Expectations unfulfilled at the Red Bull Ring in Austria

The ADAC-GT Masters Series celebrated its 200th race on Sunday October 17, 2020 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.  An American marque, the GT3 Corvette built by Callaway Competition, has shown up in every race except last year’s finale at Sachsenring only because the car was destroyed during the previous race at Hockenheim.

Hopes were high for Callaway coming off a recent win at the Sachsenring and winning at the Red Bull Ring last year.

Some folks like Team Manager Mike Gramke were a bit more reserved.  The C7 GT3-R air intake was restricted by roughly 20% and carried an extra 105 kg including 30 kg “success ballast”.   One veteran commentator likened it to “a tiger without teeth”.

Race officials threw out Saturday qualifying laps contending that Marcus Pommer drove below the curb line.  Enforcing this rule became a problem that haunted other teams as well.

Starting last, the team gained 8 places to finish 21st.

Saturday winner was # 10 Schubert Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 of Henric Skoog and Nick Yelloly.

Sunday qualifying went better just 2/10 of a second off pole for 13th thanks in part to 30kg less “success ballast”.

Marcus dodged a mishap at the start but pushing a bit too hard, he and Jeffrey Schmidt incurred drive-thru penalties again for crossing the curb lines. 

They were scored 18th as other cars were penalized for the same infraction which took officials a few hours to sort out the mess. 

Sunday winner was the # 14 MRS GT Racing BMW M6 GT3 of Erik Johansson and Jens Klingmann.

Unusually low ambient temperatures also made optimal tyre set-up very tricky.

Race results compiled by Wayne Ellwood.

With Zandvoort cancelled, the ADAC-GT makes a second visit to Lausitzring on Oct 30-Nov 1.