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
PROsport Racing's sound return to the ADAC GT Masters Series with their AMR Vantage GT3
With the team already busy delivering a two car ADAC GT4 Germany commitment at the Hockenheim Ring, the PROsport Racing team were also busy this weekend facilitating their return to the ADAC GT Masters Series with one of their Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT3’s.
Having last raced in GT Masters during the 2019 season, the German based team finally got back to the headline GT3 series this weekend with a single car entry for their drivers Tim Heinemann and Salman Owega where both drivers celebrated points of note over the weekend.
Whilst Heinemann celebrated his twenty fourth birthday on Saturday, Owega also became the youngest racer to compete within the series at only sixteen years of age
Neither being strangers to a GT3 platform, this weekend was the first that either driver had raced the AMR chassis or had raced together with their main GT3 experience to date coming from the German GTC Series so this weekend’s debut was always going to be difficult with top names and teams all competing in the series.
What did happen though was a pair of drivers who never disgraced themselves or gave up over the weekend’s two one-hour races, too busy trying to improve the situation for themselves between sessions to return a consistent set of results from both Free Practice sessions to the races. For race one, the duo finished P19 overall – P10 in their Junior Class with a P21, P11 in class during Sunday’s finale.
After some more seat time together, the #17 PROsport Racing AMR GT3 should be in for a decent season finale at the Nurburgring in two weeks’ time.
Well done to all involved.
Photo credits – ADAC GT Masters / Team
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
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
News from the PROsport Racing team as they look to see out 2021 on something of a high in other series
News out from the PROsport Racing team this week indeed confirm their unfortunate withdrawal from the DTM Trophy Series but also highlights what will take its place as well as aspirations to move up the GT ladder with some potential help from a certain Aston Martin Racing factory driver.
The actions taken against the team by the race officials at their last round of the DTM Trophy from the Red Bull Ring a couple of weeks ago was for them the final straw that warranted their immediate removal from the series in protest.
Team boss Christophe Esser said that “It is a shame that we ended our involvement in the DTM Trophy prematurely, because the format with sprint races and one driver is really good and the DTM is a myth. Unfortunately, there were already incidents at the start in Monza and especially recently at the Red Bull Ring that neither our drivers nor we as a team can accept. Our drivers, Mike David Ortmann and Tim Heinemann, told us that they no longer want to drive in the DTM Trophy under these conditions. We respected that and share this attitude."
In order to fill those gaps now conspicuous upon the team’s race calendar, the team have been accepted into the final three rounds of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series at the Sachensring, Hockenheim and then a the Nurburgring at the beginning of November.
Whilst Mike David Ortmann has already been confirmed as the first of two drivers aboard one of their two Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 entries, the team are still looking for potential drivers to fill the remaining seats.
For their second driver who was competing with them, reigning DTM Trophy Champion Tim Heinemann, he is looking to continue his GT3 pathway that he presently does within the DMV-GTC Series with another team. The team is hopeful that they can field their remaining AMR Vantage GT3 into the final races of the ADAC GT Masters Series with (not sure if this is confirmed or just wishful thinking by them) with non-other than reigning World Endurance Champion GTE Pro Champion Nicki Thiim.
Esser added to this point that “Tim Heinemann is an absolute driving talent and we would like to continue working with him. That's why we want to do guest starts in the ADAC GT Masters with him and, if possible, with Nicki Thiim. In the past few weeks and months, Heinemann has already completed tests with our Vantage GT3 on the Nürburgring, Grand Prix circuit and Nordschleife, also in Hockenheim. "
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / PROsport
PROsport Racing throw away a Pole Position in protest at the Red Bull Ring
We mentioned at the start of the weekend that German based team PROsport Racing needed to look for a little more consistency when it came to their DTM Trophy efforts with drivers Tim Heinemann and Mike David Ortmann as they arrived at the Red Bull Ring in Austria this weekend.
Yesterday – we thought that a bridge had indeed been crossed as the #19 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Heinemann claimed his seventh pole position of his series career with teammate Ortmann alongside in second just 0.054 of a second slower!
After another frantic start for yesterday’s race, saw both Aston’s attack the opening uphill corner together and indeed each other to some competitive degree, actions that forced the #19 car wide and ultimately passed the #1 car to assume the lead going up still into the next corner.
