The driver line-ups for this years ADAC GT Masters are slowly coming together.
Markus Pommer and Pierre Kaffer will be driving for 2017 in Aust Motorsport in their Audi R8 LMS. Pommer also did a few races for Aust Motorsport in 2016, and that collaboration continues in 2017. The 26 year-old German Formula 3 Champion from 2014 will be joined by the much more experienced Pierre Kaffer in the car.
40 year-old Kaffer, who finished third in the German Formula 3 in Year 2000, has done a great number of single-seaters, GT and sportscar races. He is a very well known driver at Audi, where he already started in 2004 in a R8 LMP1 car for Team Veloqx in the Le Mans Series as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans before having a few seasons in DTM. In 2009 he won the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, in the same year as winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GT2 class in a Ferrari. The collaboration with Audi and Ferrari continued on each side of the Atlantic Ocean, before he had a few seasons in FIA WEC in both LMP2 and LMP1 – but still as a call-up driver for Audi, when they needed a fast driver in some GT3 Endurance races at Nürburgring and Spa Francorchamps amongst many others.
In that way Aust Motorsport has a good combination of young blood and plenty of experience, and that can be really useful in ADAC GT Masters 2017.
Christopher Friedrich and Adrien de Leener will be driving the second KÜS Team75 Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, that the German team enters. Mathieu Jaminet and Michael Ammermüller have already been announced for the team several weeks ago, and now team owner Timo Bernhard and team boss Klaus Graf has found these two young drivers for the second car.
Friedrich is 22 years old and has a background in the karting sport. After 2 seasons in the DMV-GTC series in a Porsche 911 GT3, where he finished third and second respectively, he has now got that big approval, that two such experienced gentlemen in motorsport have chosen him to driver their car.
Belgian de Leener has a big experience from GT racing, even with his just 27 years of age. He has done Trofeo Maserati in several seasons, before he make a jump into a Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 in 2014. That has been his primary weapon since in both Blancpain Endurance Series and Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup, but has also participated in an Audi R8 LMS in Blancpain Endurance Series in 2016 – now it will be a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that he will have to learn how to master.
The ADAC GT Masters season starts in the final weekend of April at Oschersleben.