Walkenhorst Motorsport with good speed at NLS season opener

Walkenhorst Motorsport showed good speed with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 at the season opener of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie.

The 2025 season of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie kicked off last Saturday with the 70th ADAC Westfalenfahrt. Walkenhorst Motorsport from Melle entered two cars in the race. Christian Krognes and team founder Henry Walkenhorst drove an Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Fabio Scherer, Josh Hansen and Gino Manley took turns at the wheel of a production-based Hyundai i30N.

‘It was great to be back at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after a long time and to be on the Nordschleife for the first time since the 2024 24-hour race,’ said a delighted Henry Walkenhorst. ‘I’m happy with our performance, we showed good speed and the balance of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was very good. We can build on that in the next races.’

In his first race as an Aston Martin factory driver, Christian Krognes drove to a strong second place on the grid in the strong GT3 field. The Norwegian once again impressively underlined that he is one of the fastest drivers on the Nordschleife. 

Between qualifying and the race, a shower crossed the circuit and turned the track into a slippery strip of tarmac. During his first stint, Krognes did a flawless job and was among the leaders of the field, delighting the fans and the team. Henry Walkenhorst, the bronze driver, was not quite able to keep up with the pace at the front during his stint and dropped back a few positions, but the team founder did a flawless job and handed the car back to Krognes shortly before the end of the race. In the end, the #36 Vantage was waved off in fourth place in the SP9 Pro-Am classification and missed out on a top 3 result in the class by around 20 seconds.

But shortly after the end of the race, the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with starting number #36 was excluded from the classification. The stewards disqualified the vehicle because the car did not comply with the technical regulations on one formal point, but did not have any performance advantages as a result.

In the VT2 FWD class, Swiss driver Scherer, who won the LMP2 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, and his two team-mates Hansen and Manley drove a flawless race. They were able to complete important laps to obtain their permit and got to know the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in changing weather conditions, which is important for their future careers. They finished the race in sixth place in the highly competitive class.

‘We are very satisfied with the start of the Nürburgring Endurance Series. Our GT3 performed well and Chris and Henry did a flawless job. We were able to collect important data for the rest of the season. We will now analyse this and come back even stronger for the next round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. I can already promise that we will start with a stronger line-up at the end of April – we will announce more about this at a later date. Our permit drivers have also done a great job and have learnt a lot, which is the most important thing for them,’ says Managing Director Jörg Breuer, drawing a positive conclusion.

The ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie continues on 26 April, when the second round of the season is scheduled with the ADAC Ruhrpott Trophy. But before that, the team from Melle in Lower Saxony will be travelling to Le Castellet, where the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS season kicks off on the second weekend in April.