50 Jahre Motorsport, 20 Jahre PROsport Racing – in Wiesemscheid läuft die Planung für die Saison 2024 auf Hochtouren. Das Team wird erneut ein breitgefächertes Programm anbieten.
A special anniversary season lies ahead for PROsport Racing and team owner Chris Esser. While the racing team from Wiesemscheid will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, Chris Esser is even celebrating 50 years of motorsport! After his racing career, Esser built his own racing team, PROsport Racing. Since then, the racing team has been able to win national and international titles in GT3 and GT4 racing as well as in various endurance series.
Esser looks back on the 2023 season with satisfaction. Maxime Dumarey won the title in the SP9 Pro-Am class of the Nürburgring Endurance Series in the team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3. In addition, Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse became the first drivers in the history of ADAC GT4 Germany to defend their title.
The first race of 2024 will take place in the United Arab Emirates in January. PROsport Racing will take part in the popular endurance race with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.
As usual, the racing team will also complete an extensive racing program on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. In the Nürburgring Endurance Series and the 24-hour race, the racing team will be competing with two GT3 and GT4 cars from Aston Martin. The goal is for a GT3 car to start with a purely pro crew up to and including the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. The start with the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup is also still secured.
PROsport Racing is also planning an extensive program for GT4 racing next year. In the ADAC GT4 Germany, the racing team offers driver positions for interested drivers. The racing team also offers driver positions for the GT4 European Series, in which the team only made a guest appearance in Monza in 2023, but has already won three titles in the past. “We have a lot of customer inquiries for both GT4 racing series, which of course makes us very happy!” said Esser, beaming with joy.
To prepare for the GT4 season in the ADAC GT4 Germany and the GT4 European Series, the team will compete in the GT4 Winter Series. “We have already noticed this year how good the preparation is in the Winter Series,” explains Chris Esser. “The new GT4 Winter Series, which is run under identical conditions as other GT4 series, allows us to prepare even better for the coming year. The racing calendar also offers this very well, with three double events each week apart. At the races we will try out the possible drivers for the 2024 season and test them out in different constellations in order to go into the summer season as best prepared as possible. Conversely, this also means that every driver who wants to start in GT4 racing with PROsport Racing in 2024 must compete in at least one race weekend in the Winter Series so that we can get an impression of the driver and set up the team in the best possible way. As a special highlight, we can also announce that each of our GT4 drivers will have the opportunity to test the GT3 car with us at the end of the year. This is how we want to prepare for a possible GT3 program in 2025.”
There is also an exciting year ahead of PROsport Classic in 2024. The classic department of the team from Wiesemscheid has registered three vehicles in the “Touring Car Golden Era” racing series founded in 2023, which already has more than 100 entries for the coming racing year! The team has entered two Volvo 240 Turbos and an Opel Kadett Group 4, which team owner Esser drove in the DRM in the late 1970s. However, it cannot be ruled out that other vehicles will also be used in the racing series. The 1986 DTM champion Kurt Thiim was named as one of the team’s drivers. In addition to the program in the historic touring car series, the team’s schedule also includes starts at various historic races at the Nürburgring – for example at the 24h Classic as part of the supporting program of the 24h race.
In the summer of 2023, the youngest component of PROsport Racing was founded: PROsport SimRacing. The SimRacing team, led by Sascha Rubel, has already achieved success in the past few weeks and months. The title in the GT4 class was won in the DMSB SimRacing Championship Endurance Championship. The team has also celebrated race victories in other championships, such as the SRC GT3 World Tour. “Much to our delight, the newly founded SimRacing team is developing into a very competitive team and we have already been able to catch up with the established top teams! This makes us very happy. At the end of the year, the three fastest SimRacing drivers will be able to test a GT4 car in a shootout for us free of charge! And who knows, maybe one of our SimRacing drivers will switch to real motorsport at some point and compete in a PROsport Racing vehicle,” concluded Esser.
