ROWE RACING enters home race at Nürburgring with two cars and a lot of anticipation
St. Ingbert, 2 September 2020 – Big home game and a second Porsche 911 GT3 R with a unique driver trio: ROWE RACING is looking forward with great anticipation to its upcoming home race in the GT World Challenge Europe at the Nürburgring. Just 160 kilometers away from the team’s headquarters in St. Ingbert, ROWE RACING will field a second Porsche 911 GT3 R with a unique driver combination next Sunday (September 6) in the second of four rounds of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup alongside this year’s regular trio of German Porsche works driver Dirk Werner, Porsche Young Professional Julien Andlauer from France and Austrian Klaus Bachler.
The cockpit of the #98 Porsche 911 GT3 R will be shared by Porsche works driver Simona De Silvestro from Switzerland, former DTM driver Jeroen Bleekemolen from the Netherlands and two-time World Endurance Champion Timo Bernhard, whose work all fans will also be able to follow in the livestream with a specially installed onboard camera. Timo Bernhard from the Saarland ended his great career last year and concentrated entirely on his role as boss of his own racing team. For the joint start with Simona De Silvestro, who is driving for his team in the ADAC GT Masters, he will put on the helmet again himself. At the same time, it’s his first ever start in team boss Hans-Peter Naundorf’s squad, which is based just a few kilometers from his own home. In addition, Timo Bernhard feels right at home at the Nürburgring: with a total of five victories, he is one of the record winners of the ADAC 24-hour race, in which Jeroen Bleekemolen once stood at the top as well. In addition, Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard also triumphed three times in a row in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in the 6-hour race as part of the WEC, which, like the Endurance Cup round, was held on the 5.137-kilometer GP circuit at the weekend.
Just a stone throw away from the ROWE RACING headquarters – and thus even closer to St. Ingbert than Timo Bernhard – is Fabian Weingart’s home. With his company Berzerkdesign, the man from the Saarland designs the look of numerous racing cars for many top teams and manufacturers. For ROWE RACING, he designed the current look of the cars before the start of the 2019 season.
Simona De Silvestro will be the first woman to contest a race in a GT3 car for ROWE RACING. In addition to a visit to St. Ingbert for a seat fitting, the Swiss also met Dr. Alexandra Kohlmann before her race. The ROWE managing director gave her an insight into the world of lubricants and the company’s associated commitment to motorsport. This video documents the encounter between the two successful women.
In the #99 Porsche 911 GT3 R, Julien Andlauer, Klaus Bachler and Dirk Werner are looking to build on their race pace from the first race of the season in Imola, Italy. There, after an unsuccessful qualifying session, they made up twelve places in the race and moved up to sixth position. In the Eifel, where the team also tested before the start of the season, the trio is now targeting the top five places.
ROWE RACING’s two Porsche 911 GT3 R cars will take to the GP track for the first time at the home race in the Eifel on Thursday (September 3) at 10.00 am in the first of four additional 50-minute test sessions. The others start at two-hour intervals at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00. After a race-free day, the first session on Saturday (September 5) will be free practice from 9:00 to 10:30. After the 90-minute pre-qualifying session at 1.05 p.m., the starting grid will be determined in the usual three-part qualifying from 7.10 p.m. with 15 minutes track time each. The race on Sunday starts at 11.45 a.m. and, in contrast to most of the regular Endurance Cup rounds, lasts six hours instead of the usual three.
Hans-Peter Naundorf, Team Principal ROWE RACING: “For the whole team, the home race at the Nürburgring is a very special race, even though unfortunately no fans or guests are allowed on site. But the short journey and the familiar surroundings from many races alone make for a pleasant atmosphere. In addition, we know the track very well, and we’ve already tested in the Eifel with our regular lineup this year. With the experience we gained in Imola we want to improve our performance, especially in qualifying, so that we can finish in the top five with similarly good race pace. A podium at our home race would be a dream, of course. In any case, it’s good for us that the race lasts six hours instead of the usual three. The longer the better for us because then we can benefit from our consistency, our strategy and our usually low margin for error.”
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