Whilst Ortmann made is exit in the lead, building a gap of around a second, Heinemann would become caught up in a battle with the series leaders that would slow him down and drop him to P3. As the laps ticked by, several cars were receiving time penalties for earlier transgressions (mainly track limits) from their proceeding laps.
Defending his lap from the chasing pack and never letting that reduce to less than half a second, Ortmann eventually took the chequered flag first but was then awarded a five second penalty for the track limit violation on the opening lap with little to no notice from Race Control. That penalty dropped him off the podium and down to P4 whilst Heinemann ultimately finished P6.
However (and according to Ortmann’s social media accounts), that five second penalty was then appealed by the team overnight and upheld meaning that he was again the winner but that was later changed to a ten second penalty for reasons not yet clear.
If that wasn’t infuriating enough for all, Ortmann’s first pole position qualifying time for Sunday’s race 2 was then squandered in protest as the car/driver/team again made another very public point by removing themselves from the grid – just like they did at the season opener at Monza after the #1 car was disqualified!
That action was further compounded by the #1 car (which did start race 2) driving off circuit at the final corner of the lap and into retirement on only the second lap. There may have been steering damage to the car but whatever it was not obvious.
We love the PROsport Racing team for what they have achieved in series like the 24H Series and NLS Series with their Pro-Am customer base, but this action does not do them, the series or anyone else any favours.
This kind of young petulant school child attitude from the team needs to stop – and now! There is a time and a place for active challenges against penalties - doing this is not either.
Photo credits – Prosport / Drivers
DTM Trophy moves onto the Red Bull Ring with PROsport Racing's two AMR Vantage GT4's
Having already raced at Monza, Lausitzring and most recently at the Nurburgring, success unfortunately hasn’t come the way of either the #1 or #19 cars despite some early promises during Qualifying or in the opening stages of their two 35-minute races per event.
Competing this weekend at the picturesque Red Bull Ring in Austria, drivers Tim Heinemann (#1) and Mike David Ortmann (#19) will be desperate for some more consistency as, despite a P3 podium for Heinemann in Race 1 last time out and a season best P5 for Ortmann in the same race, results for both in race 2 were many places down on those.
During today’s Free Practice 1, Ortmann was fourth quickest with Heinemann sixth before a role reversal in Free Practice 2 with Heinemann P6 and Ortmann P9.
Fingers crossed for them.
Photo credits – PROsport / Drivers
PROsport Racing miss out from early Qualifying pace at the Nurburgring
Consistency remains the aim for the two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s of PROsport Racing after another round of the DTM Trophy that saw early promise in Qualifying fall short of their hopes and ambitions by the chequered flag.
This time racing at the Nurburgring for the third round of the GT4 series, the #1 car of Tim Heinemann and the #19 car of Mike David Ortmann had hoped for more after recent some post incident repairs after the last round of the series at the Lausitzring and subsequent testing before the weekend, and that was demonstrated with sound qualifying pace from both cars.
Amongst a grid of twenty-two cars, reigning DTM Trophy Champion Heinemann Qualified P5 whilst Ortmann was in P8 – his best place to date but whilst Heinemann barged his way up to P3 going into turn one, Ortmann found himself being pushed wide in into the gravel to recover down in P13.
With each of the two races only being thirty minutes long, that gave Ortmann little time to clean up his tyres and recover the situation whilst Heinemann would spend much of his time heavily defending his podium position from the Championship leading #85 Mercedes.
In something of a ‘calm’ race by recent DTM Trophy standards, Heinemann would finish to take his second podium finish of the season whilst Ortmann would finish P10.
For Sunday’s race, the cooler track conditions suited by Astons much better as the #1 car claimed a front row start in P2 whilst Ortmann would start from a season’s best in P7 however, poor starts again from both drivers saw that effort count for nothing as both dropped into the pack in P3 and P13 respectively.
This time it was the #1 cars turn to be shouldered out into the gravel which in turn dropped him further back to P6 with neither car seemingly having the race pace to recover. Despite some last lap passes, the #1 car would finish P5 and the #19 car in P13.
