'Halftime champions' at the Lausitzring: More new winners too?

• Six different supercar manufacturers win first six races
• ADAC GT Masters reaches halfway point at the Lausitzring
• Leaders Asch and Ludwig in Mercedes-Benz aiming to maintain top form

Six races and six different winners! The 2015 ADAC GT Masters has been an intriguing competition so far, not least because of the constant changes at the top of the table. Could the fourth race weekend at the Lausitzring (3rd - 5th July) produce even more new winners in races seven and eight? The venue, strategically situated between Berlin and Dresden, will also see another issue resolved in the Super Sports Car League, as the 2015 competition reaches midterm and 'halftime champions' emerge. Favourites for the unofficial title are the Team Zakspeed duo of Sebastian Asch (29, GER) and Luca Ludwig (26, GER) who have had a consistently good run of results in all six races so far, finishing in the Top Four each time. Their closest pursuers, Klaus Bachler (23, AUT) and Martin Ragginger (27, AUT) driving a GW IT Racing Team Schütz Motorsport Porsche 911, will be keen to reduce the deficit on the current championship leaders. SPORT1 will be showing both ADAC GT Masters races at the Lausitzring (Saturday and Sunday) with live coverage commencing at 11.45am CEST.

Shortest circuit on the calendar but always high on the excitement scale

Current championship leaders Asch and Ludwig have ended a long dry spell, finally claiming their first outright victory of the season at Spa. Sebastian, who is the son of touring car legend Roland Asch, had last notched up a victory in his ADAC GT Masters championship-winning campaign of 2012 and since endured a winless run of almost 1,500 days. The Lausitzring, which is the shortest track on the calendar and always good for racing action, is fertile ground for Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Asch has already won a race there, and the SLS AMG GT3 gullwing actually posted its maiden ADAC GT Masters win on this track. Porsche also has a good record on the technically demanding Lausitzring track, with the 911 being the most successful supercar in terms of race wins. Bachler's team-mate Ragginger is a former winner there. "I'm looking forward to the Lausitzring because I like the track," says Bachler. "In fact, Martin says it's his favourite. The first race weekends have shown that we are really competitive. At the Lausitzring, we'll be going all out on the attack."

One pairing who fancy their chances of becoming the seventh different winners of the season are Andreas Wirth (30, GER) and Daniel Keilwitz (25, GER) who, at various points during the previous three weekends, have led the field in their Callaway Competition Corvette. Wirth and Keilwitz are in great form: in the recent ADAC GT Masters race in pouring rain at Spa, they claimed the first podium for a Corvette in a wet-weather race since 2008.

Two more driver pairings looking for their first win of the season are defending champion Kelvin van der Linde (19, ZA) and new partner Stefan Wackerbauer (19, GER) in their C. Abt Racing Audi R8, whose results have been steadily improving, and the experienced BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert duo of Claudia Hürtgen ( 43, GER) and Uwe Alzen (47, GER). Having already won a race this season, the priority for Luca Stolz (19, GER) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (33, NL) of Bentley Team HTP is to reduce the points gap on the leading group of Asch/Ludwig and Bachler. The same goes for Jens Klingmann (24, GER) and Dominik Baumann (22, AUT) of BMW Sports Trophy Team Schubert.

Two drivers who regard the Lausitzring as their home turf are Audi man Marc Basseng (36, GER, kfzteile24 MS RACING) and Florian Strauss (30, GER, MRS GT-Racing) who is partnered by Marc Gassner in one of the Nissan GT-Rs. Strauss has one of the shortest journeys of all contestants: "It's less than an hour from my home in Berlin to the Lausitzring. I hope that we'll have a bit more luck in my home race than last time when the technology let us down." Basseng lives in Löbau, a town in the Oberlausitz region, and shares the cockpit of his Audi R8 with Florian Stoll (33, GER). 2012 FIA GT1 world champion Basseng and co-driver Stoll go into the two races brimming with confidence after claiming a maiden podium for their kfzteile24 MS RACING outfit at Spa.

Corvette and Audi drivers in hot pursuit of Gentlemen leaders in Nissan

Dominic Jöst (36, GER) and Florian Scholze (42, GER) of MRS GT-Racing are still hanging on to the top spot in the Gentlemen class after two frustrating weekends. The two Nissan GT-R drivers were plagued by technical problems yet still managed to retain their class lead. But they now find themselves under mounting pressure from Remo Lips (32, CH) in the RWT Racing Team Corvette, who already has two race wins to his account, and from Andreas Weishaupt (42, GER) in a C. Abt Racing Audi R8 with one class win under his belt.

Challenging track layout makes special demands on Pirelli tyres

After Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, the longest track on the calendar, the ADAC GT Masters now arrives at the Lausitzring, the shortest of the season. This also poses significant challenges for the tyres supplied by exclusive ADAC partner Pirelli: "The Lausitzring is a technically challenging track because it includes not only the fast outer parts of the oval but also a tight infield," says Anna Playford, Trackside Engineer at Pirelli. "These track characteristics require a highly stable, robust tyre construction which can cope with extreme loads, especially on the final, slightly exaggerated high-speed corner. We have already gained a lot of experience with this particular specification."

Full support programme

An interesting programme of additional entertainment and race action will be provided by single-seater racing, touring cars and a colourful mix of sports and touring cars from the past 20 years as well as historic racers from the former East Germany. The new ADAC Formula 4 will be there as a usual, and touring cars will be contesting the DTC des DMSB - ADAC PROCAR again. Making the first of three appearances in the context of the ADAC GT Masters is the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy (STT) with spectacular touring cars from the past 20 years. The Haigo ADAC Historic Cup with touring cars and open-wheel racers from the former Eastern Bloc will bring memories flooding back for fans who lived in the GDR prior to its demise in 1989.