Dorr Motorsport ramp up for a possible four car assault in the ADAC GT4 Germany Series in 2022
Having raced in the ADAC GT4 Germany Series last season with initially just a single AMR Vantage GT4 for drivers Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth, that was soon ramped up to a two AMR car programme to see out the 2021 season as bother Ben Dorr moved across from the McLaren 570s chassis to the Aston Martin with co-driver Nico Hantke with remarkable results.
Between them, the 2021 season left each crew with class podium finishes to celebrate with Phil Dorr and Wirth finishing third overall by the end of the six round, double header season.
Today’s news sees the team elevate themselves to a certain three car effort into the 2022 ADAC GT4 Germany Series with maybe four cars in the pipeline if negotiations come to fruition with another pair of drivers as new faces are already destined for the team.
Ben Dorr will be joined next season by one half of the 2021 FFSA GT4 Silver Cup Championship winning duo of Romain Leroux and Valentin Hasse-Clot as Leroux steps across from the AGS Events Racing team in France for the Dorr Motorsport team of Germany whilst Dorr’s 2021 teammate, Hantke joins up with GT rookie and ADAC Kart Masters racer Simon Connor Primm.
That leaves an as yet unconfirmed space beside Phil Dorr in the third of the team’s Aston’s which makes us think of maybe a little ‘factory’ support being in the offering?
“We are aiming for victory in all categories, regardless of whether it is a team, driver or junior standings, we have never been so well positioned as in the coming season. All the components just work together perfectly: the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 is a real racing car, the entire team is a perfectly coordinated team and our racing drivers have a lot of experience and a lot of success" said Robin Dorr, team manager in today’s announcement.
With the Prodrive factory still busy building the estimated twenty new GT4 platforms already ordered by their customer and Partner teams, there should at least be time for all teams to receive their orders in time for pre-season testing and the start of the 2022 seasons in April.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany / Team
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
Debut glory for one AMR - important Championship points for another in ADAC GT4 Germany
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
PROsport's AMR Vantage GT4 makes two for this weekends ADAC GT4 Germany's visit to the Sachensring
The provisional entry lists for this weekend’s ADAC GT Masters and GT4 Germany Series from the Sachensring are finally out and both show just the one Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entry from the PROsport Racing team within the GT4 Germany entry and not the multiple entries across the two series as first hoped.
Having been crossed by the DTM Trophy Series officials more times than the team preferred, the PROsport Racing team announced their departure from that series soon after the shenanigans at the Red Bull Ring in early September.
It was then announced that the team would be moving to the ADAC supported GT4 Germany Series with up to two AMR Vantage GT4 cars as well as a possible AMR GT3 entry into the bigger ADAC GT Masters Series.
What has now been confirmed by the series is now just a solo AMR Vantage GT4 entry for drivers Mike David-Ortmann who will be supported in this series by Hugo Sasse before both then go and race (with others) within the GT Masters Series in different teams and cars.
They join the full season ADAC GT4 Germany entry from the Doer Motorsport team and their drivers Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth aboard their #69 car. These guys haven’t raced in the series since Zandvoort in early July where they secured a P3 class finish in race two before the next scheduled round at the Nurburgring in early August was postponed due to the extensive flooding in central Europe. For their Dutch result, the #69 crew carry a 5kg weight penalty for race one this weekend.
Championship wise, the #69 crew sit P5 in the overall stakes with 63 points against the leaders 129 but in the Junior Class, Dorr sits in P4 on 88 points against the leaders 110.5 with two more rounds to go after this weekend.
As far as the potential GT3 entry goes, the team were putting it out there that their second DTM Trophy drivers, Tim Heinemann would be joining up with Nicki Thiim for this weekend’s events at the Sachensring in the remaining AMR Vantage GT3 chassis. That is clearly now not the case!
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / GT4 Germany / Teams
Dorr Group move up to an AMR Vantage GT3 in this weekends DMV GTC Series
Today we learn that in lieu of a McLaren 720S that they were scheduled to have been racing in, that Dorr Motorsports in Germany announce an entry for drivers Dino Steiner and Phil Dorr in a 2019 specification AMR Vantage GT3 in this weekend’s visit of their national DMV GTC Series at the Hockenheim circuit. This will also be the teams first race with the AMR Vantage GT3 platform!
Better known for his exploits in the ADAC GT4 Germany Series in his AMR Vantage GT4 that he shares with Andreas Wirth, the family-owned Dorr Group of top end car showrooms also well connected with the McLaren Group..
