First two competitive race appearances of 2024 for ROWE RACING on the Nürburgring Nordschleife
St. Ingbert, 9th April 2024 – After the fantastic victory at the season-opener in the GT World Challenge Europe at Le Castellet last weekend, ROWE RACING is heading into the first two races of 2024 on the Nordschleife with plenty of momentum. Featuring two races this coming weekend (13th/14th April), the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers are an important part of the preparations for the ADAC 24h Nürburgring on the first weekend in June. Having claimed second place there in 2021 and 2023, the team from St. Ingbert is aiming to again be involved in the battle for a second overall win since 2020.
As is usually the case on the Nordschleife, ROWE RACING will be competing with two BMW M4 GT3s at the ADAC 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers. Six BMW M works drivers will be sharing driving duties in the cockpit. Just one driver will be missing from the team that will race in the “Eifel Marathon” as Dutchman Robin Frijns will be competing in the Formula E races in Misano that are taking place at the same time.
The second newcomer at the BMW M Motorsport and ROWE RACING will be celebrating his competitive debut on the Nordschleife in the BMW M4 GT3. Swiss driver Raffaele Marciello will be sharing the cockpit of the #98 BMW M4 GT3 with two‑time German DTM champion Marco Wittmann and Belgium’s Maxime Martin, who secured second place in the car in 2023. Their driving colleagues that year, Sheldon van der Linde from South Africa and Dries Vanthoor from Belgium, will be racing in the team’s #99 car at the weekend with Brazilian driver Augusto Farfus. “Gustl” has tasted victory already at Le Castellet.
The first task of the Eifel race weekend for the St. Ingbert team will be a two-hour qualifying session from 10:00 to 12:00 on Saturday morning (13th April) ahead of the first of the two four‑hour races. The event on the 25.378‑kilometre combination of Nordschleife and Grand Prix track is scheduled to start at 17:30, with racing continuing into evening twilight. The action continues at 08:15 on Sunday morning (14th April). This 90‑minute qualifying session will be followed by a Top Qualifying session from 10.40 to 11.40 with the best teams battling it out to secure the front‑row spots and get a taste of this special time‑trial mode for the “Eifel Marathon”. The second race then starts at 13:00.
Hans-Peter Naundorf, Team Principal ROWE RACING: “After making such a fantastic start to the season at Le Castellet, we would really like to carry on in that vein next weekend. We do not view the ADAC 24h Qualifiers simply as preparation for the big race in early June. We are not aiming to just use the weekend to test and slowly get up to speed. We want to go racing, put the pedal to the metal and fight for podium places as always. We are in a good position with our driver line‑up, as five of the six BMW M works drivers competing at the weekend already have years of experience with the team and our processes. As the schedule features two qualifying sessions, Top Qualifying and the two races, we will also have plenty of opportunities to give Raffaele Marciello as many kilometres as possible on the Nordschleife in the BMW M4 GT3. The other drivers will help to integrate him into the team. We want to understand his feedback and find out how we can make his work in the cockpit as comfortable as possible. With regard to the cars, we will be focusing on exhaustive testing of the three new tyre compounds.”
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