No. 98 ROWE BMW to Miss Jeddah Due to Monza Damage

ROWE Racing has explained that the crash damage sustained by the No. 98 BMW M4 GT3 in a qualifying crash at the previous Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup round could not be repaired in time for the car to be shipped to the Saudi Arabia finale.

As confirmed by the release of the 49-car entry list, the Hans-Peter Naundorf-led squad will only field the No. 998 car for Augusto Farfus, Dan Harper and Max Hesse for the six-hour race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

A team statement issued on Monday outlined that the No. 98 car “was too severely damaged in a heavy crash during qualifying at Monza to be rebuilt in time for the shipment to Saudi Arabia in late October.”

Maxime Oosten, who made his team debut with ROWE at Monza, went off at Variante Ascari during qualifying for the penultimate round and damaged the car to such an extent that it had to be withdrawn from the race.

Prior to the Monza round, full-season trio Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly scored their best finish of fifth at the Nürburgring, coming off a retirement at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.

That was Yelloly’s last appearance in Fanatec GT Europe with ROWE and BMW, as he wasn’t part of the Monza lineup and ended his six-year tenure as a factory driver after last month’s Motul Petit Le Mans.