Paddock radar from the Family & Friends Festival at the Lausitzring

• Olympic skeleton champion gets the drivers underway
• Family & Friends Festival thrills visitors
• Thierry Vermeulen celebrates a motorsport milestone in the rain

Olympic champion and his gold medal visit the super sports cars
Christopher Grotheer is Germany’s first Olympic champion in the sport of skeleton. On Sunday, the Thüringian was a guest of the “Club of Champions” of ADAC GT Masters partner herrenausstatter.de, and brought with him the gold medal that he won in the Yanqing ice channel at the 2022 Winter Games. As a lover of fast motorcycles, Grotheer inspected the super sports cars, before getting the drivers underway ahead of Sunday’s race with the “Drivers start your engines” sign.

Meeting place for everyone: Family & Friends Festival
Exciting experience worlds, fun, action and plenty of information – the Family & Friend Festival was the attraction at the ADAC GT Masters event at the Lausitzring. A bicycle course, bouncy castles and face painting kept the kids amused, while the ADAC MX Academy gave children aged six and above their first experience on electric Motocross bikes from manufacturer KTM. In the Motor Welt, adults were able to test drive current models of cars and motorcycles, including on the banked corners of the test oval. The large off-road course in the Offroad Welt provided visitors with adventure away from the roads. In the DEKRA and ADAC Welt, hazardous situations were realistically recreated in driving simulations. Anyone whose heart beats for heavier vehicles could feel like the king of the road in the truck simulator. Another popular attraction was a rescue helicopter from ADAC Luftrettung.

Private jet to the ADAC GT Masters
“Gestört aber GeiL” provided the musical highlight of the Family & Friends Festival on Saturday. However, fans had to wait a little for their heroes, as the DJ duo was coming straight from a concert in the municipality of Weeze in North Rhine-Westphalia. The DJs eventually arrived at the Lausitzring by private jet and delivered party vibes deep into the night on the event stage.

GT drivers test inclusive E-Karts
The finals of the inclusive E-Kart Slalom Trophy featured on the support programme for the ADAC GT Masters at the race weekend in Lusatia. This project, launched by the DMSB in cooperation with x4in e. V., allows talented youngsters with and without disabilities to go head to head in specially designed electric karts. On Friday, the drivers from Mann-Filter Team Landgraf, Ricardo Feller from Montaplast by Land-Motorsport, and Car Collection Motorsport driver Markus Winkelhock tested these extraordinary machines and spoke to those responsible about this equally extraordinary project.

Sideways, not straight
In the ADAC GT Masters, the drivers are always looking for the fastest line in their super sports cars – drifting costs time. It is a very different story in the drift challenge. Here, the motto is: “Quer statt geradeaus” (sideways, not straight), and spectators at the Lausitzring could see this for themselves in two show demonstration sessions on Saturday and Sunday. Whether on a wet or a dry track, the drift artists guided their cars sideways around the corners and put on a spectacular show for the fans.

Milestone in the rain
Saturday was a special day for Thierry Vermeulen. Exactly two years ago, the Dutchman and friend of Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen embarked on his motorsport career. However, the anniversary was far from a stroll in the park. This was the first time that the 20-year-old had contested a wet race. Despite being a little nervous, the Car Collection Motorsport driver still “had fun”.

Trophy for his son
Christian Engelhart had two reasons to celebrate on Saturday at the Lausitzring. The Porsche driver not only claimed his first win of the season and the maiden victory for Team Joos Sportwagentechnik, but also celebrated his son’s birthday. “My son turned five today. As it was qualifying in the morning, I could unfortunately not be with him when he opened his presents. However, he will now get my winner’s trophy.”

Double shift for series returnee
Marvin Dienst returned to the ADAC GT Masters at the Lausitzring. However, the 25-year-old not only went in pursuit of points together with Jan Marschalkowski for Mercedes-AMG Team ZVO, but also lined up for the Toksport WRT team in the Prototype Cup Germany. And the double shift proved to be successful. Dienst was able to maintain his lead in the LMP3 championship along with partner Berkay Besler.