These results leave Heinemann way off the Championship leaders in P6 with less than half the points of the leader whilst Ortmann shows just three points from his four races since taking over the #19 car from Patrik Matthiesen after the Monza debacle.
The next round will be at the Red Bull Ring in two week’s time.
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Teams
PROsport Racing going for better than last time out as the DTM Trophy hits the track of the Nurburgring
After two races at each of the previous rounds at both Monza and the Lausitzring, the DTM Trophy Series moves across to the Nurburgring for two further thirty minutes plus one lap races for the entered GT4 machinery.
The locally based PROsport Racing team should again enter their two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s (again no entry list visible) into this round for their drivers Tim Heinemann (#1) and Mike David Ortmann, a driver who took over the #19 car after a parting of company between the team and Patrik Matthiesen after an ‘eventful’ season opener in Italy.
The last round around the tri-oval and infield track at the Lausitzring ended badly for the PROsport team with Ortmann finishing the highest of the pair in P10 in race one after a late journey through the gravel trap after a Safety Car for Heinemann before the reigning DTM Champion claimed Pole position for race 2 only to be taken out at high speed (literally) by an out-of-control KTM X Box going into the tight turn 2 on the second lap.
That impact inflicted immediate race ending damage to the #1 car leaving Ortmann as the sole runner in that race where he claimed his first points of the season in P10. Recent photos seen of the #19 car testing ahead of this weekend’s round will have seen the car bearing a front grille denoted with the AGS Racing name – that we understand is simple because PROsport sauced some parts from the French team but hadn’t removed the previous team’s details in time for that test.
The DTM Trophy entry will again contact a Qualifying session ahead of each race on both Saturday and Sunday.
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Team
PROsport Racing left to count the cost poor driving at DTM Trophy's second round at the Lausitzring
The Nurburgring based Aston Martin Racing team of PROsport Racing remained the sole AMR team within the mid-twenties grid of GT4 machinery but had a revised line up since the opening round at Monza with Dane Patrik Matthiesen falling out with the team for him to be replaced with sometimes previous team racer, Mike David Ortmann.
Saturdays opening race wasn’t a good one for the two Aston’s as each car was obviously lacking the same amount of terminal velocity of the Mercedes and BMW’s ahead and on a circuit that required effective slip-streaming to pass – that was an obvious issue.
Starting P6, reigning DTM Trophy champion Tim Heinemann quickly dropped to P9 by the first real corner of the lap whilst Ortmann did make some early gains to lift himself up from P18 to P14.
Never in the race, both Astons had to make do with what they had and a prolonged Safety Car for two cars tangling on the pit straight only served to save their blushes. Then in the final minutes, Heinemann got pushed out and into an infield gravel trap – managing to return but was by then in last place. Race one would end with #19 Ortmann finishing P10 and #1 Heinemann P15, rounding off a miserable day for them.
Race 2 would at least start well for the PROsport team as Heinemann secured pole position with Ortmann slightly better placed in P16.
Taking the rolling start, Heinemann was again shown weaving vigorously across the track to defend his position from the BMW of Ben Green behind and the #23 KTM behind him. Losing the lead and then regaining it a few corners later it looked like it was going to be a busy thirty minutes to see who won.
The only thing was, and just a lap later, a move from the #23 KTM on Green left the KTM with little to no braking distance into the tight left hander and had the #23 car sail broadside into the side of the #1 car ahead as he turned into the corner. Ripping the driver’s door off the Aston in the process, both cars came to a halt some way away from the scene of their impact. Luckily both appeared to be unharmed although Heinemann left his feelings clearly be known as the victim in that incident.
After the clean-up with the Safety Car again controlling the race, little over half the time remained. Salt was to be later rubbed into the wounds of the PROsport team as the sister KTM X Bow robustly pushed Ortmann out wide to drop two or three places only for the KTM to go into the next corner too fast, spin the gravel and exit back onto the racetrack (backwards) just Infront on the #19 car.
Race two would finish a disappointing P11 for the #19 car and another DNF for the #1 car as the series looks to Zolder in two week’s time.
UPDATED - DTM Trophy takes on the Lausitzring this weekend
UPDATE - Further to this post being written by us a couple of weeks ago now and in the continuing absence of any provisional entry list, it appears that there has been something of a change within the PROsport Racing team and its DTM Trophy squad going into this second round of the Series this weekend.
