Strong squad of ADAC GT Masters drivers at Nurburgring for ADAC Zurich 24 Hour race
ADAC GT Masters drivers and teams in battle for victory at the Nürburgring
Around 20 ADAC GT Masters drivers will compete in the endurance classic
ADAC GT Masters have an excellent track record in the 24-hours of Nürburgring
Some 20 drivers and three teams from the ADAC GT Masters will go through hell - the Green Hell - at the weekend. Many drivers from the Super Sports Car League will be fighting for the win in the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race at the Nürburgring this weekend in the run-up to the second ADAC GT Masters race meeting of the season in Austria at the Red Bull Ring (June 5th-7th). Chances are good that drivers from the ADAC GT Masters will finish on top in the marathon race at the Nordschleife, since nine out of ten race winners in the previous three years were also regular competitors in the Super Sports Car League. The ADAC Zurich 24-Hour race at the Nürburgring starts on Saturday, May 16th at 4 pm. Three teams from the ADAC GT Masters aim to achieve victory overall at the weekend. Team Zakspeed will field a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, driven by ADAC GT Masters duo Luca Ludwig/Sebastian Asch, who will be aided by DTM driver Christian Vietoris and WTCC ace Tom Coronel. Zakspeed are one of the most successful outfits in the Eifel classic. The team led by Peter Zakowski has already secured three victories overall in the event which has been held since 1970. Bentley Team HTP, the winners of the season opener, have entered a Bentley Continental with ADAC GT Masters race regular Clemens Schmid, who is joined by Marco Seefried, Christopher Brück and Harold Primat. BMW Sports Trophy team Schubert intend to field two BMW Z4 GT3s and use works support in order to achieve their first victory on the Nürburgring's Nordschleife. ADAC GT Masters trio Claudia Hürtgen, Dominik Baumann and Jens Klingmann will race one of the two Z4s along with former DTM champion Martin Tomczyk. No less than four drivers from the ADAC GT Masters will line up at the Nürburgring in the latest versions of the Audi R8. Marc Basseng, Edward Sandström, Nicki Thiim and Christer Jöns will each be in one of four second generation R8s which will also contest the ADAC GT Masters next year. Nissan drivers Florian Strauss and Marc Gassner are team-mates both in the ADAC GT Masters and at the Nürburgring. The winners of the Nissan GT Academy driver discovery/development programme will race the Nissan GT-R of former ADAC GT Masters team, Schulze Motorsport. Andreas Simonsen will tackle the 24 hour race in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. His ADAC GT Masters team-mate Hari Proczyk, however, will not be in the gullwing but in a Porsche 911, as will Christian Engelhart. Patrick Assenheimer will have considerably less horsepower on tap at the Nürburgring than in the Super Sports Car League. Assenheimer is swapping the 530-bhp Callaway Corvette for a virtually standard Mercedes-Benz C-Class in the battle for a class victory. Daniel Keilwitz will not be in the Corvette that he normally drives either at the Nürburgring. The 2013 ADAC GT Masters champion will have his first outing in a privately-entered BMW Z4 belonging to Team Walkenhorst. SPORT1, who are the live TV partners of the ADAC GT Masters, will broadcast live reports from the 24-hour race as a series of segments. SPORT1 will feature 13 hours in all of live transmissions from the Nürburgring between Thursday and Saturday.
