Key facts about the ADAC GT Masters season opener at Oschersleben

• Eleventh season of Super Sports Car League gets underway this weekend
• SPORT1 to provide live coverage from 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays

Munich: It's all systems go! The ADAC GT Masters returns to Motorsport Arena Oschersleben this weekend (28th - 30th April) for the start of the season. The two races on Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast live and in full on SPORT1. Tune in at 1pm.

- The ADAC GT Masters embarks on its eleventh season this weekend, with Sunday's race being the 150th in the history of the series.

- For the tenth year in succession, Motorsport Arena Oschersleben is the venue chosen to host the season opener of the Super Sports Car League. 24 ADAC GT Masters races have been contested at Oschersleben to date, more than at any other circuit.

- The 2017 ADAC GT Masters calendar features seven race weekends (i.e. a total of 14 races) at venues in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

- 17 teams are entering super sports cars from seven manufacturers (Audi, BMW, Corvette, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, Nissan and Porsche).

- Luca Ludwig (28, GER) has more successes at Oschersleben than any of the other ADAC GT Masters drivers on the grid. He has won there four times, twice in 2009 as well as once in 2010 and in 2016.

- Mercedes-AMG GT3 man Ludwig also holds the ADAC GT Masters record for the fastest lap in the Motorsport Arena with a time of 1:27.323 minutes set last year in the second race.

- No fewer than eight former ADAC GT Masters champions are challenging for the title this time around: Sebastian Asch (2012 und 2015), Christopher Haase (2007), Maximilian Götz (2012), Daniel Keilwitz (2013), Kelvin van der Linde (2014), Luca Ludwig (2015), Connor De Phillippi (2016) and Christopher Mies (2016).

- Four new teams are making their debut in the 2017 ADAC GT Masters: Audi Sport racing academy, BMW Team Schnitzer, BWT Mücke Motorsport and Twin Busch Motorsport.

- Sebastian Asch is the most experienced of the current crop of drivers, having contested 121 ADAC GT Masters races to date. His first outing in the series was back in 2008.

- The youngest driver in the field is 16-year-old Ricardo Feller, who is making the step up from ADAC Formula 4. No previous entrant has ever been younger. The most senior competitor is 50 year-old Dutchman Patrick Huisman.

- Of the 56 drivers in the 2017 ADAC GT Masters line-up, 19 are making their Super Sports Car League debut this weekend: Marc Busch, Ricky Collard, Indy Dontje, Ricardo Feller, Christopher Friedrich, Christopher Höher, Patrick Huisman, Mathieu Jaminet, Jonathan Judek, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Adrien de Leener, Alex Macdowall, Dennis Marschall, Stefan Mücke, Sven Müller, Mike David Ortmann, Ezequiel Perez Companc, Filip Salaquarda and Jeffrey Schmidt.

- There are once again two women contestants on the starter list: Rahel Frey and Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky.

- The 2017 ADAC GT Masters will as always have an international makeup, with drivers from 14 different countries. Germany is the best represented of these with a 28-strong contingent - precisely half of the field of entrants - followed by the neighbouring countries of Switzerland (eight) and Austria (four).

- There will be one car shared by twin brothers - Dennis and Marc Busch. But they are by no means the first to hold this distinction: paving the way were Alfred and Robert Renauer.

- Good schooling: Quite a few of the ADAC GT Masters contestants started out in one or other of the ADAC junior formula series. They include Klaus Bachler, Indy Dontje, Christian Engelhart, Maximilian Götz, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Remo Lips, Dennis Marschall, Stefan Mücke, Sven Müller, Jeffrey Schmidt and Luca Stolz. Making the step up from last year's ADAC Formula 4 are Ricardo Feller and ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Mike David Ortmann.