Corvette double at Red Bull Ring – Audi ‘half-time champions’

• Wins in both races for Oliver Gavin and Daniel Keilwitz at the Red Bull Ring
• Runners-up van der Linde and Rast move to top of table as ‘half-time champions’
• Herbert Handlos wins home race in Gentlemen class

Spielberg – Englishman Oliver Gavin (41) and Daniel Keilwitz (24, Germany) rounded off an exceptionally successful weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria by making it two wins out of two in their Callaway Competition Corvette. After notching up one victory on Saturday, Gavin and Keilwitz followed up with another on Sunday. Reigning champion Keilwitz thus repeated his double win of the previous year. 17-year-old South African Kelvin van der Linde and René Rast (27, Germany) finished second in their Prosperia C Abt Racing Audi R8, a result that was enough to elevate them to the top of the drivers’ standings and secure them the unofficial title of ‘half-time champions’. Joining the podium party were Maximilian Götz (28, Germany) and Maximilian Buhk (21, Germany) who finished third in their HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. “That was a tough race,” said Gavin after wrapping up the double win. “It was pure unadulterated motorsport, with nobody giving an inch. Winning both races here is such a fantastic feeling. It’s far more than we expected.”

Enge dominates first stint in Camaro

The first half of the race at the Red Bull Ring was dominated by Tomas Enge (37) in his black-liveried Reiter Engineering Chevrolet Camaro. The Czech driver seized the lead from Keilwitz on the first corner, and worse still for the pole-sitter, he had to cede second place to Callaway Competition team-mate Jeroen Bleekemolen (32, Netherlands). Enge and Bleekemolen then proceeded to pull out a five-second lead on the pursuing pack before discovering that they had each been handed a five-second penalty for an infringement at the start, which was to be served during the driver changeover.

But as the pit stop window was opening, a spin by Sven Barth (33, Germany) in his RWT Racing Team Corvette brought the safety car out onto the track. The entire field took advantage of the safety car deployment to dash into the pit lane and change drivers. And the pit stop was where Enge’s impressive run came to an end. As the ex-Formula 1 driver was pulling out of the penalty box after serving his five-second sentence, the drive shaft sheared on his car. The immobile Camaro blocked Bleekemolen who was serving his penalty at the same time and robbed the Dutchman of valuable seconds. The outcome was that the previously third-placed Corvette of Gavin and Keilwitz emerged from the pits ahead of the Prosperia Audi with René Rast now at the wheel. Gavin controlled the lead in the second half of the race and steered the Corvette across the line to claim a second win of the weekend, this time by a margin of 1.6 seconds. Van der Linde and Rast have now moved up to the top of the drivers’ standings following their podium at the mid-way point in the season. Prosperia C Abt Racing head the team championship after eight out of sixteen races.

“Daniel drove brilliantly in the first stint of the race and kept us up with the leaders,” said Gavin, singing his team-mate’s praises. “When the two front-runners were both handed penalties, we were quick to seize our chance. I hope that Daniel can use this double victory to form the basis of a successful title challenge in the second half of the season.”

“I was unable to find a reply to the Camaro’s power at the start, but the safety car deployment helped us a great deal,” said Keilwitz after his tenth career win in the ADAC GT Masters. “Not only did we take the lead, we were able to nurse the car for a few laps in the extremely hot conditions.”

Skilful passing secures third place for Götz and Buhk

As on Saturday, Götz and Buhk finished in third place. After the mandatory pit stop, the gullwing was in sixth place, but Götz then executed three clinical overtaking manoeuvres to pass a brace of PIXUM Team Schubert BMW Z4s – one driven by Claudia Hürtgen (42, Germany) and Dominik Baumann (21, Austria) and the other by Max Sandritter (25, Germany) and Jens Klingmann (23, Germany) – as well as the Callaway Competition Corvette of Patrick Assenheimer (22, Germany) and Italian co-driver Diego Alessi (42). The two BMWs ultimately crossed the line in fourth and fifth positions ahead of the sixth-placed BKK MOBIL OIL Zakspeed Mercedes-Benz SLS driven by Luca Ludwig (25, Germany) and Israeli partner Alon Day (22) and the fastest of the Porsche 911s driven by the TONINO Team Herberth pairing of Robert Renauer (30, Germany) and Norbert Siedler (31, Austria). In the second half of the race, Corvette driver Assenheimer struggled with a loss of braking power and finished the race in eighth position ahead of the Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911 driven by Mario Farnbacher (22, Germany) and Australian Nathan Morcom (22), for whom ninth place represents their best result of the season so far.

With three laps to go, ROWE RACING’s Nico Bastian (24, Germany) and Jaime Alguersuari (24, Spain) fought their way past the GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 of Dutchman Jaap van Lagen (37) – who had been leading the standings going into the race – and partner Christian Engelhart (27, Germany).

Handlos back to winning ways

Austria’s Herbert Handlos (31) achieved another victory, this time on home turf, in his TONINO Team Herberth Porsche 911 to take him well clear at the top of the Gentlemen standings after six wins from eight races. On their way to victory, Handlos and team-mate Alfred Renauer (30, Germany) profited from the misfortune of Switzerland’s Remo Lips (32) and Toni Seiler (56), both driving Callaway Competition Corvettes. Lips held the class lead in the second half of the race before having to pit with an electronics problem. Seiler lost out on a possible victory after his team-mate Bleekemolen was blocked while serving a five-second penalty. Dominik Jöst (35, Germany) assisted by Stefan Wackerbauer (18, Germany) in a TONINO Team Herberth Porsche 911 GT3 R took third place.