The traditional preseason test at Oschersleben on Wednesday and Thursday, April 8th and 9th, saw the reveal of the full season entry list for the 9th season of the ADAC GT Masters. Of the 25 cars entered for the season 18 made it to Oschersleben to fine tune their set up and get used to the new Pirelli tires, which are replacing outgoing tire supplier Yokohama, ahead of the season opener, April 24th to the 26th. The full season entry list in alphabetical order is:
C.Abt Racing (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
C.Abt Racing (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
C.Abt Racing (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
Callaway Competition (D) Corvette Z06.R GT3
Callaway Competition (D) Corvette Z06.R GT3
Dupré Engineering Motorsport (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
kfzteile24 MS RACING Team (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
kfzteile24 MS RACING Team (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
HP Racing (CH) Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
HTP Motorsport (D) Bentley Continental GT3
HTP Motorsport (D) Bentley Continental GT3
MRS GT-Racing (D) Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3
MRS GT-Racing (D) Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3
Reiter Enginerring (D) Chevrolet Camaro GT
RWT Racing Team (D) Corvette Z06.R GT3
Schubert Motorsport (D) BMW Z4 GT3
Schubert Motorsport (D) BMW Z4 GT3
Schütz Motorsport (D) Porsche 911 GT3 R
Schütz Motorsport (D) Porsche 911 GT3 R
Senkyr Motorsport (CZ) BMW Z4 GT3
TONINO Team Herberth (D) Porsche 911 GT3 R
TONINO Team Herberth (D) Porsche 911 GT3 R
YACO Racing (D) Audi R8 LMS ultra
Team Zakspeed (D) Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
Team Zakspeed (D) Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
Both Porsche Teams, Scütz Motorsport and TONINO Team Herberth, plus both Zakspeed SLS and the Reiter Camaro weren’t present at the test day. The reigning champions C.Abt Racing fielded the already announced driver line ups of Kelvin van der Linde/ Stefan Wackerbauer, Jordan Lee Pepper/ Nicki Thiim and Andreas Weishaupt/ Christer Jöns. Callaway Competition fielded the same line ups in their Corvette Z.06 GT3 with Andreas Wirth/ Daniel Keilwitz and Diego Alessi/ Patrick Assenheimer. The third Corvette Z.06 fielded by the RWT Racing Team with support from Callaway Competition saw last years driver Sven Barth getting used to his new co driver Remo Lips.
Dupré Engineering Motorsport had a total of three drivers try out their R8 in Tomas Kostka, Thomas Schöffler and Lennart Marioneck. Kfzteile24 MS RACING Team only had three of their four full season drivers present at the test day, Daniel Dobitsch didn’t travel to Oschersleben due to being sick. This left Edward Sandström alone in one of the Audi R8 LMS ultra, while the sister car was shared by Marc Basseng and Florian Stoll. At YACO Racing everything stayed the same compared to last year, with Rahel Frey and Philip Geipel due to share driving duties in their Audi R8. Schubert Motorsport is also planning on returning to the series, last years drivers Jens Klingmann, Dominik Baumann and Claudia Hürtgen all took to the wheel at the test day. In addition Uwe Alzen also tested one of the BMW Z4 GT3.
There were also a triplette of premieres and a warmed welcome return at the test day. In addition to the Blancpain Spring and Endurance Series HTP Motorsport will also represent the Bentley brand in the ADAC GT Masters. Fabian Hamprecht, Luca Stolz, Clemens Schmid and Max van Splunteren figure to be in the mix for the ADAC GT Masters driving duties as they shared the two Continental GT3s at the test day.
It was also the first outing for Senkyr Motorsport, where Jakub Knoll and Filip Sladecka shared the cockpit of the BMW Z4 GT3, as well as a first outing for HP Racing. Set up by Hari Proczyk the team is planning on fielding a Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3, which was driven at the test by Proczyk himself and Andreas Simonsen. Last but not least the test day also was the first official run of the new Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 of MRS GT-Racing, who are planning on fielding two Nissan’s this year. Florian Strauß, the only confirmed driver so far, shared the car with Craig Dolby while in the sister car had Dominic Jöst and Florian Scholze behind the wheel.
A total of six test sessions saw the Wirth/ Keilwitz Corvette set two best times, while the Scholze/Jöst Nissan, the Jöns/Weishaupt Audi, the Proczyk/ Simonsen SLS and the van der Linde/ Wackerbauer Audi each had one best time. Combined times had Wirth/ Keilwitz own the top spot with a 1:26.936 minutes, about a tenth and a half ahead of the van der Linde/ Weishaupt Audi, who outpaced their teammates Lee Pepper/ Thiim. Fourth best was the Klingmann/ Alzen Z4, with Weishaupt/ Jöns and Sandström coming in fifth and sixth. Rounding out the top ten were Proczyk/ Simonsen, Scholze/ Jöst, Assenheimer/ Alessi and Hürtgen/ Baumann.
The test day was just a first teaser of the season ahead, which kicks of in two weeks time at Oschersleben. The full season calendar is the following:
24.04. – 26.04.2015 etropolis Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
05.06. – 07.06.2015 Red Bull Ring (AUT)
19.06. – 21.06.2015 Circuit Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)
03.07. – 05.07.2015 Lausitzring
14.08. – 16.08.2015 Nürburgring
28.08. – 30.08.2015 Sachsenring
18.09. – 20.09.2015 Circuit Park Zandvoort (NED)
02.10. – 04.10.2015 Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg
Soeren Herweg
