Winward Crew on Brink of Endurance Title at Nürburgring

Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo drivers Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer are on the brink of wrapping up the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup title at this weekend’s penultimate round at the Nürburgring.

The consistent scoring from the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo — which has finished each of the three races to date in second place — means the trio enjoy a comfortable 41-point lead at the head of the overall standings.

If the margin remains greater than 26 points at the conclusion of Sunday’s Nurburgring contest, then they will have won the championship.

This would represent a first Endurance Cup title for Auer, while Engel and Stolz were triumphant back in 2018 with the Black Falcon squad.

Regardless of where their rivals finish, should the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG take the checkered flag in fourth place or higher the crew will have claimed the title on the manufacturer’s home soil.

Their closest rival heading into the Nürburgring event is the No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Mattia Drudi, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim — however this trio have not scored since winning the Paul Ricard season-opener.

Just a couple of points behind them is the No. 80 Lionspeed GP Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Thomas Preining, Bastian Buus and Ricardo Feller that was triumphant in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa last time out.

The only tweak to the 55-strong Nürburgring entry list among the Pro division for this weekend is for the No. 63 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Temerario GT3 as Maximilian Paul continues to recover from injuries sustained in the DTM at the Norisring and will be replaced by Sandy Mitchell.

The Scot has scored back-to-back class wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship but will be making his first appearance in GTWC Europe this year.

Elsewhere, Chris Lulham is due to be back behind the wheel of the Verstappen Racing Mercedes-AMG having been forced to miss two Sprint Cup events while he recovered from having his appendix removed.

Another crew that could be crowned champions this weekend is the No. 30 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO trio of Amaury Cordeel, Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont that enjoys a 27-point lead at the summit of the Silver Cup standings.

They have also been consistent point scorers and, should they maintain that margin on Sunday, they will also be champions.

Aiming to stop them will be the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II lineup of Ariel Levi, Rocco Mazzola and Sebastian Ogaard that triumphed outright at Monza.

Several Silver cars have revised lineups for the penultimate round of the season, including the No. 555 CSA Racing McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Romain Andriolo will now be paired with McLaren junior driver Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer and former single-seater racer James Higgins, who has been competing for the squad in the McLaren Trophy Europe this year.

Lorens Lecertua had previously piloted the McLaren but is now taking the place of Ivan Klymenko in the No. 25 Sainteloc Audi.

Another car with a heavily altered lineup is the No. 65 Haupt Racing Team Ford Mustang GT3 EVO. Only Eduardo Coseteng remains, with Aston DTM driver Nicolas Baert and Niklas Kalus replacing Finn Wiebelhaus and Maxime Oosten.

The Bronze Cup battle is a little closer with Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo duo Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall enjoying a 22-point advantage having won last time out at Spa.

In Belgium they triumphed alongside Mathys Jaubert and Ben Tuck, but Lorenzo Patrese will be back partnering Blattner and Marschall this weekend.

Spa Bronze runners-up James Kellett and Darren Leung are the Kessel pair’s closest challengers and will reunite with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel of the No. 991 Paradine Competition BMW this weekend.

The sister Silver class BMW also reverts to a lineup from earlier this year in Germany with Bobby Thompson back with Christian Hahn and Josh Rowledge.

Neither the Razoon – more than racing Porsche nor the Blackthorn Aston Martin are on the entry list in a reduced 14-car Bronze division.

Other tweaks include Sergio Sette Camara replacing Kyle Macelli in the No. 11 Comtoyou Aston Martin, which will be the second different car the Brazilian has raced this year having contested Spa in a Tresor Attempto Audi.

Peter Dempsey will also become the sixth different driver to have piloted the No. 93 Ziggo Sport Tempesta Racing Porsche having previously raced for the team in the Sprint Cup.

The closest class battle comes in the Gold Cup, which is the category with the fewest entrants, as the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren squad of Tom Fleming, Benji Goethe and Louis Prette — which is third in the overall standings after an outright podium at Paul Ricard — is only eight points ahead of the opposition.

The McLaren trio’s nearest rival is the No. 998 ROWE Racing BMW of Ugo de Wilde, Tim Tramnitz and Jens Klingmann that topped the Gold competitors at Spa.

There is one driver change for Nürburgring among the eight Gold crews as Nico Menzel takes the place of Alessandro Ghiretti in the No. 10 Boutsen VDS Porsche with Ghiretti on GTWC Asia duty.