The upshot is that out has gone Patrik Mattiesen and in has come Mike David Ortmann who will now take over the #19 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 car for the remainder of the DTM Trophy season.
We understand that this is due in part to fall-out resulting from the team's decision to withdraw both remaining Aston Martin and Porsche GT4 car entries from race one at Monza following the disqualification of their #1 car of Tim Heinemann.
Having finally started last month in Monza, the 2021 DTM Trophy is back for its second round from the season at the Lausitzring this weekend after some exceptional set of events last time out.
Having had the #1 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 of Tim Heinemann excluded after Qualifying for race one in Monza, German based team PROsport Racing electively pulled their remaining AMR of Patrik Matthiesen as well as their Porsche from the grid in protest just minutes from the warm-up lap.
They then managed to see sense ahead of Sunday’s one hour race to let all their cars participate again where reigning DTM Trophy Champion Heinemann placed his car on the front row of the grid and just behind Race 1 winner Will Tregurtha. Matthiesen Qualified P20 out of the 21 cars entered.
Sunday’s events were equally as eventful as Saturday’s as making a pass for the lead, Heinemann cut the first chicane only to hand the position back without foul only to do it again just before the end but this time he didn’t hand the position back.
For that, Heinemann’s race win on track was time adjusted to place him in P3 whilst the Dane’s opening DTM Trophy experience sadly went from bad to worse with the DNS in Race 1 to a DNF in Race 2.
This weekend’s round comes from the back tri-oval circuit in north-east Germany where they run part of the banked circuit as well as part of the infield much like Rockingham used to be.
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Team
Eventful opening round of DTM Trophy for PROsport Racing AMR
As reported last night, an undefined Parc Ferme transgression with the #1 Tim Heinemann Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4 which resulted in the team withdrawing all three of their cars from Saturday’s race 1 – the #1 car, the #19 AMR of Danish driver Patrik Matthiessen as well as their Porsche for Adam Christodoulou (why??)
Sunday fortunately appeared to be another day for the team, as Heinemann Qualified his car P2 for the days shorter 30-minute race whilst Matthiessen struggled with his car to set a time over four seconds slower than his teammate in P20.
A simple sprint race around the historic circuit of Monza sounded simple but as usual, the concertina effect of the first chicane was there to trip people up. Thankfully, all round safely for the first time but a stuck BMW in the gravel on the opening lap called for a brief Safety Car whilst it was removed.
A side-by-side restart from behind the Safety Car saw Heinemann look for a way back past into P2 having dropped a place in the opening corners and by the fourth lap he was back to where he had started but for the next fifteen minutes it would be all about getting past the then leading #2 BMW.
Having already cut turn 1 and given the place back, Heinemann’s only way past the BMW was by doing the same again but this time the gesture wasn’t repeated for the #1 to go on and take the chequered flag. The trouble was that even before the podium celebrations had started, a two second penalty had been applied to the #1 car’s race time – putting them back to P3 overall.
Either way, the #1 car showed good pace for the reigning DTM Trophy Champion – Matthiessen will need to look back at what went wrong for them before they move onto the Lausitzring at the end of July.
Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Team
PROsport Racing cars missing from grid of DTM Trophy opener
We are hoping for better things in tomorrow’s second race of the open weekend of the 2021 DTM Trophy Series from Monza after all three cars from the PROsport Racing team failed to make the grid in todays opener.
Fielding two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s as well as a Porsche, and despite ongoing technical issues for the Adam Christodoulou Porsche during Free Practice, all three cars set a representative Qualifying time that would have seen reigning DTM Trophy Champion Tim Heinemann start today’s race in P4, Christodoulou P12 and Patrik Matthiessen P19 out of the field of twenty-two car.
However, none of these cars featured on the grid for the start of the race and none started the race from pit lane either.
We understand that a parc-ferme transgression after Qualifying for the #1 Heinemann car ultimately lead to that car being disqualified from the race for which the team withdrew their other cars (in protest?) just ten minutes prior to the race start.
Hopefully, tomorrow will bring greater clarity on that situation that will allow all their cars to race tomorrow.
Photo credits – PROsport Racing / DTM Trophy
