22 May 2023
GDM and PROsport Racing successfully concludes the 24h race at the Nürburgring after a strong team performance. The team showed a good recovery and finished the race in third place in the SP9 Pro-Am category.
Year after year, the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring is one of the highlights of PROsport Racing’s season. In 2023, the racing team from Wiesemscheid entered three Aston Martin cars. In addition to a GT3 racer, Christoph Esser’s team fielded two GT4 cars.
The GT3 was driven by Mike David Ortmann, Ben Green, Christoph Breuer and Maxime Dumarey. During the matathon distance, the British sports car ran like clockwork without defect and the driver quartet was able to fight their way through the race with a flawless performance. After 24 hours of racing, Belgian Dumarey saw the chequered flag in 14th position overall, which is equivalent to third position in the SP9 Pro-Am sub classification. The drivers were thus able to enjoy a trophy!
In the strongly contested GT4 class, Hugo Sasse, Andreas Patzelt, Alexander Mies and Guillaume Dumarey drove to fourth place. Over the entire race distance, a fierce battle for the top positions had broken out in the small GT class, in which PROsport Racing with starting number #79 was entangled.The sister car, which was driven by gentleman drivers Guido Dumarey, Yevgen Sokolovskiy, Michel Hess and Rudi Adams, retired after technical problems during the night.
“I am very happy with our result in the 24-hour race. The whole team put in a strong performance, which I am very happy with! Our GT3 ran like clockwork and the drivers made no mistakes. We got the maximum out of our possibilities and brought in our best possible result. Ben Green in particular really impressed me personally: he didn’t drive the Vantage GT3 before this race weekend, hadn’t been on the Nordschleife in a GT3 before and showed a strong performance straight away,” said team boss Esser. “The GT4 class was extremely strong and I would never have thought that the cars at the front could go such a speed. Our top car fought its way back after the penalty in qualifying, however, no more than fourth place was possible here. Unfortunately, our gentleman’s car retired with an electronics defect. Unfortunately, my mechanics and also the technicians from Prodrive didn’t find the problem, which is why we couldn’t continue the race. However, the vehicle classification in the GT4 class has a small aftertaste. The new BMW and the Evo model from Toyota were almost invincible. Nothing has changed in our BoP in recent years, but the new cars are in a league of their own.”
PROsport Racing’s next race appearance will be at the ADAC GT4 Germany at Oschersleben. After the team won the title in 2022 with Mike David Ortmann and Hugo Sasse, the mission to defend the title starts in the Magdeburger Börde for the team from the Eifel. The team will be fielding no fewer than four GT4 Aston Martin cars in the 2023 championship season.