ROWE RACING celebrates the conclusion of a successful season at Barcelona with remarkable sporting achievements
St. Ingbert, 1st October 2023 – ROWE RACING rounded off its best season in team history with two more trophies. After a splendid year with four wins and four additional podium finishes in nine races across two programmes, the team from St. Ingbert can now celebrate their first-ever second places in the overall standings of the Endurance Cup for both teams and drivers in the GT World Challenge Europe. The highlights of the year for ROWE RACING and BMW M Motorsport were the team’s third triumph at the 24 Hours of Spa, a double victory at the GTWC season opener at Monza and another second place at the 24h Nürburgring in the “Green Hell”.
In the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, ROWE RACING excelled in 2023 like never before. The team’s Monza victory marked its first win in the most competitive GT3 series in Europe outside Spa, and it was 1-2, along with securing pole position. They also achieved third place at Le Castellet and the hat‑trick at Spa. In only one of the five races did the two BMW M4 GT3 cars from the team narrowly miss the top ten.
Thus, ROWE RACING still had a small chance at the overall title in the Endurance Cup even in the last race at Barcelona, and they fought passionately for it. However, after initially promising qualifying results, Spa winners Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly had to settle for 13th place on the start grid. This setback proved too much for the trio in the race, and they couldn’t challenge Mercedes trio Timur Boguslavsky, Jules Gounon and Raffaele Marciello for the successful title defense. While their competitors secured their title with a fifth-place finish in the race, ROWE RACING’s #98 BMW M4 GT3 finished in tenth place, earning them points.
In the final standings, ROWE RACING ranked second among teams with 85 points, behind the French team Akkodis ASP (108 points). BMW M works drivers Philipp Eng, Marco Wittmann and Nick Yelloly collected the second-highest points in the driver standings with 77 points, trailing only Boguslavsky, Gounon and Marciello. The BMW Junior Team consisting of Dan Harper (UK), Max Hesse (Germany) and Neil Verhagen (USA), which had its season highlight with a second‑place finish at Monza, finished in twelfth place at Barcelona in the sister car #998, and ninth place in the overall standings with 33 points.
Hans-Peter Naundorf, Team Principal ROWE RACING: “ROWE RACING looks back on a fantastic season – not only in the GT World Challenge Europe but also on the Nürburgring Nordschleife! We started with an incredible streak of podium finishes, including a double victory at the opening race of the GT World Challenge Europe at Monza. The absolute highlight, of course, was our third overall victory at the 24 Hours of Spa. Such successes are only possible with a great team, and I would like to thank everyone involved for their dedication – all team members who did a flawless job throughout the year, our drivers for their consistently outstanding performances at the highest level, and our partners ROWE and BMW M Motorsport for their intensive support and their great trust in our work. Our cars were strong and reliable all year long, even though we wished for more performance in the final races of the title fight. We would have liked to provide more excitement and a better show in the season finale, but even after such a fantastic season, we still have room for improvement. Perhaps we will have the opportunity to raise our game a bit more next year and make a new attempt for the Endurance title.”
Philipp Eng (#98 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “Even though the ending didn’t go as planned, it was an overall great season. We became vice-champions and won the most important race of the year at Spa‑Francorchamps. Thanks to the team and BMW M Motorsport! We had an incredibly reliable car with no technical issues throughout the season. Plus, I had great teammates, both in the #98 and the sister car. Ultimately, our disappointing weekend at the Nürburgring set us back significantly in the title race, and we couldn’t recover it here at Barcelona. Congratulations to the Mercedes crew!”
Max Hesse (#998 ROWE RACING BMW M4 GT3): “The overall assessment of our second season in the GT World Challenge Europe is positive. We made significant progress compared to the first year and maintained a consistently good pace. The podium at Monza was the highlight, while our retirement at Spa‑Francorchamps was, of course, a disappointment. That caused us to lose touch with the top spots in the overall standings.”
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