There were again chaotic scenes within the ADAC GT4 Germany Series as they also visited the ultra-fast Sachsenring circuit for their penultimate round of the season with the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM again the sole Aston Martin Racing representative.

For drivers Jan Philipp Springobb and Philipp Gogollok, they were very much within championship contention as the pairing were now just two points behind the overall leaders thanks to their recent string of pole positions and podium finishes.

 

As usual, it was Springob who would qualify the car for race one and that he did for a second row start to these reduced race distances this time around as Sachsenring would see two fifty-minute races as opposed to the more tradition hour long races – mainly as a safety consideration thanks to the high tyre degradation characteristic of the modern track.

Starting under overcast skies but dry circuit, it didn’t take Springob too long to move forward up to second overall behind the #51 BMW as that pairing quickly pulled a gap to those arguing between themselves behind.

 

A spinning Porsche into the gravel suspended the pit window as some had pitted before the FCY came out for the car off track with the #4 car one of those forced to stay out until next time around when those could then pit for a nett gain on track.

After the pit window and when the race went back to green, the #4 car was under investigation for speeding under that FCY which saw them told to take a 50kph visit to the penalty box – an elongated and slower visit at the defined corner but Gogollok was still able to hang onto P2 after all.

 

Despite dropping back from the leading BMW, the second-place finish was still vital to their cause as the looked forward to race two on Sunday with the Aston Martin Racing powered crew now at the top of the table.

Race two, however, was first delayed on Sunday by necessary barrier repairs before ultimately being cancelled as the weather closed in and the circuit was awash in rain. With the final round of the season from /Hockenheim in a months’ time, we wait to find out what will be done about this missed race today.

Photo credits - ADAC

 

 

Aside from the GT Open Series and the NLS Series racing in Germany this weekend, the DTM and ADAC GT4 Germany Series are also back in business this weekend as each compete at the Sachsenring for their respective penultimate round to their seasons.

The mainstay DTM Series will be running their seventh round of an eight-round season with two more races over the course of the weekend for what will be a twenty-two-car entry. Both the #007 and #008 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entries for Nicki Thiim and Nicolas Baert respectively are again part of that entry as the Dane chases down that points deficit to now two drivers who now stand above him at the top of the table.

 

Going into this round, Thiim is twenty points behind Thomas Preining in second and just a further point behind Marco Engel who continues to lead the class after four single point finishes over the last four races have seen his once points advantage now overtaken after his podium (and race) winning streak was thwarted by catastrophic BoP penalties.

An early outscoring performance for Thiim at the 3.67km circuit in the east of the country will be a must if a last event battle for the overall title remains on the cards.

 

Joining them, will be the nineteen cars of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series with the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo also again within their midst as drivers Jan Philipp Springobb and Philipp Gogollok also chase down a (smaller) points deficit.

Presently sitting second within the overall driver’s championship table, the pairing have just six points to make up to the present leaders with also four races still to come this season making nothing has been won by anyone just yet.

 

Last time out at the Nurburgring a month ago, a dominating performance in both qualifying sessions saw their mainly black liveried car start from pole position on both occasions to then bring home a race win in race one and a P4 finish in race two.

For them, it’s very much “game on!”

Photo credits – Teams / ADAC

 

 

It’s a mixed story coming out of the Nurburgring today so far as both the DTM Series and ADAC GT4 Germany compete there for their sixth and fourth rounds (respectively) to their seasons with three Aston Martin Racing powered crews competing within one or the other.

The headlining DTM Series ran qualifying and race one of their weekend programme with Nicki Thiim looking to recover his championship lead from Marco Engel whilst Nicolas Baert still looked for his performance window within the series.

 

Despite Thiim finally losing his double race winning success ballast, expectations were surely higher that what his P11 starting position actually delivered with Baert coming home P19 out of the starting grid of twenty-one cars.

