With about 50 days until the season opening round of the ADAC GT Masters it’s time to do a little catch up with what has been going on inside the German championship. There are some changes on the horizon, in order to get a closer alignment with SRO’s Blancpain GT Series the ADAC GT Masters is switching to Pirelli tires. Starting grid wise expect the count to be north of 20.
Reigning champions Prosperia C.Abt Racing have announced to defend their title with three Audi R8 LMS ultra, albeit with much revised driver line ups. With René Rast moving on to the Audi LMP1 program his co champion Kelvin van der Linde will have a new teammate in Stefan Wackerbauer. Wackerbauer, did a couple of GT Masters round in 2014, but concentrated on his graduation from high school. For 2015 the two should form another young and fast duo that can challenge for the title. Nicki Thiim is once again back with the team, his new teammate is Volkswagen Junior Jordan Lee Pepper from South Africa. Pepper like van der Linde also won the VW Scirocco Cup before graduating on to the GT Masters, might he be the next title contender coming up the Volkswagen ladder. The third car sees last years super sub Christer Joens getting a full season drive, he will share driving duties with Andreas Weishaupt. Unlike his five teammates Weishaupt isn’t a professional racer, but definitely a force to be reckoned with in the Gentlemen Trophy.
Last year both Yaco Racing and MS Racing fielded just a single Audi R8, but for 2015 both teams are planning on doubling up. MS Racing already has confirmed Daniel Dobitsch/ Edward Sandström and Marc Basseng/ Florian Stoll for both of their R8s. Yaco Racing is hoping to have Philip Geipel and Rahel Frey in their lead car, while they are hoping on fielding a second car for promising young drivers. After a guest appearance at the 2014 season finale, Dupre Engineering is hoping on joining the series full time. At least one car can be seen as confirmed, while the team is working on securing the budget for a second R8. Thomas Schöffler appears to be in their 2015 plans.
In it’s last season the Corvette Z.06 GT3 will once again be strongly represented in the championship. Callaway Competition is planning on fielding at least two cars, while RWT Racing will be back with their single Vette. The only confirmed Corvette drivers are Diego Alessi and Patrick Assenheimer, who will share one of the Callaway Z06’s.
Zakspeed is also planning on expanding their fleet in 2015, hoping to field two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, only Luca Ludwig has been confirmed so far. With Rowe Racing changing to the Blancpain Endurance Series and HTP Motorsport changing from Merc’s to Bentley’s Zakspeed could be the only team trusting in the gullwinged sportscar.
At HTP Motorsport newly signed Bentley boy Maximilian Bukh and Luca Stolz have already been confirmed to be behind the wheel of the two Bentley Continental GT3s. Returning to the championship is the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 with MRS Racing, Florian Strauss is the only confirmed driver for one of the two GT-Rs. In Senkyr Motorsport the ADAC GT Masters sees a newcomer coming from the Czech Republic with a BMW Z4 GT3, the only confirmed driver so far is Jakub Knoll. Schütz Motorsport is expected to be back with two Porsche 911 GT3 R, hoping to finally be able to score the championship they so narrowly missed out in 2014.
Farnbacher Racing and Herbert Motorsport are also expected to be back in the championship, while their choice of car is still unconfirmed. And there is also the chance of seeing the new Lexus RC F GT3 doing it’s European debut in the ADAC GT Masters.
Sören Herweg
