Last round silverware haul for the Aston Martin runners in the ADAC GT4 Germany Series
The final two races of the 2021 ADAC GT4 Germany Series form the Nurburgring came as something of a late windfall for the four Aston Martin Racing crews from both the Dorr Motorsport and PROsport Racing teams.
Having only had one AMR Vantage GT4 entered into the series for the full season for drivers Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth (#69), they were joined at the midway point at the Sachsenring with the first of the PROsport cars for drivers Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse (#18).
With each car having already proved their competitive worth within the series with either a pole position or podium finishing position, they were soon to be joined with a further car from each stable for Ben Dorr and Nico Hantke (#59) and Yannick Fubrich and Yevgen Sokolovskiy (#16) from the Dorr and Prosport teams respectively.
First time out in their Aston last time out at the Hockenheim Ring two weeks ago left the #59 with their first podium position of the season which they went on to compliment with an overall pole position for Saturday’s penultimate race.
With tyre temperature an issue for the late afternoon race, Ben Dorr would have the #18 PROsport car for company on the front row with brother Ben Dorr just behind in P6 and with the Ukrainian Sokolovskiy a ‘best yet’ P16 as he continues to learn the art of GT racing.
Maintaining his lead position, B Dorr put in a commanding stint up until the pit window as he gapped the chasing pack by up to two seconds as others lost time to him racing for position as Sasse and Phil Dorr pitted early into the window as Ben Dorr went around again.
That didn’t help matters for the #59 crew however, as a speedy David-Ortmann soon caught and passed the #59 for the race lead to turn a two second deficit into a two second lead of his own. Wirth and Hantke would then come under siege from the many Porsche Cayman GT4’s in the field and each would drop down in position by the end as the #18 car claimed its second win of their short ADAC GT4 Germany season whilst the #59 and #69 Dorr cars would finish P4 and P5 with the #16 PROsport car coming home P20 overall (P4 in their Trophy class).
With all the Aston’s sadly already out of any championship battle, the overnight fog and rain would leave the track in a very greasy condition come the late morning start and that would impact on many cars that started on wets as the track quickly dried out as the cars got racing.
Wirth’s #69 car was the highest placed Aston for this final race of the season in P4 with David-Ortmann just behind in P5 but with the #59 and #16 cars much further down in P16 and P18 respectively.
With the race clock starting as the Safety Car again led off the grid for two formation laps, it was a typical slippery entrance into the tight right hander of turn 1 for the pack and it quickly became evident just who had picked the wrong tyre but for the two lead Aston’s that wasn’t the case and both quickly pressed through to challenge the leader by the end of the first fifteen minutes.
The front of the #59 was by now showing signs of intense inter car contact as Hantke chased stablemate Fubrich around for P12 as the pit window finally opened. With the stops over, the #18 car of Hasse was a tight P3 with two Porsche’s ahead of him and with P Dorr behind in P5.
P2, then P1 but back down again to P2 went the #18 PROsport car as Hasse battled for the overall lead and their second race win of the weekend and it wasn’t much more than half a lap later that Sasse made amends for his error at the Hockenheim Ring to take the race lead and then gap the two squabbling Porsche’s behind.
Whilst there wasn’t much P Dorr could do aboard his #69 car, brother Ben to improve his position from P10 after the stop through to P6 at the chequered flag as he and Phil mirrored their results of race 1 but Fubrich brought their #16 car home to claim their first Trophy Class podium finish in P16 overall and P2 in class.
The season therefore ended with Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth securing their P3 place overall, but Dorr did drop to P4 overall in the Junior Class and four placed above the #59 crew of Ben Dorr and Nico Hantke. Dorr Motorsport also finished P3 in the team’s table.
We should next be seeing a PROsport Racing Aston Martin GT3 and GT4 at the Dubai 24Hr early next year.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany / Teams
Four AMR Vantage GT4's see out the ADAC GT4 Germany Series this weekend from the Nurburgring
With competitive motor racing in central Europe coming to an end for another season, this weekend has the ADAC GT4 Germany series running its final two races of their 2021 season from the Nurburgring with four Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s again within their midst.
Always running with one such car this season from the Dorr Motorsport stable, the last round of the series from Hockenheim saw them run a second Aston for the other son of the family business owned team as well as the PROsport Racing team with both of theirs.
In the PROsport Racing camp, Mike David Ortmann again pairs up with Hugo Sasse for one last meeting after their visit to Hockenheim turned sour after their own accident induced exit from race 1 followed up with a grid penalty for race 2 that took away Ortmann’s pole position because of the car’s culpability for the accident.
Unlike Hockenheim, the PROsport team will this time NOT be entering their AMR Vantage GT3 into the final two races of the ADAC GT Masters Series. Despite two consistent finishes last time out overall and in class, the team have decided that drivers Tim Heinemann and Salman Owega need more test mileage behind them before entering any further rounds.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / Doer / PROsport
Debut AMR podium for Ben Dorr and Nico Hantke at Hockenheim round of ADAC GT4 Germany
This time around, the Doer Motorsport team entered two AMR’s, one for the season long #69 car partnership of Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth but also a new AMR GT4 for brother Ben Dorr with co-driver Nico Hantke who were in turn joined by a pair of Aston’s from the PROsport Racing team with Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse’s #18 car being joined by new recruits Yannick Fubrich and Yevgen Sokolovskiy in their #16 car.
Early practice sessions went all in favour of the #59 car as Ben Dorr and Hantke went second fastest on FP1 and then fastest in FP2 but for some reason, the other three Aston’s were many cars apart from the #59 going into Saturday’s two Qualifying sessions.
