“English week”, part 2: After the strong performance in the Blancpain GT Series Sprint Cup in Brands Hatch with second place in the qualifying race and fourth place in the main race last Sunday, the ROWE RACING team stayed in England and made their way to Silverstone. The “Home of British Motor Racing”, where the British Formula 1 Grand Prix is held, will host the Blancpain GT Endurance Cup on Sunday (14th May), the second race of in eight days.
“Flying Finns” Jesse Krohn and Markus Palttala, who after two starts in the three races of the season so far are in sixth place in the overall standings of the Blancpain GT Series, are particularly eager to build on their good results at Brands Hatch. In Silverstone, they will receive VIP support in the #98 BMW M6 GT3 from Canadian Bruno Spengler, the 2012 DTM Champion. The 33-year-old BMW DTM driver has won 14 of his 141 DTM races to date, started from pole position 17 times, and finished in the points for the 92nd time last Sunday at the season opener in Hockenheim. He will contest his first race for the St. Ingbert team and is looking forward to the collaboration, as is ROWE RACING team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf, who was Spengler’s race engineer when he joined the DTM in 2005. Bruno Spengler already has experience in the GT version of the BMW M6 from the 24 Hours of Daytona and – alongside Jesse Krohn – at the 24h qualifying race at the Nürburgring.
BMW works driver and ROWE RACING regular driver Philipp Eng of Austria and BMW DTM driver Maxime Martin of Belgium will share the wheel of the sister car with #99. The 2016 Spa winners finished fourth at Silverstone last year, even though the team had wanted to retire the car from the race after half an hour due to gearbox issues but against all odds, the drivers managed to manoeuvre the car around the track fast enough in only the higher gears. Eng and Martin will receive backup from another BMW works driver: German Jens Klingmann, who played a crucial role in the development of the BMW M6 GT3, also shared the cockpit of ROWE RACING’s #98 at Silverstone in 2016 and only narrowly missed out on finishing in the points after a late safety car period.
Qualifying on the 5.891-kilometre track in Silverstone takes place on Sunday morning at 10:45 a.m. CEST (9:45 a.m. local time). The three-hour race starts at 3:55 p.m. CEST (2:55 p.m. local time).
Bruno Spengler, ROWE RACING #98 BMW M6 GT3: “I’m looking forward to racing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup because it is a championship at a very high level and that again has many good drivers, cars and teams this year. It is cool that I have the opportunity to drive in four additional races on top of the DTM, particularly for this team. ‘HP’ was my first DTM race engineer which is why it is even more special for me to be driving for him for ROWE RACING.”
Hans-Peter Naundorf, team principal ROWE RACING: “We are really looking forward to Silverstone for many reasons. Firstly, we are usually a little stronger in endurance races than in sprint races, but we delivered a very strong performance even at Brands Hatch last weekend. I am also looking forward to Bruno Spengler making his first start for us. We have known each other since 2005 and get on very well. I am proud that we have managed to get to work together again after so many years. Our team stayed in England and went straight from Brands Hatch to Silverstone. That saves everyone some travelling and allows us to relax a little bit.”
