This weekend marks the kick off for the ninth season of the ADAC GT Masters at Oschersleben. Of the 25 full season entries 22 are on the provisional entry list for the season opener, but there are question marks behind at least one or two entries. Missing from the entry list are one of the Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and both of the Herberth Motorsport entered Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Surely one of the favourites for the championship will be once again C.Abt Racing with two of their three Audi R8 LMS ultra. Reigning champion Kelvin van der Linde has a new teammate in Stefan Wackerbauer, who already last year proved that he is fast in several guest outings in different cars. Also the line up of Nicki Thiim and Jordan Lee Pepper figures to be in the mix for the championship crown. The third car to be shared between Andreas Weishaupt and Christer Jöns will definitely be one of the contenders for the Gentlemen Trophy championship.
Additional Audis are entered by MS Racing, Yaco Racing and Dupre Engineering. The latter might miss the season opener after a crash at the test day left the team with very little time to get the car rebuild in time for Oschersleben. MS Racing is back to their car strength of 2013, fielding two Audi R8. Daniel Dobitsch and Edward Sandström are slated to share one of the R8s, while Marc Basseng will partner Florian Stoll in the other. If everything falls into place, both cars could on occasion fight for a podium positions. At Yaco Racing we have no change to report, with Rahel Frey and Philip Geipel due to share the wheel of the Audi R8 for a second straight season.
Daniel Keilwitz and Diego Alessi, the 2013 ADAC GT Masters champions, will once again be the lead driver in both of the Callaway Competition entered Corvette Z.06 GT3. In the, what look like, final season for the Z.06 GT3 Keilwitz will once again have Andreas Wirth as his teammate, while Diego Alessi will partner Patrick Assenheimer. Especially the line up of Keilwitz-Wirth figures to be another car to be fighting for the championship. A third Corvette will be entered by RWT Racing, where Sven Barth and Remo Lips figure to be fighting for Gentlemen Trophy honours.
BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert will once again by the lead team for BMW, entering two Z4 GT3. After spending multiple season together Dominik Baumann and Claudia Hürtgen have been split up. Hürgen will partner with Uwe Alzen for the majority of the season, due to Alzen’s VLN commitment this weekend BMW Junior Jesse Krohn will take his seat. Dominik Baumann is now sharing the steering wheel with Jens Klingmann, a duo that definitely should be able fight for the championship. New to the Championship will be Senkyr Motorsport with a BMW Z4 GT3 for Jakub Knoll and Lennart Marioneck, a strong race might land them in the points every once in a while.
The two most recent Nissan GT Academy Germany winners, Marc Gassner and Florian Strauß, will lead Nissan’s return to the ADAC GT Masters with MRS GT-Racing. Depending on how fast they can get up to speed and get the new for 2015 Pirelli tires to work, they could be in contention for podium finishes on tracks that suit the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3. The second MRS GT-R will be shared by Dominic Jöst and Florian Scholze.
HP Racing and Zakspeed will represent Mercedes-Benz, with one SLS AMG GT3 each. Hari Proczyk and Andreas Simonsen look like they could be in contention for the championship in the HP Racing SLS, while former champion Sebastian Asch is back in the SLS, the car he won his 2012 championship in. Asch will share the SLS with Luca Ludwig, and the Zakspeed Duo figures to be another one poised for a good season.
Oliver Gavin and Tomas Enge are out in 2015 to give the Chevrolet Camaro GT of Reiter Engineering it’s first overall GT Masters victory. Depending on how the Camaro adapts to the new Pirelli tires, the car should be able to fight for top honours on the highspeed tracks.
New to the championship will be Bentley, with HTP Motorsport fielding two Bentley Continental GT3. Jeroen Bleekemolen is slated to join Luca Stolz, forming a duo that could find themselves fighting for a podium spot every once in a while. Equally strong should be their teammates Clemens Schmid and Fabian Hamprecht sharing the second Continental GT3.
Porsche is likely to be only represented by Schütz Motorsport, with Herbert Motorsport announcing on the eve of the season kick off, that they are planning on contesting the Creventic 24H Series. Schütz Motorsport will be spearheaded by Klaus Bachler and Christian Engelhart sharing their lead Porsche 911 GT3 R. Antonios Wossos is slated to lead the Gentlemen Trophy attack of Schütz Motorsport, the second Porsche 911 GT3 R is slated to join the series from the second race of the season onwards.
The championship kicks off, this weekend at Oschersleben, with it’s usual two one hour race format. The full season calendar, reads as the following:
24.04. – 26.04.2015 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
Soren Herweg
