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On the final weekend in April, Allgäu-based racing team C.Abt Racing made its debut in the 2015 ADAC GT Masters season. After two turbulent races, at the end of the weekend in Oschersleben the team had registered its first championship points, celebrating first place on the podium.
An average temperature of 20 degrees, sunshine, motivated drivers and three new Audi R8 LMS ultras – optimum conditions for C.Abt Racing to start a new motorsport season. While the team, led by manager Christian Abt, had to contend with technical problems during training on Friday, the team displayed a very good performance in qualifying. Nicki Thiim, 25, and Jordan Lee Pepper, 18, secured a position in the first row of the starting grid for the race on Sunday, where they started in second.
However, the first race on Saturday did not go quite as planned for the team. After Stefan Wackerbauer, 19, got entangled in a collision at the start, his team mate Kelvin van der Linde, 18, lost a tyre shortly before the end of the race as a consequence of the collision at the start and had to pull out of the race prematurely. Things went better for driver duo Nicki Thiim and Jordan Lee Pepper, who secured their first points with eighth place overall.
There was great joy a day later in the second race of the ADAC GT Masters. After a turbulent start and a first safety car phase, Christer Jöns, who had started in sixth place, handed the wheel over to his team mate Andreas Weishaupt, 42, who drove the Audi R8 LMS ultra across the finish line, securing 12th place. The successful duo - who find themselves in an impressive third place in the Gentlemen standings - lifted the trophies on the podium. "It is a brilliant feeling to stand on the podium," said a happy Andreas Weishaupt, who was competing in his first ADAC GT Masters weekend. "I knew it was a professional field. However, I was very surprised at how strong the field was. So I am all the more pleased with our strong result. I thank my team mate and mentor Christer Jöns – without him, the brilliant result would not have been achievable." 27-year-old ADAC GT Masters old hand Christer Jöns was also satisfied: "To finish on the podium first time with a new team mate is fantastic. We were very quick. However, there is still room for improvement and in Austria we will show that we can do more."
Last year's ADAC GT Masters champion Kelvin van der Linde and his new team mate Stefan Wackerbauer also produced a brilliant comeback. Having started in 11th position, the duo fought their way up to sixth place and were delighted with their points afterwards. "It was a weekend full of emotions," said van der Linde. "We had huge bad luck in the first race. However, today things went much better. We could even have made the podium but I did not want to risk too much." His team mate Stefan Wackerbauer is also relieved after the second race: "Unfortunately, due to the technical problems on Friday, I did not have the opportunity to get into the driving rhythm. Then, on Saturday, we simply had bad luck. So I am all the more pleased that today we managed to fight our way up to sixth place."
Jordan Lee Pepper and his team mate Nicki Thiim were less fortunate. After celebrating winning their first points on Saturday, on Sunday they had to stop the Audi R8 LMS ultra prematurely, shortly before the end of the race. "We were strong in qualifying and Saturday was also a brilliant day," said Nicki Thiim after the weekend. "Unfortunately, we had a lot of bad luck on Sunday. We gave our best. However, that was just the first of many races to come." Jordan Lee Pepper added: "It was my first race weekend in the ADAC GT Masters and I learned a great deal. We had a little bit of bad luck but the team did a fantastic job and I look forward to the next race weekend."
"It was a very up-and-down weekend," summarised manager Christian Abt. "We lacked basic pace. Audi was clearly inferior to Mercedes, Porsche, Bentley and the others. In spite of all of this, we gave a strong performance and we are pleased to have earned our first points of the championship. Our first-place podium finish in the Gentlemen standings also shows that we had a very strong weekend. We will now sit down together next week to analyse this past race weekend and we will make optimum preparations for the next race. We are very confident and we are looking forward to the upcoming race weekend on the Red Bull Ring."
The C.Abt Racing team will now go into the second round of the ADAC GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring in Austria at the start of June (5-7/6/2015).