Walkenhorst Motorsport can look back on a successful race weekend at the ADAC GT Masters in Spa-Francorchamps.
After a short summer break, Walkenhorst Motorsport continued on the Ardennes rollercoaster of Spa-Francorchamps. For the first time since 2015, the ADAC GT Masters returned to the world-famous circuit for its fourth race weekend. Walkenhorst Motorsport entered two Aston Martin Vantage GT3s for Denis Bulatov and Mike David Ortmann as well as for Chandler Hull and Nico Hantke.
‘Basically, we are very satisfied with our performance at Spa,’ said Managing Director Jörg Breuer. ‘After the 24-hour race at the end of June, we knew that we were a force to be reckoned with here. We were able to realise this with good results on the race weekend. Unfortunately, the #35 with Nico and Chandler was unable to achieve the result it deserved due to a lot of bad luck on Sunday.’
Bulatov and Ortmann moved up from sixth on the grid to third place in Saturday’s endurance race. This is the second podium result for the two drivers in this year’s ADAC GT Masters season after they finished third in Zandvoort. From 15th on the grid, Chandler Hull and his German partner Nico Hantke ploughed their way up to fifth place with a strong strategy and a fighting performance. The two drivers thus celebrated their first class victory in the Pro-Am classification.
On Sunday, Nico Hantke and Mike David Ortmann started the 40-minute sprint race from second and fourth on the grid after an excellent qualifying session. However, Nico Hantke was involved in an accident at the start through no fault of his own when the upturned Ferrari hit the Aston Martin at the rear and pushed it into the gravel. Due to consequential damage, the fast youngster spun into the tyre pile in the area of the Jacky Ickx corner on lap 1. The bitter end for Hantke and his American partner.
Mike David Ortmann made it through the starting turmoil unscathed and was able to take the lead. But trouble soon followed for the #34 car: Ortmann had to complete a penalty lap due to a false start and dropped back to midfield as a result. In the end, Denis Bulatov saw the chequered flag in sixth place in the heat of Spa-Francorchamps and slipped up another place, as the originally winning car was given a time penalty for causing the starting accident. As a result, Denis Bulatov and Mike David Ortmann were classified fifth in the overall standings and finished third in the Silver Cup.
‘Apart from the bad luck on Sunday, we had a good weekend in Belgium! The entire team worked wonderfully and the speed of our Vantage was very promising. We were also able to make up a few places strategically thanks to our accumulated endurance racing experience. The race weekend in Spa clearly showed us that we are still on the right track in our development with the Aston Martin.’
The ADAC GT Masters will continue on the last weekend of September, when the traditional GT3 racing series will make a guest appearance at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. One week earlier, the racing team from Melle will compete in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup in Monza, Italy.