The 2018 ADAC GT Masters’ field of drivers is absolutely fabulous, featuring world champions, Le Mans winners, an ex-F1 driver, DTM title winners, ALMS title holders and seven former champions. The Super Sports Car League presented this season’s new entrants at the Media Day during official pre-season testing in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. For the first time, there will be eight different makes in the field in 2018 with Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and now Honda. The ADAC GT Masters will stage its opening race of the season on the weekend of 13th – 15th April at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.
Now in its twelfth season, the ADAC GT Masters will feature a varied, top-class line-up with 23 teams and 36 cars from eight manufacturers, including newcomers Honda and Ferrari, who are back in the ADAC GT Masters: “I’m confident that 2018 will produce another extremely exciting ADAC GT Masters season,” says ADAC Sports President Hermann Tomczyk. “The ADAC GT Masters continues to evolve from year to year, once again reaffirming its reputation as one of the world’s strongest GT3 series.”
ADAC Motorsport Director Thomas Voss is also looking forward to this season’s 14 Super Sports Car League races: “We are very pleased that the ADAC GT Masters has attracted such enormous interest. Honda are new to the series, and Ferrari are back, which is a very positive development. The return of famous racing teams such as Phoenix Racing and Team Rosberg shows the importance of the ADAC GT Masters.”
Famous names in line-up
A number of internationally famous drivers will debut in this year’s ADAC GT Masters. For example, two-time WEC World Champion and Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard (36, DEU) will compete for Team KÜS Team75 Bernhard for the first time, sharing a 911 GT3 with works Porsche partner Kévin Estre (29, F). Lucas Luhr (38, DEU), another former world champion, also joins the Super Sports Car League line-up for the first time. The winner of the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship title, overall winner of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and two-time winner of the ADAC Zurich 24-hour race will also drive a 911 for new outfit IronForce by RING POLICE, who have the backing of YouTube star JP Kraemer.
Timo Scheider (39, DEU, BMW Team Schnitzer) is also new to the ADAC GT Masters. The 2008/2009 DTM title holder will drive a BMW M6 GT3. DTM driver Jamie Green (35, GB) also plans to make a number of guest appearances. The Audi driver will drive the R8 LMS for BWT Mücke Motorsport’s regular driver Stefan Mücke (36, DEU) when he has other commitments in the FIA WEC sports car world championship. Four more former DTM drivers – Markus Winkelhock (37, DEU, BWT Mücke Motorsport), Frank Stippler (42, DEU, Team ISR), Pierre Kaffer (41, DEU, EFP by TECE) and Rahel Frey (32, DEU, CH, YACO Racing) – will also drive an Audi R8 LMS.
No less than seven former ADAC GT Masters champions will be in this season’s 2018 line-up, many of them with different teams. Two-time title winner Sebastian Asch (31, DEU) is back with Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil, driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3. Ex-DTM driver and 2012 champion Maximilian Götz (32, DEU, HTP Motorsport) will also drive ‘the star’ while the 2015 title winner, Luca Ludwig (29, DEU, HB Racing), will have his first race outing in the Ferrari 488 GT3.
Three former title winners will compete in the Audi R8 LMS. Christopher Haase (30, DEU), has switched to BWT Mücke Motorsport and Kelvin van der Linde (21, ZA) to Montaplast by Land-Motorsport where he partners Christopher Mies (28, DEU). Daniel Keilwitz (28, DEU) will race the championship-winning car of 2017, the Corvette C7 GT3-R.
Calendar for the 2018 ADAC GT Masters
13/04/18 – 15/04/18 Motorsport Arena Oschersleben
27/04/18 – 29/04/18 Autodrom Most (CZ)
08/06/18 – 10/06/18 Red Bull Ring (AUT)
03/08/18 – 05/08/18 Nürburgring
17/08/18 – 19/08/18 Circuit Zandvoort (NL)
07/09/18 – 09/09/18 Sachsenring
21/09/18 – 23/09/18 Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg
Source. ADAC GT Masters/Photo. ADAC Motorsport
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