurance Series (NES) round at the Nordschleife.

NES is set to host its first four-hour event on the Eifel circuit on May 3-4 after a previous attempt at a season opener featuring two 90-minute races on the Grand Prix track was canceled in March.

The series confirmed on Thursday that Walkenhorst, in preparation for its entry into the Nürburgring 24 in June, will field three Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos as well as a BMW M4 GT4 and Hyundai i30N at the event.

Its effort will be spearheaded by a Pro entry featuring Aston Martin factory driver Nicki Thiim alongside Christian Krognes and Kuba Giermaziak.

Thiim, Krognes and Giermaziak will form Walkenhorst’s Pro lineup in the N24 alongside reigning champion David Pittard.

A second car will be piloted by Henry Walkenhorst, Stefan Aust, Christian Bollrath and former FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-Am racer Anders Buchardt.

For its third entry, Walkenhorst has named Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS race winner Chandler Hull, AMR Driver Academy graduate Mike David Ortmann, Patrick Assenheimer and Benjamin Mazatis.

However, team principal Niclas Koenigbauer has noted that the exact makeup of the lineups remains yet to be confirmed.

“It is not yet clear whether all of them will drive in NES.02,” he said.

“Some of them have already had enough driving time, so we will probably have three drivers in each of the three cars.”

Walkenhorst has expressed a wish to contest further Nordschleife races after the N24, but would do so without its factory-backed Pro entry as that program only set to take on the Eifel endurance classic and no races after that.