ADAC GT Masters with eight brands and 33 super sport cars

• 33 super sport cars fielded by 20 teams will contest the 2020 season
• Including Bentley, eight car manufacturers now in line-up
• ADAC GT Masters grid with more than 18,000 bhp

Munich: The 2020 ADAC GT Masters will feature a wide variety of brands and a packed line up of high-calibre drivers. 33 super sports cars from eight manufacturers and 20 teams will contest seven race weekends. The ADAC GT Masters will get under way at the Lausitzring from 31st July to 2nd August with the first two of overall 14 races this season. Bentley have recently become the eighth brand to join the ADAC GT Masters and will do battle once again with super sports cars from Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. SPORT1 free to-air TV channel will broadcast all races live.

ADAC Sports President Hermann Tomczyk commented: "With its impressive field of participants, the ADAC GT Masters once again confirms its position as one of Europe's strongest GT race series. Despite the events of the past few months, the fact that we can begin the season with such a top class field is a credit to the series and its competitors. We came out in support of our participants at the start of the crisis and ensured a high degree of planning security in these troubled times by giving a clear commitment to staging seven race weekends. The field is amazing as regards size and variety of brands and the quality of both teams and drivers is no less impressive. This year, we have more than 25 professional or works drivers in cars from eight manufacturers, plus a large number of promising young talents and a great many very talented privateers."

Team champions Rutronik Racing are the number one outfit in this international field and will once again field two Audi R8 LMS supercars. The Audi R8 remains the model most favoured by teams. Apart from Rutronik Racing, Aust Motorsport, EFP Car Collection by TECE, BWT Mücke Motorsport, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport and WRT will all deploy two R8s while ISR and T3 Motorsport will both field just one.

Mercedes-AMG will go up against them with six models of the GT3 which has been updated for the 2020 season and now looks more aggressive. HTP-Winward Motorsport and Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing will both race two Mercedes-AMGs. Toksport WRT and Schütz Motorsport will field one each. It has by now become impossible to imagine the ADAC GT Masters without the Porsche 911 or the Corvette which Callaway Competition will race again this year. Assisted by sports car world champion Timo Bernhard and Precote Herberth Motorsport, KÜS Team 75 Bernhard will field one 911 as will series newcomers, SSR Performance.

The second-generation Bentley Continental GT3 will make its ADAC GT Masters debut as T3 Motorsport become more involved with the ADAC GT Masters and now intend to field the British super sports car in the series. MRS GT-Racing and Schubert Motorsport will have three BMW M6 GT3s which, like the Bentley, are also front-engined and powered by turbo V8 engines.

Austrian outfit, GRT Grasser Racing, will have the largest team in the ADAC GT Masters this year. They are the only ones with three cars in the line-up - Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evos. The second team from Austria contesting this season's ADAC GT Masters will also utilise machinery from an Italian manufacturer - HB Racing will race the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo which has been revised for 2020.

The 33 super sports cars used by the 20 teams from Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic will be driven by a variety of top-class professionals. Works drivers Jens Klingmann (MRS GT-Racing) and Nick Yelloly (Schubert Motorsport) will start for BMW while Albert Costa and ex Formula 1 test driver Franck Perera (both GRT Grasser Racing) will race for Lamborghini and ex Formula 1 test driver Simona de Silvestro (KÜS Team 75 Bernhard) and Sven Müller (Herberth Motorsport) for Porsche. Mercedes-AMG have signed former champion, Maximilian Götz (HTP Winward), the two FIA GT World Championship winners, Maro Engel (Toksport WRT) and Raffaele Marciello (HTP Winward), and Luca Stolz (Toksport WRT) to compete in the ADAC GT Masters.

No less than seven Audi Sport drivers will be fighting for victories in this year's ADAC GT Masters, including defending champions Kelvin van der Linde and Patric Niederhauser (both Rutronik Racing), former champions Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase (both Montaplast by Land Motorsport), ex-Formula 1 driver Markus Winkelhock and 24-hour Nürburgring race winners, Pierre Kaffer (both EFP Car Collection by TECE) and Frank Stippler (Team ISR). Two more former ADAC GT Masters champions, Daniel Keilwitz (Team Zakspeed BKK Mobil Oil Racing) and Robert Renauer (Precote Herberth Motorsport), will also be in the line-up.

The ADAC GT Masters will get the first of seven race weekends under way at the Lausitzring from 31st July to 2nd August but no spectators will be present because of restrictions imposed by the authorities. The ADAC TCR Germany will race as support to the ADAC GT Masters at all events while the ADAC Formula 4 and the ADAC GT4 Germany will take part in six race weekends. The Porsche Carrera Cup Germany will also be an integral part of this year's support programme and contest the final four race weekends, starting with the Sachsenring.