Prosport Racing on final leg of potential championship winning double within ADAC GT4 Germany
Going into this weekend’s final two-hour long races sees their #1 crew of Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse retaining a forty-three-point lead over the chasing pack within the overall championship whilst the team retains a more modest ten-point lead within that Championship battle.
They are joined at the circuit by the three other Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 powered crews from the Christophe Esser lead squad as the all-female crew of Celia Martin and Fabienne Wohlwend return within their #13 car, with Raphael Rennhofer this time joined by Marek Bochmann within the #19 car (not sure what has happened with Leon Erger) with Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Damon Surzyshyn completing the list with their Trophy classed #48 car.
Last time out at the Sachensring saw the #1 crew take two race wins over the weekend together with best drives yet from the #13 crew.
Having already claimed AMR Vantage GT3 championship success within the NLS series, further GT4 success for this multi-car – multi-series committed team would only be fitting.
Photo credits - ADAC
Four of Prosport Racings finest return for penultimate round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series from the Sachensing
Continuing the theme that was raised last time out from the Lausitzring, we again see just the quartet of Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s from the Prosport Racing team as the Doer Motorsport team will indeed by busy elsewhere with the double header of rounds six and seven of the NLS Series around the Nordschliefe.
Those results saw the #1 crew go back to the top of the overall championship whilst holding a slender lead over the BMW M4 GT4 crew of Denis Bulatov and former AMR series racer, Simon Connor Primm and also some other teams sitting out this weekend's event in protest of their own BoP situation!
Within the rest of the team, the #19 crew of Leon Erger and Raphael Rennhofer didn’t have quite the same touch as their debut round at the Nurburgring with a P14 and a DNF over the two races but there was a better performance from their two lady racers within the #13 car as Fabienne Wohlwend and Celia Martin finished P22 and P19 – their best results to date.
The fourth #48 car of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Damon Surzyshyn meanwhile finished a very credible P19 after race one but faced a very early exit with damage in Race 2 to lose further ground within their Trophy Class battle.
Photo credit - Series
Reigning Champions Ortmann and Sasse lead the way in a rain drenched Nurburgring third round
The ADAC GT4 Germany Series was back in action at the weekend from what turned out to be a rain soaked Nurburgring circuit with five Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 crews again taking part – four from the locally based Prosport Racing team and another from the Doer Motorsport team.
The early pace was set by the #1 Prosport Racing AMR of Higo Sasse as he and Mike David Ortmann secured pole position for the start of Saturday’s opening hour long race with the #007 Doer car of Ben Dorr and Theo Nouet close behind in third.
Starting upon a wet track behind the Safety Car, Sasse maintained his lead as the thirty strong grid tip-toed around an obviously slippery circuit. Two early spinners into the tyre wall quickly brought out the Safety Car again, wiping out the 3.5 second lead that Sasse had already built up in that opening ten minutes before the race was red flagged for repairs.
Starting again behind the Safety Car, the race resumed as the #1, #007 and #19 cars lead and Aston Martin 1-2-3 in opening laps. With further spinners within the midst of the pack, the race at least continued with Dorr soon setting an early fastest lap prior to the pit window opening.
Times slowly increased as a dry line began to form on track, but the rain soon returned to blight the aspirations of some who elected for slicks at their pit stops leaving the two front running Astons (#1 and #007) to battle with two Mercedes AMR GT4’s for the podium prizes where they eventually finished second and third respectively by the end.
Those battles continued in Sunday’s equally wet race two as the #1 car this time started from the second row of the grid with the #007 next best again in P7.
More early spinners again brought out the Safety Car before the race was later released again as the rainfall intensified making for some atrocious track conditions from which Ortmann soon took charge again at the front on the restart.
This time Nouet could not do much with those ahead as he remained in sixth as the pit window opened where Sasse eventually emerged down in second, behind the #24 Porsche with the #007 holding onto sixth.
With twenty minutes remaining, the #1 car was relegated to third before Sasse passed both the #85 Mercedes and #24 Porsche with still ten minutes remaining – a position from which the reigning champions would not look back to end an incredible return to the series after some difficult races so far from both Oschersleben and Zandvoort.
Not having all their own way also saw the #48 Trophy class car of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Damon Surzyshyn take a class win in race 1 whilst their teams debuting duo of Raphael Rennhofer and Leon Erger also impressive after their P4 start and P7 finish in race 1, backed up with a P13 start and P18 finish in race 2.
Next race will be from the Lausitzring in two weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Teams / Series
Five Aston Martin Racing crews go again this weekend as ADAC GT4 Germany Series hits the Nurburgring
Starting out at Oschersleben at the end of May before progressing to Zandvoort in Holland four weeks later saw the Bachman siblings start and then end their series endeavours with the Prosport Racing team, for them to be replaced ahead of the last round and for two series debutants to take their places again in Germany.
Reigning champions Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse remain the highest placed Amr crew after two rounds, presently sitting P4 in the overall championship in the #1 Prosport car whilst the #7 Dorr car of Ben Dorr and Theo Nouet feature way down in P19 after a frightful start to the season where they have been dogged with technical issues so far.
The all-female #13 Prosport crew of both Celia Martin and Fabienne Wohlwend have finished all four races so far but unfortunately not high enough up the order to score championship points whilst the #48 Prosport Trophy class car of Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Damon Surzyshyn have made similar progress despite their late start together to presently sit fifth in that class albeit with just half the points of the present class leader.
This weekend will see another two hour long, pit stop punctuated races to place around the grand prix loop of the Nurburgring circuit, giving the Prosport team something of home advantage as their rookie drivers Leon Erger and Raphael Rennhofer compete for the first time together within the teams #19 car.
Photo credits – Team / series
