Expectations were high for the duo of Wirth and Frentzen in the #27 Callaway Competition Corvette going into the fourth race weekend of the 2012 ADAC GT Masters season at the Nrburgring Truck Grand Prix. Wirth, having enjoyed four victories over the past three years of competition on the famed circuit, was favored to visit the podium this weekend with his co-driver, former Formula 1 stand-out Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Sadly, the typically temperamental weather at the Nrburgring took its toll making this a weekend to be forgotten.
On Friday the 13th of July during qualifying for Race #1 it became quickly evident that the run of bad luck that had been plaguing Wirth and Frentzen was still alive, and was back with a vengeance. In the final minute of Wirths qualifying run he went off track making it impossible for Frentzen to put in a qualifying time for Race #2.
Prior to running off track however, Wirth managed to qualify in 8th place for Saturdays race. Later, this qualifying run would prove to be the bright spot of their weekend.
Starting from 8th on Saturday, Wirth was able to hold his own throughout the first half of the race, never dropping out of the top 10. With a drying track, the team opted for slicks at the driver-change, but the strategy did not to pay off as Frentzen lost grip and slid into the gravel, dashing their hopes of a good result. The #27 crossed the finish line in 37th place in Race #1.
Sundays race was declared a wet race, and was a real challenge with the #27 having to start from the back of a 40 car grid. Despite the rain and their dampened spirits, the duo proved to their fans that theyre real pros, always ready for the realities racing brings - they challenged hard, fought their way through the field, and should be proud to have accomplished a finishing place of 21st.
Commenting on a weekend that he really didnt want to talk about, Wirth said; I was really hoping that our bad luck had run out for this weekendwe wanted the Nrburgring to be the turning point of our season, but that just wasnt to be. Weve had some bad luck, and we have a lot of work ahead of us on a wet track. Unfortunately weve had no chance to test the car in the wet this year, so this was a really hard way to learn. I hope now that our run of bad luck is finally over, and look forward to our race next month at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
The ADAC GT Masters heads to the Red Bull Ring in Austria August 1012, 2012
