Little joy for ROWE RACING at the Hungaroring as the Blancpain GT Series made its first appearance on the Formula 1 circuit on the outskirts of Budapest. Four weeks after victory at the 24 Hours of Spa, both BMW M6 GT3s from the team from St. Ingbert missed out on the points, finishing in 13th and 15th at the penultimate race of the year in the Blancpain Sprint Cup. The many corners on this circuit seemed to offer more overtaking opportunities to other manufacturers, but the ROWE RACING drivers managed to improve by a few places in the main race.
The BMW works drivers and regular duo of Philipp Eng from Austria and Alexander Sims from Great Britain started from 20th in their new #99 BMW M6 GT3 after Saturday’s qualification race and made up seven places during the 60-minute race to finish in 13th. Sims was able to move up five places in the early part of the race. They changed drivers immediately after the pit-stop window opened, moving up to 14th, and Eng was able to improve on this by one more position.
In the #98 ROWE RACING car, Dutch drivers Nick Catsburg and Stef Dusseldorp started the main race from 18th and lost some ground in the early part of the race. However, Dusseldorp and Catsburg fought their way back up to 15th during the course of the race.
ROWE RACING have two home events at the Nürburgring to look forward to in the coming weeks. The seventh VLN race, the ROWE 6 Hours ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen, is scheduled for 3rd September on the Grand Prix circuit and the Nordschleife. The Blancpain GT Series will then make its second appearance of the year there on 18th September, with a final three-hour race of the season in the Endurance Cup.
ROWE RACING team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf said: “Unfortunately, we could not have achieved any more this weekend at this circuit. Our drivers were satisfied with the cars and the set-up, and got the maximum out of the race. We should respect their achievements in making up so many places on a track that hardly offers any opportunities to overtake. However, it would be good for the event organiser to use the lessons learned from this first appearance at the Hungaroring and rethink the classification of cars on the circuit.”