Despite an otherwise clean start to this fifty-five-minute race, progress for the two Comtoyou Racing AMR Vantage GT3 cars was otherwise slow as getting into the top ten (mainly through attrition up ahead), Thiim would eventually come home P11 with Baert the last of the runners again in P12.

For Thiim, that is only a five points drop to Engel who also endured something of a challenging round whilst Baert’s crew again earned their place at the top with the fastest stop for a second consecutive race.

In the ADAC GT4 Germany Series meanwhile, the #4 Cosy Racing with ESM AMR Vantage GT4 of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok ran what could only be described as a demonstration race to secure another overall win within the series.

 

With Springob having qualified the car again upon pole, even an early safety car intervention for a car stranded within the gravel could not affect his patience in first retaining his race lead through the opening sequence of corners before extending that lead into the pit stop window.

Gogollok then picked up the mantel as he saw his race lead near double mainly thanks to those cars in second and third squabbling so much for track position that the black Vantage GT4 literally cruised off into the sunset. Whilst all the racing excitement was between those immediately behind, as they both saw each other off the track many times before coming back together to continue the action, Gogollok just have to keep the car between the white lines to secure the win.

 

For race two tomorrow, Gogollok will this time be starting the car – from pole position again. Let’s just hope that there is no mid event BoP change coming their way!!

Photo credits – ADAC / DTM / social media

 

 

 

 

The ADAC GT4 Germany Series is back in business again this weekend coming as the series moves onto the Nurburgring for its fourth round of the season.

The #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crew of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok will be looking to maintain that recent string of form found last time out at Oschersleben.

 

There the crew capitalised up Springob’ pole position in race one to win overall before they converted Gogollok’s P3 start in race two into another podium finish in third to now secure third place within both the overall and Junior Drivers Championship’s going into this round.

It appears that the #4 car will also benefit from a drop in its declared Balance of Performance minimum weight of last time out (which ran as high as an additional 40kg over the cars minimum base weight at the start of the season at Oschersleben) to run with just 20kg for this weekend.

 

Whilst the entry list for the Nurburgring has yet to be confirmed, we do expect it to again run with the nineteen runners that it has so far this season, but there is always the prospect of a guest entry or two.

The race format will also be the same with Q1 and Race 1 on Saturday before Q2 and Race 2 on Sunday – both races being an hour long with a compulsory pitstop window in the middle.

Photo credits - ADAC

Two determined races from the Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered team saw them get their championship aspirations back on track after the ADAC GT4 Germany Series visit to Oschersleben at the weekend.

 

Racing as only their third round to the season, their out of the box performances at the opening round of the year at the Red Bull Ring had been unsurprisingly muted by the series visit to the improvised street circuit layout of the Norisring last time out, so good performances were high on the agenda for both Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok aboard their #4 car amongst the grid of eighteen other runners.

 

Despite repeated revisits to the Balance of Performance clip-board over the weekend, the weekend started well for the pairing on Saturday after Springob claimed pole position ahead of that opening hour-long race later in the day.

Not quite a comfortable lights to flag win, the #4 crew managed to stay clear of trouble during the opening laps to hold onto the race lead going into the compulsory pit window. A further full course yellow brought the pack back together again going into the final quarter of the race which left Gogollok busy in with his mirrors as he protected the teams run into another race win in the series.

 

Roles reversed for race two saw Gogollok this time undertake the role of qualifying, taking the start from P3 on the grid later in the day.

Decidedly cooler than Saturday and with the potential of further rain still on the radar made for a very skittish start to the race around the very greasy track. With something of a dry line nearly always visible around the track, the still falling rain did nothing to affect the flow of the race until just before the pit window when the rain fall intensified and two contacting cars left debris around the track. Delaying the pit window by a few minutes, the clean up behind the Safety Car was quickly down as the #4 car pitted from fourth.

 

With the rain then reducing in volume, the speed of the race towards the chequered flag increased accordingly as Springob chased down the podium placed cars ahead. That was quickly done as the #4 car moved up to third with any further charge thwarted by a late FCY for debris slowed the pace back down again leaving just a couple of minutes to the end. The team would eventually finish their third race weekend of the year with another podium finish to add to their race win.

