Aston Martin continues its long and successful association with the fearsome Nürburgring Nordschleife this weekend as the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 goes for overall glory in the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nürburgring with partner teams Walkenhorst Motorsport, PROsport and Dörr Motorsport.
Just days after Vantage finished fourth with the Heart of Racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGT3 class, the legendary German venue hosts the second of three consecutive world-renowned ‘twice around the clock’ endurance races, with Aston Martin chasing a second-straight overall victory at the Crowdstrike 24 hours of Spa just a week later.
Nine Vantages, of GT3 and GT4 specifications, will carry the hopes of the British sportscar manufacturer at the 15.8-mile circuit, known throughout motorsport as the ‘Green Hell’. Renowned for pushing machinery to its limit over its hundreds of bumps, crests and blind curves, the Nordschleife punishes even the smallest errors thanks to the track’s unique microclimate, narrow, tree-lined straights and huge entry of almost 150 cars.
Aston Martin has enjoyed a winning tradition at the Nürburgring for more than 60 years. Sir Stirling Moss recorded a hat-trick of 1000km victories with Aston Martin in the 1950s, including the 1959 edition that helped to secure the World Sports Car championship crown. That was in the same year that Aston Martin’s DBR1 claimed its famous overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Since returning to sportscar racing in the mid-2000s, Aston Martin has been an ever-present at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, whether through works-entered cars or with its most trusted partner teams. From 2006, through each iteration of Vantage, the Wings have claimed 10 class victories and more than 25 podium finishes.
Aston Martin has once again partnered with an ultra-successful team – Walkenhorst Motorsport – as it strives to become the first British manufacturer to win the race outright. The German outfit, which won the 2018 Spa 24 hours and the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series, will run three Vantage GT3s, which share the mechanical architecture of the ultra-luxury performance brand’s most focused sportscar, and which are built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, in the SP9 Pro, Pro-Am and Am classes.
The #34 SP9 Pro-class Vantage features an all-star line-up of Aston Martin works drivers, who boast seven overall or class wins from Europe’s three premier 24-hour races between them. Renowned Nordschleife specialist David Pittard (GBR) took victory in the Nürburgring 24 Hours in 2023 and is joined by another overall winner of the race; two-time FIA WEC GT champion Nicki Thiim (DEN), who triumphed in 2013. The Dane’s Spa 24 hours-winning team-mate from 2024, Mattia Drudi, (ITA) makes his event debut and is the only Aston Martin driver taking on the Le Mans-Nürburgring-Spa treble. Completing the line-up is 2018 Spa 24 hours winner Christian Krognes (NOR), the overall champion in the Nordschleife-based Nürburgring Langstrecken Series (NLS) in 2012 and lap record-holder on the track’s NLS layout.
Another Vantage GT3 tackles the SP9 Pro-Am class with Oliver Söderström (SWE) partnered by Anders Buchardt (NOR), who scored a class podium at the recent Qualifying Races for the event, and Nico Hantke (DEU). Krognes is an additional named driver in the #35 Vantage, meaning he will be on double duty.
Walkenhorst’s #30 Vantage, which will contest the SP9 Am category, features four Nurburgring 24 Hours class winners behind the wheel. Team founder Henry Walkenhorst (DEU) and Jörg Breuer (DEU) – the latter scoring his first category victory in 1993 – share with Stefan Aust (DEU) and US-born Christian Bollrath (DEU). Walkenhorst will also field a Vantage GT4 in the SP10 category. The drivers will be Aris Balanian (BEL), Hermann Vortkamp (DEU), Jean-Christophe David (FRA) and Josh Hansen (USA).
PROSport Racing have entered three cars in three different classes for this weekend’s event, including a Vantage GT3 in SP9 Pro-Am car that is anchored by two-time GT World Challenge Europe Silver Cup Champion and two-time Nürburgring 24 Hours overall podium finisher Nico Bastian (DEU). Sharing the #37 entry with him are multiple class winner Marek Böckmann (DEU) and Steven Palette (FRA), a category victor on his only previous appearance in 2012.
The team’s Vantage #175 GT4, which has been a multiple podium-finisher in the NLS this year, will be driven in the SP10 class by Yannik Himmels (DEU) and Michel Albers (DEU), who were part of the line-up than won the category in both of the recent Qualifying Races, plus Nurburgring 24 Hours class winner Jörg Viebahn (DEU) and Benjamin Hites (CHL), the 2023 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup Silver champion.
A third entry, the #140 Vantage GT4, will contest the SP8T category and will be raced by regular NLS podium finishers, the father-and-son duo Guido and Maxime Dumarey (BEL) – the latter finishing third in SP9 Pro-Am last year in a Vantage GT3 – plus Raphael Rennhofer (AUT) and Marcel Marchewicz (DEU).
Dörr Motorsport, who claimed the most recent class win for Vantage at the 2022 race, have added two Vantage GT4s in SP10. The #169 car features Peter Posavac (DEU) and Michael Funke (DEU) while Sven Schädler (DEU) and Frank Weishar (DEU) will be in #179. Further drivers for both cars will be announced before the event gets underway.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “For fans of endurance racing, 2025 is a particularly special year as three of the world’s most prestigious 24-hour races, at Le Mans, the Nürburgring and Spa, are held on successive weekends. Aston Martin has a special connection with each of the three events, with the Vantage platform placing our partner teams as contenders in each. The Nürburgring 24 Hours has a unique atmosphere and the sheer challenge of its 15.7-mile track, bordered by its unforgiving barriers – not to mention the size of the entry list – are just two factors that make winning here such a huge challenge. Vantage has been ultra-competitive in both GT3 and GT4 series this year so naturally our target is to see our partner teams challenge for victory. Aston Martin is globally-renowned but proud of its roots, and to potentially become the first British manufacturer to win this race outright is an important landmark to chase. In Walkenhorst Motorsport, PROsport Racing and Dörr Motorsport we have three partner teams who know how to succeed on-track and we wait to see what they can achieve.”
Aston Martin made its Nürburgring 24 Hours debut in 2006, with an almost standard V8 Vantage that provided the springboard for the ultra-successful GT4 version. Since then, the marque has enjoyed notable class successes, including victory in the SP9T class in 2018, when Maxime Martin (BEL), Thiim, Darren Turner (GBR) and Marco Sørensen (DEN) finished fourth overall, having led into the final hours amid heavy rain in the last competitive outing for the V12 Vantage GT3. The result stands as the marque’s best finish in the race.
In recent years the Vantage GT4 has flourished. The previous generation won the SP8T class in 2019 with Jamie Chadwick (GBR), Alex Brundle (GBR) and Peter Cate (GBR). In 2020, Garage 59 finished third in the same class with an upgraded GT8R driven by works driver Jonny Adam (GBR), Alexander West (SWE), Chris Goodwin (GBR) and Turner.
The most recent class win for the brand came in 2022, when Dörr Motorsport clinched a one-two victory in SP8T on its Aston Martin debut with a Vantage GT4. The team also finished third in SP10 behind the second-placed PROsport Vantage GT4, the best result yet for the Nürburgring-based team.
First qualifying for the ADAC Ravenol 24H Nürburgring begins on Thursday, 19 June at 1300 local time (1200 BST) with the race beginning at 1600 (1500) on Saturday.
Source material - AMR