Success in Germany for two AMR powered teams in two differing series
Whilst they were doing that, the Prosport Racing’s #17 Vantage GT3 crew of Maxime Dumarey, Christoph Breuer and Marek Bockmann sadly failed to finish Saturdays race thanks to a last lap puncture but did take an SP9 Pro-Am class win to make up for it on Sunday. That would be in addition to there #176 SP10 entry of Guido Dumarey, Rudi Adams and Michael Hess completing a near double with a P3 and P4 finish in class in their Vantage GT4.
Not to be left out of the podium fun, some of their teammates competing within the fifth round of the ADAC GT4 Germany Series from the Sachensring also had something to cheer as the #1 crew of Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse claimed their first double race win of the season to healthily increase their championship lead going into the final round of the season at the Hockenheimring at the end of October.
Their three further crews also competing all managed to finish both hour-long races at the weekend with the #19 crew of Leon Erger and Raphael Rennhofer finishing P11 in race 1 and P16 in race 2 alongside Fabienne Wohlwend/Celia Martin and Yevgen Sokolovskiy/Damian Surzyshyn who would finish P18/P12 and P22/P19 respectively.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / Social Media / E Metzner
Nicki Thiim around the Nordschliefe not once but twice with Doer Motorsport
Usually kept apart from one another, this weekend’s double header will comprise of an individual six-hour round over each of Saturday and Sunday and goes to make up the Red Bull 12hr Nurburgring event.
The locally based Prosport Racing team are again in attendance, making for a very busy weekend for them with two of their Aston Martin Racing stock competing within what will still be NLS 6 and NLS 7 but that is in addition to their four-car strong ADAC GT4 Germany commitment this weekend at the Sachensring.
No real surprises with these guys as the #17 SP9 (GT3) Pro-Am entry is made up of Maxime Dumarey, Christoph Breuer and Marek Bockmann whilst their #176 SP10 (GT4) entry will again be for Guido Dumarey, Rudi Adams and Michael Hess.
The real news comes unsurprisingly from the Doer Motorsport team as they again get their #24 SP9 Pro class Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 out for brothers Phil and Ben Dorr for the first time since their twenty-four efforts around the circuit earlier this year, but this time the guiding role will not come in the form of factory driver Darren Turner – it will this time be Nicki Thiim!! The team have elected to forgo their ADAC GT4 Germany Series commitments to develop the brothers further into GT3 based racing.
All three crews are listed the same for each of NLS 6 and NLS 7 events.
Photo credits – Series / Teams
Changes confirmed with Prosport Racings ADAC N24 driver line ups
Still entering one Vantage GT3 and two Vantage GT4’s see both Christophe Breuer and Mike David Ortmann remain within the teams #28 SP9 Pro-Am entry but with both Maxime Dumarey and Ben Green joining the party.
That differs from the four-driver statement previously released by the team in advance of the recently completed Qualification race weekend after contact for the car saw it drop out in the early stages that sees one reassigned to a GT4 car and the other replaced by Green.
Also changing will be the #78 SP10 entry for a new driver line up of Guido Dumarey, Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Michael Hess alongside the sister #79 SP10 entry for Guillaume Dumarey, Alex Mies, Andreas Petzelt and Hugo Sasse.
"Our goal is clearly to win the class in the Pro-Am class!", said team boss Esser underlines the objective ahead of the endurance classic. "In addition, we hope to finish in the top 10 overall, which is definitely possible if we deliver a flawless race" which we all know is certainly easier said than done.
Photo credits – Eric Metzner
Putting the past behind them, PROsport Racing prepare for a six hour enduro in the return of the NLS Series
After the bizarre events of last weekend at the Red Bull Ring and the team’s immediate decision to withdraw from the remaining rounds of the DTM Trophy Series as a consequence, it’s great to report the German PROsport Racing team again in a positive light ahead of this weekend’s return to the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie.
With the sixth round of the series last raced nearly two months ago, this weekend’s round will be a six-hour affair with a one hundred and forty plus multi-class grid that includes both PROsport Racing Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT4’s again within the GT4 homologated SP10 Class.
Having last raced together, the Dumarey brothers are this time split with long term team customer Guido re-joining his 2021 ADAC Total N24 crew of lex Walker and Michael Hess in the #176 car whilst Maxime Dumarey joins forces with Jean Glorieux and team ‘resident professional’ driver coach Nico Verdonck in the #177 car.
As always, all the track action will take place over a single day with Qualifying starting at 08:30 and the race at midday – this Saturday.
Photo credits – Prosport / drivers
Single AMR bullet from PROsport Racing in the ADAC Total N24 gun
Despite the 125 teams scheduled to at least start this iconic event, only one team will sport an Aston Martin Racing platform despite three AMR factory drivers also in attendance but with different teams and race machinery.