The DMV GTC Series event this weekend will feature a combined grid of fifteen GT3 cars and fourteen GT4 cars across its multiple race programme this weekend.
Photo credits – DMV GTC / Dorr / ADAC GT4
Words of note from this weekend and last
Just a few words of note from last weekend’s event and what should have been happening elsewhere this weekend coming.
The Britcar Endurance Championship were at Brands Hatch last weekend for the latest races for their Endurance and Praga Cup class. That meeting on Saturday was of course abandoned after the serious accident that occurred during a support race - an incident that cost the life of a race marshal at a post on the outside of the circuit going into Paddock Hill Bend.
Recently named by colleagues as Robert Foote, racing driver Alice Powell has kindly set up a “Just Giving’ page to help those left behind after this terrible accident. A link to that account can be found here:-
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/forourmarshal?utm_term=dzB6rMYVq
Also, another event that should be taking place this weekend has already been postponed allowing the circuit to carry on with its humanitarian efforts in southern Germany after the recent catastrophic floods in the region a couple of weeks ago that saw an ever-increasing loss of life.
Those efforts mean that the scheduled ADAC GT4 Germany round from the Nurburgring this weekend will be delayed until a future date to be confirmed. Donations towards these efforts can be made via the links that @frozenspeed (local motorsport photographer) has posted on his Twitter account as well as other fund raising opportunities.
Photo credits – Britcar / GT4 Germany
Drama in Zandvoort earns the Dorr Aston Martin crew a well earned podium in ADAC GT4 Germany
Running as their third round after previous visits to both Oschersleben and the Red Bull Ring, the #69 AMR Vantage GT4 crew of Phil Dorr and Andreas Wirth were looking to capitalise on their two P3 Junior Class finishes in Austria around the tight and twisting 2.6mile coastal circuit that is Zandvoort – this time with some technical assistance with an engineer from Prodrive in attendance.
Qualifying for Saturday’s race in P5, Dorr quickly used the new banking of T3 to grab P4 from the #77 Audi before turning his attention to the #13 Zakspeed Mercedes of Marschalkowski but a Safety Car for debris sadly put a premature stop to that battle but on the restart, a similar high line through T3 for Dorr let the #77 Audi back through.
Racing up to their pit window, the #77 missed its braking point to take a ride through the gravel to let Dorr reassume the P3 position as he eventually headed into pit lane for Wirth to take over.
Coming out in P3, Wirth found himself on the rear of the Liepert Mercedes running in second. Try as he might, there was no way past and their battling simply allowed other cars behind to catch them up. With just two minutes remaining, Wirth went for a move but out braked himself to take a ride of his own through the gravel – only to lose speed and allow the sister Zakspeed car of Gabriela Jilkova the slightest of chances to nudge the #69 car off line and eventually pass for position.
The final lap would sadly end with an error on Wirth’s part, going too fast in only to run too wide out of a corner allowing the #32 Audi past but for the #69 crew that was still a P5 overall finish – P2 in their Junior Class.
Sunday’s second race was to be even more eventful after Wirth Qualified in P4 with the ever threat of rainfall lurking just in the distance.
Two laps in and a flaming engine failure for the #32 Audi saw them spin off on their own oil leading to an immediate red flag but with the race clock still counting. That drama was added to by the #20 Zakspeed Mercedes also catching fire on the grid as the remaining cars waited for the track clean-up operation to be completed.
Restarting under the Safety Car with 45 minutes set on the clock a ‘follow the leader’ move on the ailing #20 car (which did restart the race after taking repairs on the grid) got the #69 car up to P3 just as three other cars tangled, each beaching themselves in the gravel for another Safety Car.
Going green again with 25 minutes remaining, Wirth pitted from P3 to hand over to Wirth. He would come out in P4 after each car had completed their mandatory stop – strangely behind the #20 Zakspeed Mercedes again as rain looked almost imminent!
Eleven minutes remained and Dorr was part of a four-car battle for P3 but he timed his pass on the #20 car to perfection into T1 just as another Porsche behind them impacted onto the barrier along the start straight bringing out yet another Safety car. By the time that was cleared, only two minutes plus one lap remained and that was enough for Dorr to hold on to claim their second overall podium of the season so far in P3.
The Series now moves onto their next round at the Nurburgring in a month’s time.
Photo credits – ADAC GT4 / Team
