Drama in Zandvoort earns the Dorr Aston Martin crew a well earned podium in ADAC GT4 Germany
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Running as their third round after previous visits to both Oschersleben and the Red Bull Ring, the #69 AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth were looking to capitalise on their two P3 Junior Class finishes in Austria around the tight and twisting 2.6mile coastal circuit that is Zandvoort – this time with some technical assistance with an engineer from Prodrive in attendance.
Qualifying for Saturday’s race in P5, Dorr quickly used the new banking of T3 to grab P4 from the #77 Audi before turning his attention to the #13 Zakspeed Mercedes of Marschalkowski but a Safety Car for debris sadly put a premature stop to that battle but on the restart, a similar high line through T3 for Dorr let the #77 Audi back through.
Racing up to their pit window, the #77 missed its braking point to take a ride through the gravel to let Dorr reassume the P3 position as he eventually headed into pit lane for Wirth to take over.
Coming out in P3, Wirth found himself on the rear of the Liepert Mercedes running in second. Try as he might, there was no way past and their battling simply allowed other cars behind to catch them up. With just two minutes remaining, Wirth went for a move but out braked himself to take a ride of his own through the gravel – only to lose speed and allow the sister Zakspeed car of Gabriela Jilkova the slightest of chances to nudge the #69 car off line and eventually pass for position.
The final lap would sadly end with an error on Wirth’s part, going too fast in only to run too wide out of a corner allowing the #32 Audi past but for the #69 crew that was still a P5 overall finish – P2 in their Junior Class.
Sunday’s second race was to be even more eventful after Wirth Qualified in P4 with the ever threat of rainfall lurking just in the distance.
Two laps in and a flaming engine failure for the #32 Audi saw them spin off on their own oil leading to an immediate red flag but with the race clock still counting. That drama was added to by the #20 Zakspeed Mercedes also catching fire on the grid as the remaining cars waited for the track clean-up operation to be completed.
Restarting under the Safety Car with 45 minutes set on the clock a ‘follow the leader’ move on the ailing #20 car (which did restart the race after taking repairs on the grid) got the #69 car up to P3 just as three other cars tangled, each beaching themselves in the gravel for another Safety Car.
Going green again with 25 minutes remaining, Wirth pitted from P3 to hand over to Wirth. He would come out in P4 after each car had completed their mandatory stop – strangely behind the #20 Zakspeed Mercedes again as rain looked almost imminent!
Eleven minutes remained and Dorr was part of a four-car battle for P3 but he timed his pass on the #20 car to perfection into T1 just as another Porsche behind them impacted onto the barrier along the start straight bringing out yet another Safety car. By the time that was cleared, only two minutes plus one lap remained and that was enough for Dorr to hold on to claim their second overall podium of the season so far in P3.
The Series now moves onto their next round at the Nurburgring in a month’s time.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / Team
