Benjamin Mazatis manages Walkenhorst Motorsport
to first Aston Martin victory at the Nürburgring
Benjamin Mazatis won together with his teammates Sami-Matti Trogen (Finland) and Anders Buchardt (Norway) the 3rd event of the Nürburgring Nordschleife Series in the SP9 Pro-Am Class. It was the traditional team's first victory Walkenhorst Motorsport with a Aston Martin racing car. Mazatis already laid the foundation for this at the start and the subsequent initial phase of 4-hour race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. He moved up from 30th overall to 12th place in his 665 bhp racing car, also taking the lead in the SP9 Pro-Am class. His subsequent teammates maintained the class lead during the 69. ADAC Westphalia Rally, as the race is officially titled, no longer take. They also achieved an excellent top 10 result with their finish after just over four hours of racing and over 650 race kilometres, achieving ninth place overall in the classification of 109 cars that started. The race day began just like the last event, the big 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, has stopped. With a bell of fog over the track. This made it impossible for the drivers to accelerate on the legendary Eifel race track. As a result, qualifying was delayed by almost two hours. However, unlike three weeks ago, the fog then lifted and the pit lights could be switched to green. Clear track! Mazatis was the first of the three drivers of the number 35 Aston Martin to take to the track and immediately put the team in the top 10. However, the initially wet track continued to dry out and the lap times dropped minute by minute. In the end, some drivers even went out on slicks, but Mazatis and his team-mates were unlucky with the timing, as they were just at the start of the 24.358-kilometre, almost 8-minute lap when this window opened. As a result, they were unable to make the necessary change in time for the conditions and were left far behind. The result was only 30th on the grid and a lot of work for the race.
As the fastest driver, Mazatis started the 4-hour race with a clear direction: full throttle and make up as many places as possible. The 26-year-old from Bruckmühl succeeded in doing just that. With strong overtaking manoeuvres, such as slowing down two Cup Porsche 911 GT3s on the very last groove in the Bergwerk and Schwalbenschwanz sections. He also impressively weaved his way past slower cars on the right and then immediately left again several times as they lapped him. After a good three quarters of an hour of driving, the overtaking manoeuvre of the neon yellow Lamborghini Huracan GT3’s Breidscheid exit, which meant the lead in the SP9 Pro-Am class, in which the carbon black Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with starting number 35 from Walkenhorst Motorsport with Benjamin Mazatis was entered. After a good hour of driving, the routine pit stop was due, during which Mazatis handed the car over to his Finnish team-mate Sami-Matti Trogen. At this point, the team was already in 12th place overall.
„That was a mega stint for me, I felt really comfortable in the car. You don't make up 18 positions every day. I am very happy! Big thanks also to my teammates, who seamlessly continued where I left off, and the entire Walkenhorst Motorsport team, who did a fantastic job again today. Together, we thoroughly deserved this victory! Of course, it was balm for the soul after everything that happened in the first half of the season, especially at the 24-hour race. We had put in so much hard work and energy and hadn't been rewarded until now. But the waiting and the hard work paid off, and now the day has come. It just feels fantastic, and now we all want to carry this momentum into the next races to be successful there again!"“
Benjamin Mazatis will now continue on the Nürburgring Nordschleife with NLS 4, the ROWE 6 Hours ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Race on 2nd and 3rd August.
Photos: SWOOSH Motorsport Communications