GT4 Championships

GT Fever Hits The Netherlands – Part One

© ADAC GT Masters

This weekend Dutch fans will get their first chance to the GT fever as the ADAC GT Masters and GT4 Cup will come to Assen for the penultimate rounds of their respective championships.

Currently there are 41 cars registered for the ADAC GT Masters race on the 4.555 meters long TT Circuit in northeastern Netherlands. The regular ADAC GT Masters teams and drivers will be joined by a handful of local drivers and teams.

Reiter Engineering will head to the Dutch track as the Teams Championship leader, 20 points clear of LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler and 21 points clear of Team Abt Sportsline. Johannes and Ferdinand Stuck will try to improve their team’s leading position and close the gap to LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler’s Dino Lunardi and Alexandros Margaritis in the Drivers Championship at the same time.

Both teams will have Dutch drivers behind the wheel of one their cars. Peter Kox will share the #24 Reiter Lamborghini Gallardo LP600+ with Marc A. Hayek, whilst LIQUI MOLY Team Engstler has signed Tom Coronel to race their BMW Alpina B6 GT3 with Florian Spengler and support Lunardi and Margaritis.

Joining the ADAC GT Masters at Assen are the two Faster Racing by DB Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3 that usually race in the FIA GT3 European Championship. Jeroen den Boer, just returned from his FIA GT1 World Championship adventure in China, will share one of the cars with Simon Knap, like in the Blancpain Endurance Series races at Navarra and Spa, with Dutch GT4 Championship leader Ricardo van der Ende sharing the second car with his GT4 co-driver Duncan Huisman.

The other Dutchmen in action in the ADAC GT Masters this weekend are Danny van Dongen and Arjan van der Zwaan in the Prosperia Team Brinkmann Audi R8 LMS, Michael Bleekemolen and Ronald van de Laar in the Bleekemolen Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 and Christiaan Frankenhout in the HEICO Motorsport Mercedes.

Completing the field are drivers like Markus Winkelhock, Dominik Farnbacher, Andreas Zuber, Nicolas Armindo, Christopher Haase who have already raced in top level sportscar and GT series.

The ADAC GT Masters weekend at Assen will also host the penultimate round of the Dutch and European GT4 Cup. Jeroen Bleekemolen is unavailable this weekend due to commitments in the American Le Mans Series, but Tom Coronel bring tons of racing experience as he will make his debut in the championship…in a BMW M3 GT4. He will support Ricardo van der Ende in his fight to win the 2011 HTC Dutch GT4 Championship.

Tickets for the first real GT weekend in The Netherlands will be available at the gate. With a discount coupon, available at the circuit, the ticket price will be EUR 10,00. Without the coupon it will cost EUR 15,00 to access the circuit.

Part Two of the Dutch GT Fever in a month – when the FIA GT3 European Championship and GT4 Cup will be racing at the other Dutch circuit, Zandvoort.