BMW teams were in action in the opening rounds of the ADAC GT Masters series at Hockenheim, as well as the 24H Series 12-hour race at Monza this past weekend, and there were BMWs on the podium in both series.
The ADAC GT Masters held their opening rounds at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany, with a pair of one-hour races. There are two teams racing the M4 GT3 in the series. Longtime BMW team Schubert Motorsport had the #20 car entered for Ben Green and Eduardo Coseteng, and new BMW team FK Performance Motorsport entered their #10 car for Kim Luis Schramm and Igor Jakob Walilko. The pair of BMWs were a bit off the pace in qualifying, with the FK Performance car in sixth and the Schubert car in eighth for the first race. In qualifying for the second race, the Schubert car qualified in sixth and the FK Performance car in eighth.
In race one, Eduardo Coseteng started the race in the #20 Schubert M4 GT3 and moved up to fifth place by the first pit stop. Ben Green took over and put in a strong drive to finish second behind the winning Huber Racing Porsche. “Big compliments to Eduardo, he showed a strong debut,” said Green after the race. “In the final sprint I used the full power of our BMW M4 GT3 and was able to use the advantage after the corners. I am very happy with the result. Second place is a great start to the season for the team.” The FK Performance team also had a strong race, finishing fourth.
The Schubert team also put in a strong performance in race two, finishing in fourth, with the win going to the Team Joos by RACEMotion Porsche and Mercedes-AMG cars in second and third. The FK Performance team finished eighth in the second race.
The 24H Series Powered by Hankook held a 12-hour race at the Monza circuit in Italy, and the BMW Team Italia Ceccato Racing team was a contender for the overall win for much of the race in their #15 M4 GT3 driven by Leonardo Sanchez, Atila Abreu, and William Thomas Freire. After qualifying in fourth overall and second in the Am class, the car was in the top five for most of the twelve hours of racing, which was split into six hours on Saturday and six on Sunday. At the end of the first six hours, the team was in third overall and first in Am, but dropped back to fourth overall and second in the Am class by the end of the race. The Am class was won by the CP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.
Team ACP – Tangerine Associates also had a good result with their F82-generation M4 GT4 driven by Steve Weber, Ken Goldberg, and Catesby Jones. They finished second in the GT4 class behind the winning Atlas BX Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4.
The ADAC GT Masters will hold their next two rounds at the Norisring in Germany on the weekend of June 7th-9th, while the 24H Series will hold their next race at Estoril in Portugal n the same weekend. —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy ADAC Motorsport/Gruppe C Photography, 24H Series]
