ROWE RACING left the iconic British circuit of Brands Hatch with mixed feelings after the third race weekend of the Blancpain GT Series. On the one hand they endured a retirement in the main race and technical issues on both BMW M6 GT3s. On the other hand, however, they did witness an impressive fightback from BMW works drivers Alexander Sims and Philipp Eng. The British/Austrian duo battled their way from the back of the field – 37th place on the grid – to finish 16th, a gain of 21 places. Local boy Sims overtook seven cars on the opening lap and had already made up 18 places by the end of lap four. Although the two drivers of the #99 BMW M6 GT3 finished outside the points for the second time in a row, the 21 points they picked up at the opening round of the season in Misano mean they remain eleventh in the overall standings of the Blancpain GT Series and seventh in the Sprint Cup.

The #98 car was struck by misfortune in the main race. Having qualified down in 19th after technical problems in the qualifying race, the issues returned on lap three of the main race. Just as Dutch driver Stef Dusseldorp lost pace due to the problems, he was hit by another car and forced to retire. This meant BMW Motorsport Junior Jesse Krohn (Finland), who was making his first appearance for ROWE RACING, was not called into action in the main race.

Even before their mighty fightback in the race itself, Sims and Eng had already impressed with the eighth-fastest time in qualifying. However, they were subsequently relegated three positions for an offence. This weekend, the team from St. Ingbert heads to Silverstone (England) for the second Endurance race in the Blancpain GT Series. This will be the seventh race weekend in a row for ROWE RACING. The highlight of the season, the Nürburgring 24 Hours, awaits two weeks later.

ROWE RACING team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf: “To sum up our weekend at Brands Hatch, I would say that basically our BMW M6 GT3s has potential – as we could see in qualifying. In principle, the car has a good race pace – as Alexander Sims showed. Unfortunately, the cars are not yet as race-hardened as we need them to be. In the qualifying race, both cars had to deal with technical problems. This led to a retirement of the #99 car and cost the second car a number of positions due to a loss of power. When we solve these problems, I am confident we can be right up there among the front-runners.”