ADAC GT Masters Nürburgring – Race Reports
First Alpina Victory

Jens Klingmann secured the first pole for the Alpina B6 GT3 in just his second GT Masters outing of the season and Marc Hennerici took the pole for the second race of the weekend.

Race 1

The Start was won by Jens Klingmann, who right from the get go took a comfortable lead over his competitors.

Behind the young German, the Audis of Kuba Giermaziak and Nicolas Armindo were battling for the line up of the two other steps on the podium. Another Audi took the fourth position, the one of Jan Seyffarth. Already charging through the field was Luca Ludwig in the lead Callaway Corvette, who was able to apply a lot of pressure on the Audis ahead of him.

Jens Klingmann stayed out as long as possible and gave his partner Andreas Wirth a more than 20 seconds lead at the pit stop. This lead was just controlled by Wirth until the finish and the Alpina B6 GT3 won its first race in the GT Masters series; fittingly at the Nürburgring, where the marque has a lot of history.

Second place went to the Corvette of Luca Ludwig and Marc Hennerici; the latter keeping up the pace of Ludwig and being able to take second from the Argo Audi during the closing stages of the race.

For the Argo team, the third place finish was still a success, after having been hit with a lot of bad luck during most part of the season.

Fourth place went to the ‘Vette of Christian Hohenadel and Toni Seiler, ahead of the Mühlner Porsche driven by Tim Bergmeister and Franck Schmickler. The final three point ranks went all to Audi pairings, with Haase/Moser finishing ahead of Armindo/Campanico and Terting/Gruber.

The Zakspeed Dodge Viper finished tenth, while Championship leader Christian Abt retired with a puncture, so no points for the former DTM racer.

Race 2

Just like Jens Klingmann on Saturday, Marc Hennerici took the advantage of his Pole position and lead during the opening laps until, on lap four, his teammate Christian Hohenadel pushed himself by him. Behind the two ‘Vettes, Frank Kechele and Sascha Bert were fighting for third position. Christian Abt had to hold off Tim Bergmeister, in order to secure his fifth rank.

After the pit stops the two Callaway ‘Vettes were in a close battle, but it was decided by the race officials, when Toni Seiler got punished with a drive through penalty for crossing the white line while leaving the pits. This enabled Jan Seyffarth and Frank Schmickler to take over second and third positions. Seiler rejoined the race in fourth position.

But the Swiss didn’t have his place secured, as he had to hold off Christopher Haase and Nicolas Armindo. Haase did lose his fifth position on the final lap to the Frenchman after the Phoenix Audi was struck by gearbox problems. The final two points-positions went to the second Abt Audi of Peter Terting and Florian Gruber, ahead of Fredy Barth and Norman Knop.

The championship lead is still with Christian Abt, who leads his partner Jan Seyffarth by two points. This is because Seyffarth didn’t race in the first race of the weekend, where Abt scored two points. Five points back is the Corvette duo of Marc Hennerici and Luca Ludwig, ahead of the teammates Toni Seiler and Christian Hohenadel. Seiler also leads the amateur championship.

With just two rounds - of two races each - left, the German GT Championship is heading towards an interesting finish. The next round is at the Sachsenring on September 18th – 20th.

Results - race1, race 2

Sören Herweg