PROsport Racing travels to the Lausitzring for the fourth race weekend of the ADAC GT4 Germany as championship leader. But team boss Christoph Esser is very worried about the vehicle classification.
Just two weeks after the race weekend at the Nürburgring, the ADAC GT4 Germany continues at the DEKRA Lausitzring. The track in Brandenburg will host the fourth race weekend of the strongly contested German GT4 racing series. Following their victory at the Nürburgring, reigning champions Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse travel to the former ChampCar circuit near Dresden as championship leaders.
In addition to last year’s title winners, the racing team, which also currently leads the team standings, is fielding three other Aston Martin Vantage GT4s. Célia Martin and Fabienne Wohlwend, Leon Erger and Raphael Rennhofer, and Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Damon Surzyshyn drive the other British sports coupes.
But team boss Christoph Esser is looking ahead to the event on the infield course of the oval with concern. The reason for the concern is the vehicle classification of the GT4 rights holder SRO. “Actually, the BoP is designed to allow any car to win if it is driven by strong drivers,” explains Esser. “But I have the feeling that the vehicle classification is being instrumentalized more and more to make the championships as tight as possible and to crown the champion only in the last race, which is actually not the task of the BoP at all.”
The experienced team boss continues: “We noticed it at Zandvoort, where we had no chance of fighting for podium places over the race distance under our own steam. The Aston Martin simply lacked the necessary basic speed and second-class drivers on other makes overtook us. Then for the last event at the Nürburgring, the BMWs were again completely slowed down, so they had hardly any chance to score any points at all.”
“If you look at the BoP for the Lausitzring, you can already predict the finish with great probability. The SRO now has “almost” a worldwide monopoly with regard to the BoP in GT racing and monopolists should be subject to a control body. The organizers are too happy to hide behind their service provider and always emphasize that they have no influence on the classification. I think it is in the organizers’ interest to have an exciting championship. But when that is artificially created, motorsport degenerates into an embarrassing business model.
I’m sure it will be another brand’s turn to be champion this season,” Esser concludes. “In the DTM and the ADAC GT Masters, there is also the good rule adjustment that the BoP can also be adjusted during the race weekends so that things are as fair as possible. We in GT4 also had the opportunity to do this at the Nürburgring. Incomprehensibly, only one other team besides PROsport Racing voted in favor, so the rule was not adjusted.”
The two one-hour races of the ADAC GT4 Germany will be recorded on Saturday and Sunday at 3:15 p.m. each. FreeTV station Sport1 will broadcast both races live.
