Further on the road to success: KNAUS and WEINSBERG teams report victories

• KNAUS Ferrari 296 GT3 wins DTM race
• WEINSBERG Mercedes‐AMG GT3 dominates the ADAC GT Masters
• Exciting season enters the final spurt in both racing series

Jandelsbrunn, September 8, 2024. On a hot, sunny weekend at the Sachsenring, around 48,000 fans of the DTM racing series experienced thrilling duels, plenty of excitement and countless emotional moments. For the third time this season, Jack Aitken drove his KNAUS Ferrari 296 GT3 to an impressive victory on Saturday: The 28‐year‐old Englishman, who drives for Emil Frey Racing, won the eleventh race of the season after 46 laps. Aitken had already started in pole position and defended his lead with aplomb.

After the race, Jack Aitken was delighted: „It’s fantastic. We didn’t really expect to be in contention for the win because we had a few problems in practice.‟ The high temperatures in particular had an impact: „Dealing with the tires and the heat is always a challenge,‟ said Jack Aitken, but everything went perfectly: „I completed a flawless race and was therefore never in serious danger.”

The gaps in the field are extremely small: the first and last drivers in qualifying on Sunday were separated by less than nine tenths of a second. Jack Aitken finished the following race in sixth place. He is currently in fourth place in the overall standings for the season.

A week earlier, the WEINSBERG Mercedes‐AMG GT3 with Elias Seppänen (Finland) and Tom Kalender (Hamm/Sieg) from Landgraf Motorsport had already caused a sensation in the ADAC GT Masters at the Circuit de Spa‐Francorchamps (Belgium). The 20‐year‐old Seppänen made a perfect start to the second half of the racing season: With a time of 2:15.923 minutes, he beat the qualifying record set by Bernd Schneider in the series in 2015 by 2.581 seconds.

After the start of the 80‐minute endurance race, the seventh of the season, the Kalender/Seppänen duo achieved an outstanding start‐finish victory on Saturday, August 31, 2024. This allowed them to further extend their lead in the championship. „I got off to a good start and was immediately able to pull away from the field. The strategy worked out perfectly and the car was set up perfectly,‟ said Seppänen after the finish.

A sprint race followed on Sunday as the eighth ADAC GT Masters championship race. An early accident and subsequent safety car phase marked the start, after which 16‐year‐old Tom Kalender led the field in the WEINSBERG Mercedes‐AMG GT3. However, he received a 15‐second time penalty after the race for a non‐compliant maneuver after the start, and as a result Seppänen/Kalender slipped from first to sixth place. Team boss Klaus Landgraf nevertheless drew a positive balance: „The entire team did a perfect job this weekend. The victory on Saturday and the performance on Sunday show that we are on the right track.‟ Both drivers of the WEINSBERG‐supported Mercedes‐AMG GT3 remain at the top: Kalender and Seppänen are tied at the top of the drivers’ standings with 159 points each. In the „Road to DTM‟ competition, Seppänen is currently ahead of second‐placed Kalender.

The two series, the DTM and ADAC GT Masters, will once again compete together. At the Red Bull Ring in Styria (Austria),  the GT3 teams supported by KNAUS and WEINSBERG will continue to fight for the respective championship titles from September 27 to 29, 2024.