Walkenhorst Motorsport's #35 M6 GT3, driven by Mattias Henkola and Michele Di Martino, finished seventh in the four-hour VLN season-opener on the Nürburgring Nordschleife on April 2.
Their seventh was the best finishing position for an M6 GT3 in the car’s first race at the Ring. The privateer Walkenhorst team was there with two cars. The factory supported Rowe Racing and Schubert Motorsport teams also brought two cars each.
Both the Schubert and Rowe teams said afterward that they regarded the race as a test for the M6 GT3; their primary focus is on the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in May.
Rowe’s two cars were the #22 driven by Klaus Graf, Markus Palttala, and Richard Westbrook, and #23 driven by Philipp Eng, Maxime Martin, and Dirk Werner. BMW Motorsport’s release says “Both cars started well and made up a few places in the early laps, before the team decided to concentrate on fine-tuning the vehicle's performance for the remainder of the race, finishing outside the top ten. The number 23 car suffered technical difficulties after running repairs had to be made, and was unable to make up lost ground.” Car #22 finished seventeenth overall.
Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Jörg Müller drove the #31 Schubert Motorsport M6 GT3, while John Edwards, Jens Klingmann, and Lucas Luhr drove #32. Like the Rowe team, Schubert focused on testing; #31 finished 22nd and #23 exited the race with an accident on the last lap.
The second Walkenhorst car, #36 with Victor Bouveng and Christian Krognes at the controls, also crashed out of the race.
The first round of the M235i Racing Cup was run as part of the race. Bonk Motorsport’s Michael Schrey and Alexander Mies won the class, while DTM racer Tom Blomqvist finished third. It was Blomqvist’s first race at the Ring; he will co-drive an M6 GT3 in the 24-hour race.
Henry Walkenhorst said “We are very pleased with the performance of the BMW M6 GT3. Unfortunately, we lost one car due to a collision. That was very annoying, as we need all the test kilometers we can get. Despite that, this first race with the new car was a success – due in no small part to the great support from BMW Motorsport.
Torsten Schubert said, “Due to circumstances beyond our control we could not test on Friday, (a day when it snowed at the Ring, ed.) so it was clear from the start that we had to use the race for test purposes. That changed our attitude to the race: it wasn't about results but about completing as many test kilometers as possible. It was a great shame that our number 32 car had an accident on the last lap. “
The overall win in the four-hour race went to Frank Stippler and Anders Fjordbach in a Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS —Brian S. Morgan
