The DTM series traveled to the Norisring in Germany for the fourth race weekend of the year. The Norisring is as close as an oval circuit as any track that DTM visits, with sports car racing taking place there since the Seventies. Unfortunately, it was a pretty miserable race weekend for BMW.
Neither of the Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO entries performed well in qualifying, and things got much worse in the first race. Starting from the back, Marco Wittmann had contact with another car that led to a tire puncture and retirement from the race.
Kelvin van der Linde had a DNF from an accident in race one.
Later on in the same race, Kelvin van der Linde was t-boned by a Lamborghini that seemed to have lost his brakes. The crash caused significant damage to both cars and the race had to be suspended for nearly an hour to repair the barriers. Kelvin van der Linde was okay but had significant enough bruising from the wreck that he was checked over in the hospital, and Lamborghini driver Maximilian Paul suffered a possible fracture in his lower leg.
With the injury to himself and crash damage to his car from the first race, van der Linde did not compete in the second race. Marco Wittmann (shown in top photo) once again started the second race from the back, in 18th, and moved up eight spots to finish tenth in changing track conditions. Both races at the Norisring were won by Aston Martin Racing driver Nicki Thim.
Schubert Motorsport Team Principal Torsten Schubert didn’t think the BMWs had the pace to really compete at the Norisring. “On pure pace we could not have moved further forward, as the conditions are simply not there at the moment,” he said. “We would have liked to show more performance here, but that was apparently not possible. It was clear to see that we can follow, but we cannot attack at all. Now we are looking ahead and want to try to score more points again at Oschersleben. Kelvin is doing reasonably well. He is still in pain, but hopefully he will be fit again soon.”
Michael Schrey won both M2 Cup races.
The BMW M2 Cup held its second race weekend as a support series for the DTM. Michael Schrey, who won both races in the opening round at the Lausitzring, also won both races from pole position at the Norisring. BMW works driver Jens Klingman was also on hand at the Norisring to help with coaching for M2 Cup drivers.
The next DTM race weekend is at Oschersleben on the weekend of July 23rd-26th. That will be a home race for Schubert Motorsport, which has their race shop next to the track.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Gruppe C Photography]
