ALPINA ADAC GTMasters 2012 Round up

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neil
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ALPINA ADAC GTMasters 2012 Round up

Post by neil » Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:53 pm

Frustrating finale for ALPINA in the 2012 ADAC GT Masters
Balance of Performance leaves Lunardi/Martin without a chance in the championship battle

Buchloe, 2nd October 2012
Three victories, two pole positions, and in contention for the championship title until the very end. Overall ALPINA had a successful season in the ADAC GT Masters with the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3, but it ended with some frustration at the final round in Hockenheim. Only a few days before the final race of the season, the organiser mandated a reduction in output of the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3, leaving Dino Lunardi, Maxime Martin and ALPINA without any chance for a successful title defence.

Things then turned out as expected during racing at Hockenheim. The changes to the ‘Balance of Performance’ (BOP) meant the BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 was no longer
competitive - burdened with an even smaller air restrictor and 50kg of ballast. The competition meanwhile profited from power increases and weight reductions. One year after ALPINA took the championship with a light-to-flag-victory at Hockenheim, Lunardi/Martin were entirely uncompetitive. Go figure.

“This weekend we were only background actors“, a disappointed Maxime Martin said.

“As expected, due to the wide ranging changes in the ‘Balance of Performance’, we were no longer competitive and could not fight for championship honours at the final round“, ALPINA´s Andreas Bovensiepen said. “We have completed 50 ADAC GT Master races so far and never have we been so uncompetitive due to the BOP. This was very obvious watching at the track and on TV. Maxime Martin, who is turning out to be a GT genius, is suddenly at the back of the field fighting with the amateurs. The DMSB (German Motor Sport Association), which is responsible for the BOP, issued on very short notice a heavily revised and not entirely understandable BOP. At the most recent round at the Nürburgring all the championship contenders were separated only by a few tenths of a second, suddenly the difference was more than a second. You have to remember that in this series one tenth of a second accounts for four places on the grid!“.

"Our BMW ALPINA B6 has been slowed by more than half a second, while Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have been made faster by half a second. The DMSB must have a skewed respect for ALPINA engineering, because it seems to assume that we are able to cheat the laws of physics. The ADAC GT Masters is without question the best GT series in Europe. I wish that in the future the ADAC will bring more expertise to the track with regards to the BOP.“

The ADAC GT Masters final at Hockenheim marked the last entry of a factory BMW ALPINA B6 GT3 in the German series. ALPINA will continue to support customer teams and looks forward to speak to any team interested to compete with the BMW ALPINA in 2013.

Result race 1:
1. Hürten/Schwager, Schubert-BMW Z4
2. Renauer/Armindo, FROGREEN-Porsche 911
3. Stoll/Dobitsch, MS-Mercedes SLS AMG
4. Proczyk/Baumann, Heico-Mercedes SLS AMG
5. Margaritis/Arnold, Heico-Mercedes SLS AMG

Result race 2:
1. Asch/Götz, MS-Mercedes SLS AMG
2. Bauman/Proczyk, Heico-Mercedes SLS AMG
3. Renauer/Armindo, FROGREEN-Porsche 911
4. Hürtgen/Schwager, Schubert-BMW Z4
5. Margaritis/Arnold, Heico-Mercedes SLS AMG

Drivers championship
1. Asch/Götz, MS-Mercedes SLS AMG, 167 points
2. Alessi/Keilwitz, Callaway-Corvette, 153
3. Engelhart, Porsche 911, 144
4. Lunardi/Martin, BMW ALPINA B6 GT3, 134
5. Hürtgen/Schwager, BMW Z4, 126

Teams championship
1. MS RACING, Mercedes SLS AMG, 189 points
2. Callaway, Corvette, 171 Punkte
3. Schütz Motorsport, Porsche 911, 147
4. ALPINA, BMW ALPINA B6 GT3, 138
5. Schubert Motorsport, BMW Z4, 137

As always you can find all the results here:

http://www.thealpinaregister.com/racing/2012/adac

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