The first time in a handful of years that the British brand has been represented within the series obviously placed a lot of pressure upon the two young drivers crews of Mike David Ortmann, Denis Bulatov (#34 car) and Chandler Hull and Nico Hantke (#35 car) went up against some big names in GT racing within the sixteen strong grid.
Two decent ‘banker’ results after race 1 saw the #34 car beat their sister car in both Qualifying and at the end of the first hour long race in P9 and P12 respectively and it was hoped that a mid-event Balance of Performance adjustment would benefit the new Vantage GT3.
Indeed, small improvements were the result after Sundays closing race after the #34 again showed itself to be faster than its sister car as both completed an opening race weekend with an improving result package as the #34 came home P7 and the #35 P13 but with both crews scoring valuable Championship points at the end.
The series now moves onto the Hockenheimring early June.
Supporting this series was again the ADAC GT4 Germany Series which this year has just one Vantage GT4 crew within it and this time from the Eastside Motorsport with Zakspeed team with drivers Jan Marschalkowski and Phillip Gogollok.
Running the new 2024 AMR Vantage GT4 for the first time, the ESM crew endured something of a similarly frustrating opening rounds to their GT Masters equivalents in their first GT4 season together in that combination (although both drivers fully conversant with the series) as they brought home a P8 and a P14 finish at the end of their two-hour long races despite running within the top five during the early Free Practice sessions.
The next round for this series will however be earlier, at the Lausitzring in late May.
Photo credits – Teams / social media / ADAC