Repeat offender: Remo Lips is Trophy champion again

• Nissan driver wins Trophy class for amateur drivers
• Swiss driver defends his crown as best amateur driver
• First title win for Nissan in the ADAC GT Masters

Hockenheim: Remo Lips (34, CH, MRS GT-Racing) has done it! The Nissan driver has successfully defended his title in the ADAC GT Masters Trophy stakes. The title was decided at the season finale in Hockenheim as happened last year. Whilst Lips was involved in a no-fault collision on the first lap and had to retire early, Sven Barth, his championship rival, did not finish higher than second place in the race, so Lips was able to lift the title before tomorrow's last race of the season on Sunday. Lips: "It's always nice to win a title, especially when it's the second time in a row. Of course, I would have preferred to have won on the track. We're still going to celebrate but will wait until Sunday after the second race."

After lining up sporadically in the ADAC GT Masters in 2010 and 2011, Lips, who works in real estate, has been a regular entrant in the series since 2012. After spending several seasons in karting to begin with, the Swiss driver joined motor sport 'proper' via the ADAC School for formula racing juniors. He competed in the BMW Formula ADAC in 2000 and 2001 and went up against Timo Glock and Christian Klien, who later became Formula 1 drivers, and against current DTM driver Maro Engel. "But we never went over the top and never blew the budget, all of which might have been necessary to be a top contender," says Lips, remembering his early days. "I've trained to do a job of work, which my mother thought was very important, and have never fully concentrated on motor racing." After spending time in open-wheel racing, there followed outings in endurance racing and in the Renault one-make cup before he found his way to the ADAC GT Masters. The Super Sports Car League is not his sole field of motor racing endeavour. He also takes part in historic motor racing events such as the Le Mans Classic whenever his calendar allows.

Lips opened a new career chapter in his motor racing career this year, 2017. He switched to MRS GT-Racing after two years with RWT Racing, changing not only teams but cars too with the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3. From 2010 onwards, he had raced the Corvette C6 almost exclusively in the ADAC GT Masters but felt comfortable right away in the Japanese GT sports car. He was full of praise immediately after his first test in the Nissan: "The car really suits me." Lips shared the car with Patrick Huisman (51, NL) in the first three races and impressed mainly with his consistency. No other Trophy driver has scored points as often as the Swiss driver. He has had a new team-mate ever since the weekend at Zandvoort, Marc Gassner (26, DEU), who made a superb debut. Lips & Gassner drove to their first win of the season in Sunday's rain-affected race at the Dutch circuit. The Swiss driver only needed four points this weekend to win the Trophy again before the end of the season.

As you can imagine, Lips is very satisfied with his choice of team for 2017: "Everyone in the MRS GT Racing team has done a great job during the entire season." Team Principal Iris Dorr was also very positive in her summing up: "We've had quite a tricky season, and we would never have thought at the outset that we might win the Trophy title, which makes us all the more pleased now. We are glad to have Remo in our team. He's a great guy and a real asset. He doesn't let setbacks put him off either." Lips has another reason to be happy. The winner of the Trophy class gets 22 new sets of tyres. "It's like winning the jackpot. Kerching!" said the Swiss driver.