Walkenhorst not so fortunate with the ADAC GT Masters Sprint race from Spa yesterday

Monday, September 02, 2024

Sunday’s forty-minute sprint race of the ADAC GT Masters Series visit to Spa Francorchamps provided a double-sided sword for the Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 powered team as circumstance on track unravelled all their hard work up until that point.

Having enjoyed an overnight Balance of Performance weight reduction overnight and having qualified their two cars onto the front two rows of the eighteen-car strong grid, it was trouble again at the opening corner the hurt the pace setting #35 Pro-Am car of Nico Hantke and Chandler Hull.

Having qualified in second, Hantke aimed for the wider line going into La Source compared to that of the pole setting Ferrari but contact from behind with the pole car spun them around and (unfortunately) directly into the path of the #35 car.

Avoiding the trouble, however, was the #34 Walkenhorst car of Mike David Ortmann and Denis Bulatov who assumed the race lead going down the hill into Eau Rouge for the first time and whilst Hantke did get going again, an apparent tyre/wheel/hub failure eventually sent their effort spinning off into the tyre wall for an immediate DNF and Safety Car.

The #34 car was then under investigation for a false start earlier (and awaited his fate with the penalty box) whilst the ten-minute clean-up process was underway whilst the two Prosport Racing AMR Vantage GT3 entries of Jamie Day and Hugo Sasse consolidated an improved starting position of P12 and P13 respectively.

Sure enough, that penalty was confirmed for Ortmann breaking ranks before the start line which would drop his car down to eighth was served just ahead of the opening on the compulsory ten-minute pit stop window.

Driver changes underway and Raphael Rennhofer quickly came to the attention of Race Control as his #27 swap from Sasse was deemed to be under the minimum delta time earning himself a visit to the penalty box which would eventually place them well behind their sister #37 Prosport Racing car of Hendrik Still.

A near miss for two cars tangling at the bottom of Eau Rouge saw them avoid both the barriers and other cars to help raise the #34 car up another couple of position going into the final ten minutes and after some furious fighting from Bulatov, they were soon up to P6 overall – P5 in class.

Despite taking a double podium finish after the earlier endurance race on Saturday, the full season Walkenhorst crews had to make do with a P6 finish on track – elevated to P5 once the race winning #1 Mercedes crew had been demoted down to sixth in lieu of a drive through penalty.

The two Prosport Racing entries would end up being consistent in form if nothing else as the near all GT3 rookie crews took a P11 finish for Day and Still whilst Rennhofer and Sasse would lament their earlier pit stop error to add a P13 finish to their P9 endurance round finish earlier. Either way, it was all great experience for them and the team as they made their way back into the series for the first time since 2019.