Photo credits - ADAC

 

 

 

 

Both the DTM and ADAC GT4 Germany Series are back in action this weekend as both series move across to Oschersleben for what will be the fifth round of the GT3 based DTM but only the third round of the GT4 series.

Last time out at the Norisring was something special for the #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 of Nicki Thiim as the crew and driver did what was necessary to secure the double overall race wins at the end of each of the hour-long races despite each race being interrupted either by accident of weather.

However, that success last time out comes at a weight cost this time out as the Vantage GT3 will suffer from the addition of a 30kg increase in car base weight as well as an additional 20kg increase in handicap weight.

With the circuit layout being a sequence of short straights before ninety-degree bends, that additional weight for the car will have a clear impact on both its acceleration out and braking into the corners. The team did suffer from brake issues in the second race of last weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series from Misano before Thiim could get into the car but that should be upon another chassis to his DTM entry.

 

Thiim will once again be joined within his #008 car by Nicolas Baert who is still to demonstrate any kind of improvement in terms of racing performance in what is now his second season within the series. Three weeks ago at the Norisring, the Belgian failed to get to close to the midway point in the timing during either qualifying nor in the race each day whilst Thiim proved that the car had pace this time around.

This weekend also sees the entry reduced to twenty cars after the race one halting crash landed one driver in hospital with leg injuries after heavy contact from another car going into the tight hairpin.

 

Then there will be the competitive nineteen car grid of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series which again sees the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 Evo of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok.

Unlike the bigger Vantage GT3, the Vantage GT4 didn’t quite get the performance envelope that it needed to race around the improvised street circuit of the Norisring despite two bites at the apple by race organisers.

 

A P5 overall qualifying performance from each driver ahead of the weekend’s racing wasn’t still forward enough for the pairing to capitalise with a race finish higher than P5 overall. For this weekend at least, the Vantage GT4 will be given a 5kg BoP weight reduction (25kg over declared base weight) over that at the Norisring.

Photo credits – DTM / ADAC

  

 

 

For the final two Aston Martin Racing powered racers competing in Europe last weekend, it was sadly for them a case of what might have been had their not been pegged back in terms of performance from the start.

Yes, we’re back to that sordid tale of Balance of Performance again which is the primary reason that neither the #90 E2P Racing AMR Vantage GT3 did very well from the start of the 24H Series to the Nurburgring nor did the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM AMR Vantage GT4 as they battled out only their second round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series from the Norisring.

 

For the Spanish based E2p Racing team, that was the tale being painted upon their social media channels today after their poor showing P9 in class finish to the six plus six-hour debut race for the series from the German circuit. Their matters were made exacerbated by the premature ending of Saturdays six-hour opener due to barrier damage after a high speed off for one of their competitors (thankfully uninjured as a result) and also being needlessly turned around by another car coming up the inside from a country mile away.

 

The team will now concentrate upon the fifth and final round of the European season from their home track of Barcelona towards the end of September.

Then over in Germany, the Cosy Racing with ESM had similar issues as a 30kg base weight increase to their car severely affected their chances around a circuit already not to the benefit of their AMR Vantage GT4 platform.

 

With drivers Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogllock behind the wheel again, these were two very abled drivers who would have wrung the last once of power out of the car but had to make do with a P8 result in race one on Saturday. Then, and despite a reduction in that BoP change to just 20kg in race two – that only allowed the #4 crew to post a P5 result as they now look towards their third round of the season from Oschersleben at the end of month.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

 

 

 

 

 

There’s no let-up in the race schedule for the Comtoyou Racing team as they move on this time from the Spa 24 of last weekend and on to the latest round of the German DTM Series this weekend from the Norisring and their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 entries.

Whilst the teams exploits within the 24hr proved itself to be something of a brutal one with all four cars cashing out of the event at one stage or another, we believe that the Belgium based team retains series specific chassis that would allow their drivers Nicki Thiim and Nicolas Baert to arrive without the worry of any post event repairs.

 

This round will be the fourth round of the eight-round season with two more-hour long races to look forward to around what usually becomes a very brutal street circuit layout that hasn’t always been kind to previous AMR powered entries.

Last time out in the series from the Lausitzring two weeks ago, Thiim attained his and the team’s best results to date in the DTM by taking pole position for race one (with a P4 result) before standing upon the second step of the podium in race two but the differences in circuit layouts between last time and this time are profound.

 

We also welcome back the supporting ADAC GT4 Germany Series for the first time since their opening round way back at the end of April when nineteen GT4 powered crews competed at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

 

Within that group set we will see the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Jan Philipp Springob and Philipp Gogollok who will be looking to repeat their fine start to the season in Austria where the German pairing secured both a P2 and then a P1 start to each of the two, hour long races before delivering a P10 and P1 finish at the end.

 

We have seen both the team and both drivers compete at this circuit before and like both GT4 and DTM series, it will be a case of who can keep out of trouble will prevail.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

 

 

It was back to winning ways this weekend for the #4 Cosy Racing by ESM Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crew as they competed within the first two races of the opening round of the season for the ADAC GT4 Germany Series.

After an earlier pre-season test, the nineteen crews of this year’s intake were back at the Red Bull Ring in Austria for this weekend’s two one-hour long races with drivers Jan Philipp Springob back for his second consecutive season with the team and with the return of Philipp Gogollock after a year away.

 

Things look promising early into the race weekend as Springob was able to claim a P2 starting position ahead of Saturday’s race opener but although he retained that position going into the mandatory pit window, an issue on track which needed a ‘control-alt-delete’ in the cockpit along the main start straight for his co-driver saw them ultimately finish P10 overall – P9 within their Junior class.

Better, however, was to come in Sundays concluding race after Gogollok had gone one better in Qualifying to secure his first pole of the year.

 

This time, there were no such issues again on track as the #4 crew lead a lights to flag race to claim their first race win of the season despite the Vantage platform taking a 40kg increase in its Balance of Performance declared base weight in-between races.

The next round of the season will be from the Norisring in early July.

Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany

 

 

 

It will be a very busy race card at the Red Bell Ring this weekend as three German based GT series kick off their 2026 season just over the border in Austria.

The headline series will again be the DTM Series but supporting them this weekend will be both the ADAC GT Masters Series and well as the ADAC GT4 Germany Series with an interesting line up of Aston Martin Racing powered crews between them.

 

The Belgian based Comtoyou Racing team have come back for a second season within the DTM, having dipped that metaphorical toe into the series last year with two ‘junior’ drivers but this year they will have a real race winning contender within their midst as Nicki Thiim is finally released amongst the expected twenty one car full season entry with one of their AMR Vantage GT3 Evo’s.

Supporting him will be Nicolas Baert who returns to the series within his #008 car to prove just what he has learnt from his last season efforts as a solo driver within this weekend’s two one-hour races.

 

In the ADAC GT Masters Series, the Belgian team also has another of their AMR Vantage GT3 Evo cars within their expected fifteen strong GT3 based grid as Luxembourger Baudouin Detout steps up to the GT3 class for his first full competitive season with that platform alongside the Dubai domiciled young Brit, Jamie Day.

They too will compete in two 0ne-hour races over the weekend.

 

Rounding off the Red Bull Ring race card as far as we are concerned will be the return of the Cosy Racing by ESM and their lone Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 that they raced so well last season despite arriving late to the party.

Jan Philipp Springob returns to the team after something of a success debut season with the Eastside Motorsport team last season and he will be joined by another returnee to the team in Philipp Gogollok after he was one half to the teams endeavours within this series with there then brand-new Vantage GT4.

They too will compete in two one-hour races after all three series recently enjoyed an official test day at the circuit earlier this month.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media