Nordschleife, Le Mans and the Norisring – PROsport Classic is on the road in 2023 at some of the world’s most famous tracks
PROsport Classic will continue to play a weighty part in PROsport Racing’s annual planning in 2023. The reconstruction and subsequent sporting use of classic sports and racing cars is the focus of the activities of the second mainstay of the team from Wiesemscheid.
At the two DTM Classic events at the Norisring and the Lausitzring, which are contested by the touring car legends, the team from Wiesemscheid is planning to field no less than two Volvo 240 Turbo cars. Both in the DTM and in the European Touring Car Championship, the “Swedish coal boxes” caused quite a stir. None other than 1986 DTM champion Kurt Thiim will be driving one of the cars. Since last year, the legendary Dane has also been working as a consultant for PROsport Classic. The second car will be individually manned, with former DTM drivers as well as young up-and-coming drivers on the team’s roster.
Between Thiim and team boss Christoph Esser lies a long collaboration and friendship. “Kurt was my teammate at Kissling Motorsport in the mid-1980s and we had a really awesome time here at the Nordschleife,” says team boss Esser, fondly recalling their time together with the popular Dane. After PROsport Racing was founded in 2006, Thiim spent the first few years as an advisor to the newly founded team. In the process, he also occasionally took the wheel of cars from the Wiesemscheid-based racing team in the VLN. “At Nicki Thiim’s first race on the Nordschleife, he shared the cockpit with him. Back then, the two of them won the Seat Leon Supercopa Cup class outright,” adds Chris Esser with a smile.
Should the ADAC implement the plan and hold an event with cars from the DRM era as part of the DTM Classic, PROsport Classic will also compete. In this case, the racing team will bring an Opel Kadett from Group 4 to the start, with which team boss Chris Esser already competed in Division 2 of the legendary German Racing Championship in the early 1980s.
PROsport Classic will also be represented at one of the most famous and spectacular historic motorsport events. At the Le Mans Classic, the racing team will support the entry of Guido Dumarey, who also competes for PROsport Racing on the Nordschleife. The Le Mans Classic is, besides the world-famous 24-hour race, the only race in the year that uses the complete 13.626-kilometer race track in France.
In addition, the various historic events at the Nürburgring are also on PROsport Classic’s schedule. This includes, among others, the 24h Classic as part of the 24-hour race or the historic ADAC 1,000-kilometer race in September. In 2021, team boss Esser and Nico Verdonck finished second overall in the 24h Classic with the Group 4 Opel Kadett. The duo left many significantly more powerful Porsches behind.
