Spengler, Klingmann Join ROWE for Silverstone

Photo: ROWE Racing

ROWE Racing has confirmed its driver lineups for the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup round at Silverstone this weekend, with BMW factory drivers Bruno Spengler and Jens Klingmann joining the German squad.

2012 DTM champion Spengler joins Markus Palttala and Jesse Krohn in the No. 98 BMW M6 GT3, while Klingmann completes the No. 99 car lineup alongside Philipp Eng and Maxime Martin.

After a strong run at Brands Hatch for the Sprint Cup round last weekend, Palttala and Krohn currently sit sixth in the overall Blancpain GT drivers’ championship.

Although Silverstone will be Spengler’s first race with ROWE, the BMW DTM regular does have experience working with Team Principal Hans-Peter Naundorf who was his DTM race engineer in 2005.

“I’m looking forward to racing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup because it is a championship at a very high level and that again has many good drivers, cars and teams this year,” said Spengler.

“It is cool that I have the opportunity to drive in four additional races on top of the DTM, particularly for this team.”

While Eng will be alongside Antonio Felix da Costa for the rest of the Sprint Cup, he will be joined by Martin and Klingmann for the Endurance round.

As well as winning the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Eng and Martin also overcame a gearbox issue to finish fourth in the Silverstone race last season.

“We are really looking forward to Silverstone for many reasons,” commented Naundorf.

“Firstly, we are usually a little stronger in endurance races than in sprint races, but we delivered a very strong performance even at Brands Hatch last weekend.

“I am also looking forward to Bruno Spengler making his first start for us. We have known each other since 2005 and get on very well.

“I am proud that we have managed to get to work together again after so many years. Our team [is staying] in England [to go] straight from Brands Hatch to Silverstone.

“That saves everyone some traveling and allows us to relax a little bit.”

The team has yet to indicate whether the lineups will remain the same for the rest of the Endurance Cup season.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.