Walkenhorst Motorsport with final fine-tuning before 24-hour race

Walkenhorst Motorsport’s intensive weeks continue: Directly after the ADAC GT Masters season opener in Oschersleben, the racing team from Melle will be travelling on to the Nürburgring. WMS will enter five cars in the first race of the new Nürburgring Endurance Series. In addition to three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s, the team will also be fielding a BMW M4 GT4 and a Toyota Supra.

“Our clear focus for the Nürburgring Endurance Series race is that we want to prepare for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in the best possible way,” says Walkenhorst Motorsport Managing Director Jörg Breuer. “After the qualifying race, we analysed a lot of data from our new Aston Martin and we hope that we can use this experience to take the next step towards the top!”

The top car with starting number #34 will be driven by the two Aston Martin works drivers Nicki Thiim and David Pittard. The third driver on the grid will be Kuba Giermaziak from Poland, who took a total of five race wins in endurance races on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife last year with Walkenhorst Motorsport.

Chandler Hull, who also competes for WMS in the ADAC GT Masters, will drive the #35 Aston Martin together with the two Germans Benjamin Mazatis and Patrick Assenheimer. The Aston Martin trio is completed by the #36, with team founder Henry Walkenhorst alternating in the cockpit of the car with the two experienced GT3 drivers Christian Bollrath and Anders Buchardt.

Walkenhorst Motorsport will field a Toyota Supra for the first time as a production-based permit car with the starting number #466. Motorsport celebrities will compete in the Toyota in order to obtain the corresponding permit, which allows the drivers to compete on the Nordschleife with high-performance racing cars. At the wheel of the Supra will be three-time World Touring Car Champion and current Ford works driver Andy Priaulx. Priaulx won the endurance classic in the Eifel in 2005. Ford works driver Ben Barker and Sebastian Priaulx, Andy Priaulx’s son, who is himself a successful GT driver in the USA, complete the vehicle’s driver trio.

The Walkenhorst Motorsport quintet will be rounded off by a BMW M4 GT4 at the first race event of the Nürburgring Endurance Series. Florian Wahl – whose brother Tobias has been driving the car for the entire season but is unable to compete this weekend due to a clash of dates – and Andreas Ziegler will be two Nordschleife experts behind the wheel of the BMW. Jean-Christophe David will drive the car as the third driver, having successfully passed the Permit A at the last race with WMS and now moving up to the GT4 class with the team.

“It is a great honour for us that a true motorsport legend like Andy Priaulx will be competing in our team,” says Niclas Königbauer, Managing Director Walkenhorst Motorsport. “Apart from that, we are approaching the race as a final test for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. In the race, we will try to prepare ourselves as well as possible for the endurance classic in around a month’s time.”

The Nürburgring Endurance Series race weekend begins with extensive testing on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife on Friday. Saturday starts early in the morning with qualifying before the four-hour race gets underway at 12:00 noon. Interested fans can follow the race day from 8:15 a.m. in the German-language live stream on YouTube. There will also be an English-language livestream of the race from 11.15am.