As with any race meeting, it’s not where you finish in Free Practice or where you Qualify at that counts and that was just as well as the highest placed Aston for race 1 was the #69 car of Phil Dorr in P14 with David-Ortmann just behind in P15.
A fault with the pit straight lighting gantry forced a false start with the speeding cars soon being halted with a red flag as another race grid was formed to be waved off at the second time of asking with a simple thing called a flag. With so many cars around the tight 4.5km layout of the circuit, contact and incident was inevitable as drivers became frustrated behind slower cars or simply misjudged their corner entry.
With the top five cars breaking away, it was left to the three top Aston crews to fight over the scraps as the #16 PROsport car was left floundering at the rear of the pack as Sokolovskiy still got used to his latest form of race car. The #69 Dorr car got a second wind of energy just before the stop as he elevated himself up to P10 whilst the #18 car had a car spin directly in front of him.
Stuck in traffic, the #59 car pitted first with the others just a lap later but entering pit lane with a gap between them going in, the was little gap to measure between the #69 and the #18 going out – but both maintained their 95 second minimum stop time.
Disaster was soon to hit the #18 car however as Sasse went in too fast and deep into the hairpin, struck the side of the previously race leading Audi to fracture his radiator in the process putting himself out of the race from a promising position. That incident in turn made for a FCY as the pit window remained open at the time and that allowed those who hadn’t yet pitted to pit under the caution and save a handful of track time to boot.
With the leader now way out in front, the two Doer Aston Martin’s began to creep up the leader board to secure P8 (#69) and P12 (#59) places on track. These would change however overnight as the FCY procedure was reviewed and the results lifted each of these cars up to P5 and P10 overall respectively. The #16 PROsport car would finish P28 – one lap down to the leaders.
Sunday’s second race was to be an equally frantic affair but at least the Aston’s would start from further forward on the grid in P3 (#59), P6 (#18), P10 (#16) and P17 (#69) despite the #18 car having originally claimed pole position for race 2 as Sasse was later given a grid penalty for his incident at the hairpin during Saturday's opener.
Again the #18 PROsport car would be in the wars as Sasse would be left on the grid as the cars left on their formation lap meaning that (once he got going again) would be starting from the back of the grid.
More side-by-side racing in the opening laps as the starting drivers elected how to use the benefit of their new tyres in the opening half. Fubrich would find himself muscled down the order despite an otherwise good start whilst Sasse muscled his way back up the order to P22 during the opening ten minutes.
Meanwhile, Ben Dorr was looking hungry for success as at first, he battled to re-establish his P3 position on track before then pushing for P2 overall.
Their team #69 car had an escape as Wirth bumped into the rear of one of the Zakspeed Mercedes only for the and another Mercedes to tangle immediately afterwards, for one of them to be spun off into the gravel – bringing out the Safety Car.
That at least allowed Ben Dorr to latch upon the rear of the leader and Sasse to join up again with the pack ahead of him just before their scheduled stops which this time went as scheduled for all concerned this time around as Dorr handed the #59 over to Hantke in second and Wirth to Phil Dorr in P8. More technical trouble in pit lane for the #18 car however would drop David-Ortmann back down the order even before he had left pit lane!
With no chance of catching the leader with their widening gap, the #59 crew would settle for their first overall podium of the year in P2 and first Junior Class win for Dorr in the process. Teammates in the #69 car would come home P8 overall and fifth in class with the two PROsport cars coming home in P10 and P27.
One round from the Nurburgring remains but now such are the points deficits that the #69 Doer Motorsport car cannot now win the overall championship being 69 points behind with only 50 points available, but they do retain an outside chance of success in the Junior Class.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / Teams
PROsport Racing field three Aston Martins at penultimate rounds of ADAC GT Masters and ADAC GT4 Germany this weekend
The PROsport Racing team will be trebly busy this weekend at the penultimate round of the ADAC GT Masters and ADAC GT4 Germany Series as they take with them to Hockenheim both of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s AND their remaining AMR Vantage GT3.
Having swapped to the ADAC GT4 Series after their fallings out with the DTM Trophy Series a couple of months ago, Christoph Esser’s team had wanted to field both of their available GT4 platforms within the ADAC Series first time around at the Sachenring as well as their GT3 with a certain named AMR factory driver.
One thing and another later and the team were only able to field a single GT4 with driver Mike David Ortmann who teamed up with Hugo Sasse where their #18 car went on to claim a pole to flag race win first time out.
For Hockenheim, the team have found another pairing for their #16 AMR GT4 with German driver Yannick Fubrich who joins Ukrainian driver Yevgen Sokolovski, two drivers who have differing levels of racing experience but mainly within the NLS (VLN) Series that PROsport know so well.
These two AMR GT4’s of course join the full season #69 entry from the Dorr Motorsport team of Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth who, after their two Junior Class podium finishes at the Sachsenring sees Dorr laying second in the Championship behind Mercedes driver Theo Nouet with just four races to go.
Brother Ben Dorr also joins the AMR family at this round with a replacement Vantage GT4 for lieu of his usual McLaren 570s that he will share with his co-driver Nico Hantke.
Further to that, and in return for some dogged determination from the team sees PROsport Racing return to the ADAC GT Masters Series with their AMR Vantage GT3 for the first time since their ill-fated double car audition in the series back in 2019.
This time their reigning DTM Trophy GT4 racer Tim Heinemann steps up to their GT3 platform for the first time in the headline GT3 series with Salman Owega but both drivers do have current GT3 multi-class racing experience from this season’s GTC series where both won novice titles.
All ADAC GT Masters and GT4 Germany races will be streamed live via the series social media channels.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany / PROsport / GT Masters
