BMW scored a major result on Saturday for their new M4 GT3 at NLS3, the 53rd Adenauer ADAC Circuit Trophy. Augusto Farfus from Rowe Racing and Max Hesse from the BMW Junior Team toughed it out to the line in a duel that will feature on highlight reels for a long time, the experienced Brazilian getting the result on the line by just 0.582 of a second after taking the lead inside the final ten minutes and a final drag race down the Döttingerhöhe that saw the lead change, albeit briefly, twice again.
Connor De Philippi shared the win whilst Neil Verhagen and Dan Harper completed the Junior are in second.
Third place meanwhile went to yet another BMW customer team with Christian Krognes, Andy Soucek and Sami-Matti Trogen for the Walkenhorst Motorsport team.
“What a great day for this new car. We kept developing it. It was great to be driving the M4 GT3 here for the first time. I was very unlucky with the traffic on the Nordschleife in my last stint. I somehow caught every Code60 phase. Sometimes that just happens. But Augusto rode like a demon and made the decisive move to win. I’m very happy,” said De Phillippi.
For the last few years, Farfus has instructed the drivers of the BMW Junior Team, but this time the teacher had to fend off his pupils. “You learned too fast and too well,” he said, “I was about 15 seconds behind in the closing stages, but then I got closer and closer. I only had split seconds to overtake at the Flugplatz to make the decision. In the fight that followed on the Döttingerhöhe, I knew I could trust him. Without the new asphalt, this extremely tight manoeuvre would not have been possible. Now you can ride side by side there, because the surface is like a carpet.”
“It was very exciting in the final laps. I was unlucky at the airfield on the approach to Schwedenkreuz when he overtook me. But then I was able to stay close to him for the two laps. At the Döttingerhöhe we were on the grass together for a bit. We can be satisfied, we also had a drive-through penalty,” said Max Hesse.
Andy Soucek also had a very special experience. The Walkenhorst driver was overjoyed after third place: “That was my first stint here in a race with a GT3. To be honest, my first and last laps were like night and day. I have a lot to learn. But I think in the next race I’m ready to fight on an equal footing with the big boys.”
The top five was completed by Julien Andlauer, Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet in the Toksport WRT Porsche 911 GT3 R. The team based in Quiddelbach not far from the Nürburgring moved up from 14th place after qualifying to fourth place. The fourth BMW M4 GT3 followed in the leading group with the sister car from Rowe Racing and the crew of John Edwards, Sheldon Van Der Linde and Marco Wittmann.
The #16 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Jakub Giermaziak and Michele Beretta was the best of the Audis in sixth with the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 coming home seventh.
Next up was the first of the AMGs, the #55 ‘Landgraf Young Talents’ car of Patrick Assenheimer and Luca-Sandra Trefz.
The #15 Phoenix Audi and #12 Team Bilstein AMG completed the overall top 10.
The Toksport WRT result was a high spot on a bad day for Porsche with the two Falken Porsches withdrawing before the race start with a shortage of the optimum tyres and there was bad news too for both Manthey’s ‘Grello’ #911, the front-running car caught up in a clash with a Porsche Cayman on the Döttingerhöhe, Fred Mako into the barriers and the car out on the spot.
Already out of the running by that stage was the fast-starting True Racing KTM X-Bow that had lost a wheel soon after its first pitstop, the car having challenged the leaders after a run up into the top ten.
It wasn’t plain sailing for the BMWs either though, the Junior team BMW undercut the minimum pit time by one second. Dan Harper had to take a stop-and-go penalty after almost two hours. The approximately 30 seconds in the pits cost the overall lead, Farfus inheriting first place.
Nick Wüstenhagen and Bernhard Henzel from Team RaceIng, Racing Engineers GmbH won the SP9 Pro-Am with an Audi R8 LMS GT3.
The debuting 2023-spec #54 BMW M4 GT4 ‘Concept’ took a class win in SP8T, 24th overall for Philipp Eng, Erik Johansson and Jörg Weidinger, the sister car finishing well down after delays in the pits.
In the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup from Four Motors Bioconcept-Car, Smudo with Thomas Kiefer and Charles Kauffman won the AT class. Schnitzelalm Racing won the BMW M240i Racing Cup with drivers Carl-Friedrich Kolb, Marco Büsker and Dr. Anton Hahnenkamm. Success in CupX went to Teichmann Racing with Stephan A Brodmerkel, Constantin Schöll and Laura Kraihamer in the KTM X-Bow GTX.
