NEWS
FIA GT1 World: Nurburgring Preview
The FIA GT1 World Championship travels to Germany for the sixth round of the 2010 season – the first FIA GT race to be held at the Nurburgring since 2001. On that occasion the race was won by Sumo Power GT Nissan GT-R driver Jamie Campbell-Walter who partnered Mike Jordan to victory in a Lister Storm.
The class of 2010 will compete on the 5.1 km grand prix circuit which adjoins the notorious Nordschleife. Marc Basseng, the All-Inkl.com Lamborghini driver claimed the modern-day lap record for the fearsome 22km circuit earlier this year.
In the last round at Spa-Francorchamps, Lamborghini joined Ford, Nissan and Maserati as Championship Race winners in the inaugural year of FIA GT1 World Championship, courtesy of a hard-fought victory by Reiter’s Ricardo Zonta and Frank Kechele.
The Corvette of Xavier Maassen and Jos Menten won the Qualifying Race and looked set for victory in the main race of the weekend until a puncture put them out of contention. Local interest at the Nurburgring will centre on the six German teams and 11 German drivers.
Vitaphone Maserati currently leads the teams’ standings, with reigning FIA GT Champions Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini holding the lead in the drivers’ title race. The Vitaphone pairing, in the Maserati MC12, are just six points ahead of Thomas Mutsch, the German double race winner now paired with the reigning FIA GT2 Champion Richard Westbrook in the No.5 Matech Competition Ford GT.
The second-highest German team in the rankings is Young Driver AMR. Germany’s Stefan Mucke shares the No.8 Aston Martin DB9 with Denmark’s Christoffer Nygaard, and is looking forward to racing at his home circuit. Phoenix Racing / Carsport are based at the Nurburgring Industrial Estate and Marc Hennerici will team up with Dutch driver Mike Hezemans in the team’s only Corvette at their home race. Hennerici won the very first Qualifying Race alongside Andreas Zuber in Abu Dhabi in April.
The Reiter team travel to the Nurburgring on a high for their home race. Zonta and Kechele will once again be paired in the No.25 while the sister car, the No.25 Reiter Lamborghini will be driven by Germany’s reigning FIA GT3 Champion Christopher Haase and Holland’s Peter Kox. They proved they had the pace to win in France and Belgium but were denied by mechanical problems.
The second pair of Maserati MC12 cars are also run by a German team, Triple H Team Hegersport. Podium success in France and Belgium for team owner and driver Altfrid Heger has followed a lot of hard work by the team, with Heger being joined on the podium in Belgium by fellow German Alex Muller, who will race with him for their home race.
Basseng races with fellow German Thomas Jager in the No.37 All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Lamborghini Murcielago, while the third German driver in this team is Dominik Schwager, who races with Dutch-based Italian Nicky Pastorelli in the No.38 Lamborghini.
There will also be a couple of new faces on the GT1 grid in Germany. Nicolas Prost, son of four-times F1 world champion Alain Prost, joins the Matech Competition team alongside Neel Jani. French driver Yann Clairay partners Frederic Makowiecki in the Hexis Aston Martin. The Nissan teams, Sumo Power GT and Swiss Racing Team, having been enjoying success. Both Sumo Power Nissan GT-Rs have been on the podium this season, with Warren Hughes and Jamie Campell-Walter taking the Championship Race honours at Silverstone in May.
The Marc VDS Racing Team Ford GTs have been steadily improving during the first half of the season, with Maxime Martin and Bas Leinders narrowly missing a podium finish at Paul Ricard in July. With a full support programme provided by the ADAC GT Masters, the GT4 European Cup, HTC Dutch GT4 Championship, ADAC Formel Masters and the ATS Formel 3 Cup, there is three days of racing action for the German fans to enjoy.