Having slowly developed their client base in the NLS Series under the watchful eye of their ‘resident’ professional driver sees locally based PROsport Racing again enter one of their AMR Vantage GT4’s again for their drivers Guido Dumarey, Maxime Dumarey, Alex Walker and Michael Hess who return for another attack on the race.
Having entered their #176 car during the two rounds of the NLS season raced so far as well as the N24 Qualification race undertaken earlier this month, the team will be looking to improve upon their finish in the race of last year of P49 having ran an almost identical driver crew aboard their SP10 (GT4) class car.
Results so far this season in the NLS have been encouraging with a P3 class finish in NLS2 and a P6 class finish in NLS3 after the opening round was snowed off on the day of the opening race. The team went on to finish P2 in class at the Qualifying race earlier this month.
First officially timed sessions for the event start at lunchtime on Thursday 3rd June before the start of the 24hr race itself at 15:30hrs local on Saturday 5th.
Photo credits – NLS / Team
Class podiums for Aston Martin Racing Vantage at ADAC Total N24
It was double delight at the weekend for the two Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantages competing ADAC Total 24H around a rain soaked Nordschleife.
Principally the same car but for a 'few' performance tweaks here and there, saw the Garage 59 team enter their 'baby Vantage' GT8R for the first time within the 24 hour having debuted their little 'pocket rocket' at the last round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie. This time they would be running an ultra competitive driver line up with Alex West and Chris Goodwin being joined by AMR factory drivers Darren Turner and the new 2020 GTE Am Le Mans 24h winner of the previous weekend, Jonny Adam within the races SP8T class.
Having also competed together in various driver arrangements in previous rounds of the NLS with various degrees of success (or not), the 24H would mark a massive step up for all of the drivers as they each took a step up from their previous pedigrees of race car.
Starting from the off in wet conditions, things would sadly never improve overnight for the teams and the few spectators that were eventually allowed access into the Grand Prix circuit grandstands before the race was temporally red flagged just after midnight due to standing water and visibility issues.
A seven hour delay to the proceedings was required before Race Control deemed the circuit to be raceable again leaving just about a quarter of the race time left for those who had survived the riggers of the Green Hell up until then.
By the end, both cars took the chequered flag with each finishing third in their respective classes.
Photo credits - Garage 59 / PROsport Racing / ADAC N24
Adam joins Garage 59's ADAC Total N24 line up
"Fresh" from his class winning exploits at last weekends 24 Hours of Le Mans, one third of the 2020 Le Mans 24 GTE Am Class winning team that is Jonny Adam has today been confirmed as the fourth driver within Garage 59 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R at this weekends Nordschleife endurance.
Featuring an already declared line up that includes fellow AMR factory driver Darren Turner, Adam will be joining up again. with co team owners of Chris Goodwin and Alex West aboard their revised #59 SP8T class car for the start of this years event which in itself has also been severely affected by the ongoing global pandemic.
First moved from its usually mid summer date to this weekend, the race was at first business as usual with fans in attendance before then being from behind closed doors to now, where fans are again welcome in the circuits grandstands only.
One small outstanding consideration going into the event was Alex West's fitness to drive this weekend after his sizeable accident and collision with the circuit barriers at Le Mans in his AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE but he has since confirmed with us that all is well and the driver line up remains as now stated.
They join the the #71 PROsport Racing AMR Vantage GT4 of Nico Verdonck, Guido Dumarey, Alex Walker and Michael Hess aboard their GT4 (SP10) class car.
Verdonck, the resident professional driver coach of the team has been supporting all three gentleman drivers through earlier Nordschleife Langstrecken Serie races as many step up from lower classes within the former VLN Series of racing to the full SRO homologated GT4 racer.
Unfortunately, early weather indications show a distinct drop in ambient temperatures over the race weekend plus a high possibility of - guess what? That’s right - rain!!!
Awesome!
Photo credits - Garage 59 / VLN
Good job well done for Garage 59's new Vantage GT8R at NLS 5
Todays fifth round of the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie from the Nordschleife proved itself to be something of a job well done for the #160 Garage 59 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GT8R.
Being the first competitive race for the modified Vantage GT4 platform that the team will race in the SP8T class at the forthcoming ADAC Total 24h event later next month, running any new car for the first time comes with risk and the final NLS round before the 24 hour allowed the team up to six hours of racing to prove the cars potential.
Qualifying for todays race in P65 out of the 160 car entry, drivers Alex West, Chris Goodwin and Daren Turner took the #160 to P2 in class, finishing just 4.5 minutes behind the class winner. That will be enough to give them the confidence that they were looking for ahead of the 24hour.
In the SP10 class however, the #176 Propsort Racing AMR Vantage GT4 faired not so well in the race as they too prepared themselves for the N24 completing only three laps!
Photo credits - Garage 59 / Prosport Racing
