At autumnal cool temperatures at the Nürburgring, the final of the ADAC Racing Weekend 2024 took place last weekend. In the GTC Race, Julian Hanses, Jay Mo Härtling and Luca Arnold (all Mercedes-AMG GT3) took the race victories, while in the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy (STT), the duo Kenneth Heyer / Marcel Marchewicz (both Mercedes-AMG GT3) celebrated a double victory. Cedric Fuchs (VW up! GTI) also had double cause for celebration in the ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup, as did Wim Kuijl (Ford Capri 3100 RS) in the Belcar Historic Cup. Finally, there were a few regularity tests. In the Touring Car & GT Revival, Steven Ostrowski (Ford Focus) and Peter Röskes / Susanne Röskes (Mercedes SLK 55) received the biggest trophies, while Lutz Crackau (Zagk S20-9), Uwe Gretzinger (Ford Escort RS Mk4) and Tobias Niederelz (Porsche 924) won in the VFV GLPpro.

Jay Mo Härtling wins two titles in the GTC Race finale
In the GT60 powered by Pirelli, the endurance format of the GTC Race, Jay Mo Härtling was able to pull away from the field in the first half of the race together with Luca Arnold, before handing over to Julian Hanses. At the same time, Marvin Dienst climbed into Arnold's Mercedes. Dienst put pressure on Hanses in the second stint, but the latter held his ground to take the win with Härtling, just ahead of Arnold / Dienst. Konstantin Gutsul and Ivan Peklin (both Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II) took third place at the finish line. With this triumph, the GT3 title also went to Hanses and Härtling. In the first GT Sprint, Arnold got off to a less than ideal start, but since his main rival Hanses was spun around by Gutsul and later retired due to consequential damage, Arnold was still able to celebrate his second GT Sprint victory of the season. Martin Zander (Mercedes-AMG GT3) and Gutsul saw the chequered flag behind Arnold. In the second sprint, Arnold had to let Härtling go ahead in a close duel, Peklin crossed the finish line in third place. Härtling is the new GT3 class GT sprint champion.

New champion of the STT comes from Romania
In the first STT race, no one was better than Kenneth Heyer / Marcel Marchewicz. At the start, Heyer took the lead before Klaus Abbelen (Ferrari 296 GT3) took the lead on the fifth lap. After the mandatory pit stops, Marchewicz, who took over the wheel of Heyer's car for the second stint, found himself in first place, steadily increasing his lead and crossing the finish line in triumph ahead of Abbelen and Mex Jansen / Jordin Poland (BMW M6 GT3). In the second race, the duo Heyer / Marchewicz were once again able to wave from the first step of the podium. Abbelen took second place, while Jürgen Alzen / Timo Scheibner (BMW M4 GT3) secured third place, beating the Dutch duo of Jansen / Poland in a thrilling final phase. But Tudor Tudurachi (BMW M4 GT4 G82) also had every reason to be happy: the Romanian, who is classified in Division 2, is the 2024 STT champion.

Cedric Fuchs takes double victory to become new ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup champion
In the ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup, in which all the drivers race identical VW Up! GTIs, the situation going into the title race was particularly close, because Cedric Fuchs arrived in the Eifel with just one point more than Mike Müller. Fuchs was well aware of his narrow lead, so he took the lead at the start of the first race and never gave it up. His toughest rival for the title, Müller, had to settle for second place ahead of Julian Konrad. On Sunday, Fuchs was able to pull away from the field early on and steadily extend his lead. After eight laps, he crossed the finish line almost six seconds ahead of Müller, thus securing the title in the ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup. Konrad took third place in the final race of the year.

The young drivers are now aiming to move up to higher classes, as current GTC driver Linus Hahne (BMW M4 GT4) did last year. He entered the ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup in 2021 without any karting experience and finished his first season in fifth place overall. “It certainly wasn't easy at the beginning, but you can work your way into it. I think the ADAC Touring Car Junior Cup is a perfect entry-level series for racing drivers without much experience.” After two more seasons, which he finished third overall, Hahne moved up to the GTC Race within the ADAC Racing Weekend. “I like the ADAC Racing Weekend because it's professional but still friendly and approachable. During my season, I was able to make contact with teams from higher series, and we were able to get to know each other a bit; that's a big advantage of the ADAC Racing Weekend. I think a GT4 car as part of the GTC race was the perfect next step for me; I would do it again every time.” Hahne's results also show that he is still on the right track: he came second in the GT4 final standings of the GT60 powered by Pirelli and fourth in the GT4 final standings of the GT Sprint.

Wim Kuijl unbeatable in the Belcar Historic Cup
Wim Kuijl finished ahead of Erik Qvick (BMW E36 STW) and Georgios Katsikis (Opel Kadett C Coupé) in the first race of the Belcar Historic Cup. Kuijl took the lead at the start and was able to defend it to the finish. Behind him, Tim Kuijl (BMW E36 325i) was in second position until the last lap, but then dropped back to sixth place, allowing Qvick and Katsikis to move up to second and third place. In the second race, Wim Kuijl celebrated his second victory of the weekend. Tim Kuijl quickly moved up from sixth on the grid to second place, but retired in the last lap. So second place went to Qvick, as it did the day before, with Jan van Elderen (Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500) taking third.

The art of driving as consistently as possible
In addition to the conventional race series, regularity tests were also held at the Nürburgring. The participants of the Touring Car & GT Revival were allowed to take part twice; Steven Ostrowski won the first heat ahead of Peter and Susanne Röskes and Peter and Christopher Kohl (Ford Sierra Cosworth). In heat two, Peter and Susanne Röskes successfully took revenge and won ahead of Ostrowski and Pat Stein / Freddy Meier (Volvo 850 T5-R). The VLF GLPpro had so many registrations that three different tests were necessary. In the formula and sports cars, nobody was better than Lutz Crackau; the closest competitors were Leonard Zabel (Van Diemen RF) and Günther Becker (Reynard Martini Formula 3). Uwe Gretzinger came first in the GT and Touring Car 1 race, ahead of Peter Stalder (BMW E36 M3 GTR) and Christian Hausner (Opel Kadett C). In the GT and Touring Car 2 race, Tobias Niederelz came first, ahead of Stephan Schaade (Ford Escort) and Markus Tondorf (Ford Orion).