Debut glory for one AMR - important Championship points for another in ADAC GT4 Germany
Sunday, October 03, 2021
Whilst the full season entrant from the Doer Motorsport team had more to gain Championship wise, it was the series debuting #18 PROsport Racing AMR of Mike David-Ortmann and Hugo Sasse who stole the headlines as each driver in that car was running a duel GT4 and GT Masters car at the meeting.
Making their intentions known at the start, the #18 PROsport car featured at the top during both Free Practice sessions, so it wasn’t a complete surprise for Sasse to place their car on pole position for Saturday’s first hour long race.
With over eighty days away from racing after an enforced summer break following the catastrophic flooding in central Europe in August, it was clear that many had missed their racing and had become a little rusty as the grid took the first rolling start of the weekend.
Retaining the lead for the first few laps, everything looked comfortable for Sasse but an error at turn 8 forced him to go through the gravel trap letting the #13 Zakspeed Mercedes of Championship hopefuls Teo Nouet and Jan Marschalkowski thorough for the lead. Unbeknown to many, the race start was already under investigation for many and a resulting ‘penalty lane’ punishment was awarded to the #13 Zakspeed and #69 Phil Dorr AMR (amongst many others) which allowed Sasse to recover the lead but their own infraction didn’t inhibit the #69 car too much either who come out in P5 overall.
After the pit stops, the #18 car with David-Ortmann behind the wheel was able to cruise away as those behind argued for position for an almost lights to flag debut race win. Andreas Wirth (now in the #69 AMR) was one of those who capitalised on the battles up front to be able to catch and then join them as the hour counted down. On the final lap, Wirth was even able to snatch P3 overall briefly before a similar error to Sasse through the gravel in the opening laps denied them another overall podium as they finished P4 overall.
Sundays second race was a different affair as cooler morning temperatures made an impact on Qualifying times with the #18 starting race 2 in sixth and the #69 car in P9.
Race pace was soon brought back down with a Safety Car after a Porsche had a heavy off with the tyre wall on the outside of the downhill turn 6 in the opening laps. With the two Astons still P5 and P9 respectively, it was fortunate for David-Ortmann to have taken his penalty lap for a false start before the Safety Car otherwise their race would have been ruined before it had begun.
Once the race got back to green, it soon became apparent that neither Aston was going to progress forward – one for the cooler temperatures and two because of their apparent lack of power meant that they simply couldn’t get through the traffic built up again by the earlier Safety Car.
Even pitting early didn’t change their predicament as both David-Ortmann and Wirth handed their cars over to Sasse and Dorr. Having conserved their tyres for the longest, Dorr was able to catch and pass a further struggling Sasse to first claim P7 from them before moving up to P5 overall at the chequered flag.
For the Doer team, these two results solidified their Junior Class title hopes for Dorr with a P3 and P2 in the junior Class for the #69 AMR driver but also in the overall Championship (although a large number of points down to the existing leaders) as the series moves onto its penultimate round at Hockenheim in three week’s time.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany
