Walkenhorst Motorsport has completed its preparations for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring during the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers.
Walkenhorst Motorsport competed in the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers with three Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and one GT4. For the Melle-based team, this was the final preparation for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in June. The Eifel weather presented challenges for the Aston Martin team, but there were also positive aspects after the two four-hour races.
‘Unfortunately, our #34 Pro car had a weekend to forget with two retirements – but we are optimistic that we were able to achieve two top results with the car in the preparatory races in the NLS. We were able to sort out a lot of issues, but we still have some homework to do,’ said team founder Henry Walkenhorst.
Christian Krognes, David Pittard and Mattia Drudi took the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with start number #34. Walkenhorst Motorsport withdrew the car early in Saturday’s race for safety reasons, as the team did not want to take any unnecessary risks due to the extreme weather conditions and the upcoming programme in the coming weeks. On Sunday, the car was involved in an incident with two competitors on the opening lap, forcing the top car to pit early with a puncture.
Oliver Söderström drove a GT3 car on the Nordschleife for the first time in the SP9 Pro-Am car. The Swede, who usually competes for Walkenhorst Motorsport in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, impressed with fast lap times right from the start. His partner, the experienced Norwegian Anders Buchardt, also put in a strong performance on the Nordschleife. The duo finished Sunday’s race in third place in their class.
Henry Walkenhorst and Christian Bollrath drove their Aston Martin in the SP9 Am class. On Saturday, they retired before the start of the race due to a technical problem. In the second race on Sunday, however, the experienced drivers put in a flawless performance and won their sub-class.
In the GT4 class, Aris Balanian, Jean-Christophe David and Josh Hansen took to the grid in the Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo. In both races, the trio finished fourth in the class for homologated GT4 cars. However, the main focus of the race weekend was for the drivers to gain important race kilometres in the new Aston Martin Vantage GT4, which is still unknown to everyone.
“The track and weather conditions on Saturday were very borderline overall, which is why we decided to retire our GT3 cars early for safety reasons. We didn’t want to risk an accident, especially with our tight race schedule, and focused primarily on testing. A big shout-out to Oliver Söderström in our Pro-Am car, who delivered some very fast lap times on his GT3 debut on the Nordschleife! And Anders Buchardt also improved significantly over the course of the race weekend as he became more and more familiar with the GT3. I am also very satisfied with our GT4 crew. For our GT4 drivers, these were their first real race kilometres with the new Vantage GT4 Evo, and everyone stuck perfectly to the agreed strategy, even under the most difficult conditions. We racked up a lot of important race kilometres ahead of the 24-hour race in June and were also able to generate important data and insights that will be very helpful in our set-up work for the GT4 Evo,” said Managing Director Jörg Breuer.