A famous outfit at a famous racetrack as BWT Mücke Motorsport raced at the Nürburgring last weekend. The circuit in the Eifel hosted the second race weekend of the 2020 ADAC GT Masters season. There was a high-calibre field of entries with 36 super sports cars and right in the thick of it, the two BWT Audi R8 LMS supercars from BWT Mücke Motorsport. Car #25 was driven by the two rookies Igor Walilko and Mike Beckhusen while Stefan Mücke and Ricardo Feller tackled the races in the #26.
The weekend’s highlights
Walilko and Beckhusen make good progress: The learning curve of the two rookies from BWT Mücke Motorsport shows that they are clearly making good progress. They finished 24th in the first practice session with all 36 super sports cars and were ranked tenth in the next session, involving only Juniors and Trophy drivers. Second practice, again with the entire field, showed just how close the ADAC GT Masters has become in the 2020 season, as 28 cars were covered by one second, including the BWT Audi R8 LMS #25 which came 25th.
Walilko and Beckhusen started Saturday’s race from grid slot 28. They gained ground in the course of the race and finished 22nd, less than five seconds adrift of the points. After another hard-fought qualifying on Sunday morning, they started Race 2 from 33rd place. Beckhusen and Walilko worked their way forwards once again and finished 28th.
Feller and Mücke confirm their pace: The race weekend at the Nürburgring began by giving the pairing in the BWT Audi R8 LMS #26 the sense that they had achieved some small measure of success. Feller and Mücke confirmed their pace from the Lausitzring with twelfth place in first practice, a mere half-a-second down on the leaders. In FP2, they were just two tenths slower but ended up another ten places down the field, proving once again just how highly competitive the field in the ADAC GT Masters has become.
They had high hopes of achieving a points-scoring finish from 18th on the grid, but racing luck was not on their side, and so, Mücke and Feller had to settle for 25th place. After a tricky qualifying session, Mücke started Race 2 from grid slot 31 on Sunday. However, he was pushed by a fellow competitor on the first lap of the race and spun off into the gravel. He was unable to free the BWT Audi R8 LMS #26 from the gravel trap, and the tow truck’s arrival signalled the end of his race. The stewards handed a drive-through penalty to the driver making the contact.
After so much bad luck, the team must look to the future and the third round of the 2020 ADAC GT Masters season. BWT Mücke Motorsport have always done well at the Hockenheimring in the past, and the famous Berlin-based outfit will be back there at the former Formula 1 racing track from 18th – 20th September.
Comments about the weekend
Stefan Mücke (BWT Audi R8 LMS #26): “Unfortunately, we had a weekend to forget. Ricardo had a few problems changing gear in the first race, which cost us several positions while I was hit by another competitor on the very first lap on Sunday and our race was over. We were not happy with our performance. We’ll do another round of testing and hope we can be better placed for the Hockenheimring. We still have some homework to do, even though we’ve improved the car already in certain areas.”
Ricardo Feller (BWT Audi R8 LMS #26): “Unfortunately, that wasn’t a good weekend for us, so I’m going to quickly draw a line under it and look ahead to the next race. We know what areas we must work on in order to be in a position to fight up front at Hockenheim. We definitely have the potential.”
Igor Walilko (BWT Audi R8 LMS #25): “Unfortunately, the weekend was tough-going for both cars. We struggled to get the maximum out of qualifying, which is why we started both races from way down the field. I moved up eight positions during my stint in the first race and we finished 22nd. Sunday’s race was a bit trickier, but we learned a lot from it. The standard in the series is very high, so we must improve as drivers and get more out of the cars. We will use the interim period to come back stronger at the Hockenheimring.”
Mike Beckhusen (BWT Audi R8 LMS #25): “We don’t yet know why we were down on pace a little on Sunday compared to the other Audis. I tried to nurse the tyres during my stint, because I couldn’t attack the car in front of me. We stopped late and that tactic enabled us to gain four places. Unfortunately, we are not where we want to be, despite the hard work being put in by the whole team.”
Michael Weiss (Technical Manager): “The drivers were pleased with the car all weekend. We found a good balance in setup. Results in Q1 made us feel hopeful. Unfortunately, the race outcomes were not as expected. We need to investigate why our hard work is not reflected in the rankings. We hope that more test drives will pinpoint the cause or causes so that we will have a car that is both well-balanced and fast for Hockenheim.”
Peter Mücke (Team Principal): “The weekend didn’t go well for us, unfortunately. We had a few technical problems with car #26. Our Junior car performed solidly. The ADAC GT Masters has so many works drivers competing that Juniors find it difficult to assert themselves at the front of the field, but still, we’re on the right track. Unfortunately, qualifying on Sunday morning did not go as planned. The early exit for #26 was, of course, a particularly bitter blow, but car #25 made the best of the situation. We hope things go better for us at the Hockenheimring.”
Source. BWT Mücke Motorsport/Photo. Gruppe C Photography
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