Walkenhorst Motorsport learnt a lot at the ADAC 24h Qualifiers in preparation for the 24h race at the Nürburgring.
Walkenhorst Motorsport celebrated a premiere at the ADAC 24h Qualifiers at the Nürburgring. The team from Melle entered three Aston Martin Vantage GT3s and celebrated its race debut on the Nordschleife with the brand-new GT3 car. The team also fielded a BMW M4 GT4 and a Hyundai i30 N.
“The ADAC 24h Qualifiers were a hugely important race weekend for us. We have already tested with the Aston Martin on the Nordschleife, but you learn a lot more under racing conditions,” says Jörg Breuer, Managing Director Walkenhorst Motorsport.
The top car with starting number #34 was driven by Aston Martin factory drivers David Pittard and Nicki Thiim as well as Nordschleife experts Christian Krognes and Kuba Giermaziak. The car had to make a repair stop on Saturday after contact with the barrier, but resumed the race to collect further data. David Pittard finished tenth on the grid in the TOP qualifying session for the second race on Sunday morning – in an extremely tight field of participants, Pittard was only around 2.6 seconds off the lead on the 25-kilometre race track! In the race, the car finished 13th after a faultless performance.
Patrick Assenheimer, Chandler Bull, Benjamin Mazatis and Mike David Ortmann started the race in car number #35. The quartet lost a lot of time in the early stages of Saturday’s race due to a puncture. Thanks to a race to catch up, the car still managed to finish fifth in the SP9 Pro-Am class. In Sunday’s race, the car retired prematurely after an accident.
In car number #36, the experienced GT3 drivers Stefan Aust, Christian Bollrath and Anders Buchardt started the race together with team founder Henry Walkenhorst. Thanks to a flawless and consistent driving style, the four drivers finished sixth in the SP9 Pro-Am class in both races.
The race weekend was nerve-wracking for the Walkenhorst Motorsport GT4 team. Aris Balanian, Bennet Ehrl and Tobias Wahl drove a BMW M4 GT4 for WMS. However, after a serious accident in qualifying on Saturday, the trio were unable to contest the first race. In a strong team effort, mechanics transported the second M4 GT4 of the team from Melle to the Nürburgring and prepared it for the race at short notice. In the four-hour race on Sunday, the drivers were in second place with the BMW until the last lap of the race, before a technical defect slowed the car down and caused it to drop back to sixth place.
Micah Stanley, Jean-Christophe David and Joseph Warhurst lined up in the Hyundai i30 N in the VT2 FWD class. In Saturday’s race, the three drivers drove the production-based compact car to a strong fourth place in the class. On Sunday, the drivers drove the #466 car to fifth place after a tyre failure meant a major loss of time.
“We were able to collect a huge amount of data at the ADAC 24h Qualifiers. We are very pleased that we are not far away from the front runners in an extremely tight field. We will now use the data we have collected to refine the set-up of the cars for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring and launch our attack for a top result there,” says Niclas Königbauer, Managing Director of Walkenhorst Motorsport.
This year’s edition of the legendary endurance race in the Eifel will take place from 30 May to 2 June. On the first weekend in May, Walkenhorst Motorsport will collect more kilometres on the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring Endurance Series in order to be well prepared for the start of Germany’s biggest car race.
Foto-Credits: Swoosh Motorsport Communications