ADAC Masters Weekend
ADAC GT Masters
EuroSpeedway Lausitz
September 2nd – 4th, 2011

The 2011 ADAC GT Masters season is rapidly drawing to a close. There are only three more events for the GT pilots to score points and fight for the coveted Masters trophy.  Once again, about 40 GT3 cars took part in the high performance sports on four wheels in midsummery weather.

Christopher Haase and his partner Andreas Simonsen (Audi R8 LMS, Phoenix Racing Pole Promotion) left the Red Bull Ring in Austria two weeks ago feeling happy about their place on the podium in race 1 and frustrated about the result of race 2 and travelled to the Lausitz with new confidence.

The results of the free practice sessions on Friday morning and noon – positions 5 and 3 – were definitely respectable. However, the slump in the qualifying times on Friday evening brought the pilots and the team back down to earth. Having set such great times earlier the Phoenix Audi was sent back on track for the qualifying session without any modifications. Simonsen clearly had problems pushing the Audi R8 forward and reached a difficult start position 22 for the race on Saturday. 23-year old Christopher Haase reached a much better start position 10 during his qualifying session. However, “I am not pleased. Compared to the free practice sessions the car was much more difficult to handle and we still need to find out why“, says Haase.

Swede Andreas Simonsen went first in race 1 on Saturday. A crash during the start affected the traffic for several laps. Gaining P19, Simonsen was only able to maintain his position after the restart. Christopher Haase took over during the mandatory pit stop and driver change and came back on track in tight traffic. “It was a difficult race. I had to fight hard to keep the others off. I was simply not able to go any faster and therefore I had almost no chances to push forward.” Haase took advantage of the deteriorating tyres of his competitors, at first passing the FACH AUTO TECH Porsche and two laps before the end of the race the REITER Engineering Stuck Lamborghini. However, Haase drove across the finish line in P14, scoring no points.

The start of race 2 on Sunday was extremely turbulent. Several cars were affected. “Somehow everybody crashed into everybody and you need to keep up. Otherwise you are done.” And 23-year old Christopher Haase managed this very well. He came out of the first lap in P8 and later fought his way forward to P5. “Despite the imbalanced Balance of Performance (BoP) which puts us at a disadvantage we were able to keep up well. Even though we found a good setup we are still not competitive which can be very frustrating. We drive at the limit”, says Christopher Haase. Andreas Simonsen took over during the mandatory pit stop and had a lot more problems fighting off the competitors with deteriorating tyres. During his stint he lost the previously gained places and drove across the finish line in the original start position (P10).

Christopher Haase: “We are not happy at all. The ADAC should seriously think about the classifications.”

Bernhard Demmer (project manager for GT3 Phoenix Racing Pole Promotion): “The start of the races sometimes reminds me of stock-car races and not GT sports. Some pilots drive with a knife between their teeth. Christopher has done the right thing keeping up with the competitors. He has done a great job. Andreas had the thankless task with the deteriorating tyres and he did his best. P10 is fine.

The BoP is being discussed again and again. It was slightly modified but is still not on a level to be able to compete on the top.”

The next ADAC GT Masters race will take place in Assen, Netherlands from September 16th-18th, 2011 and will be broadcast live by German TV station Kabel1.



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