Old but gold: Two BMW Z4 GT3s to tackle Nürburgring 24h
- Aaron Carroll
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Saugmotoren Motorsport and WIS Racing Team powered by Koopman are each taking a 2013 edition of the BMW Z4 GT3 to the Nürburgring Nordschlife this weekend. And it isn't just for a test or a demo run, they're taking on the world's best GT3 racers in the 13 year old machinery.
Saugmotoren's No.36 and WIS's No.40 are both entered into the SP9-Am class - a sub-class of SP9, the class which the likes of Max Verstappen, Christopher Haase, Kevin Estre and Raffaele Maricello will be racing.
WIS Racing Team powered by Koopman
The No.40 entry is set to be raced by a quartet of German drivers. Peter Posavac, Michael Funke, Volker Strycek and Frank Nikolaus will take on the Green Hell for WIS.
Posavac has been racing the N24 since 2008, his first coming in a BMW 120d. His more recent experience comes with Dörr Motorsport in mainly GT4 machinery, but also Aston Martin and Mercedes GT3s.
Crucially though back in it's hayday, he did race a Z4 GT3, coming second in the SP9 LG class in 2017 and a pair of podiums in the 2014 NLS (then known as VLN). He also won the 2011 24 Hours of Barcelona in the Z4.
Funke also brings a wealth of racing experience, his career going back to the 1998 German Touring Car Championship in an Opel Calibra 16V. His more recent experience also includes racing the Nürburgring in a Dörr Motorsports Aston Martin GT4.
Strycek is the oldest driver in this line-up. The 68 year old's greatest motorsport achievement was won back in 1984, when he won the old DTM championship (then known as DPM) in a BMW 635 CSi machine, despite not winning a race that year. His recent experience mainly consists of driving a multitude of Opel's across different series, namely the Opel Manta in NLS.
Nikolaus is the driver with the least experience, having driven a Porsche Cayman CM12 a few years ago in the N24.
The quartet took part in NLS 3 as preparation for this event, but the race was short lived. They were involved in an accident early on, where the car picked up suspension damage. Their race ended early, and they now go into the N24 with less practice than they would've liked, but they will be determined to make it to the finish.
Saugmotoren Motorsports
The second of the two entries comes from Saugmotoren Motorsport. The No.36 will be driven by Julian Reeh, Ralf Schall, Henry Walkenhorst and Christian Scherer.
Reeh has a wealth of experience on the Nürburgring in different classes over the last few years, including SP7, VT2 Hecka, SP4T and TCR. This year will be his first GT3 experience, although he did drive a Porsche GT3 Cup (997) car in SP7 last year - also run by Saugmotoren.
Schall was also apart of the same 997 Cup car entry last year, with the rest of his experience coming in historic racing. Mainly he drives a Mercedes 190E in the ADAC 24h Classic.
Walkenhorst is a familiar name in the Nürburgring paddock. The teams founder will be taking on double duty this year. He'll be at the wheel of the Z4, but also his own teams' No.39 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entry into the SP9 Pro-Am class. Most of his experience comes from driving that car for his team, but previously a BMW M4, M6 and the Z4.
Scherer doesn't have any GT3 experience either, but has raced the N24 in the V4 and VT2 FWD classes before.
This crew opted to take on the N24 Qualifiers as their testing ground, but like WIS, they had limited running.
Due to the tragic incident in race 1 that killed Juha Miettinen, the race did not resume and the quartet could not compete in race 2 due to damage sustained in an earlier session.
It hasn't been the easiest of starts for either team in terms of preparation, but both will be looking for a good result in class.
It will also be interesting to see how both teams get on in terms of race pace against the modern GT3 cars in the field. The older car already seems to be slightly down on straight line pace, but it is yet to be seen if that will affect their overall speed much.
You can see both cars in action in the N24 this weekend, with the race taking place across Saturday and Sunday, the 16th and 17th of May.
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