Why Florian Spengler is a dying breed in the ADAC GT Masters, how he sums up his season so far, and where he could race in the future
Florian Spengler has enjoyed a 2022 ADAC GT Masters season so far, After six of 14 races, he and Car Collection Audi teammate Markus Winkelhock are still waiting for their first top-10 result of the year.
It almost happened at the last race on Zandvoort Sunday. Winkelhock handed over the Audi to Spengler in fifth place, but he collided with Lorenzo Ferrari in the 48 Landgraf Mercedes a short time later, ending up in 14th place.
“I have already forgotten what happened in Oschersleben. Red Bull Ring was not so long ago. Unfortunately, we had the one retirement after the jostling in the last third of the race, where Markus was shot down. That was also a race to forget. The second race was quite solid with P11”, Spengler looks back.
Who is eligible for points in the Trophy classification?
The 33-year-old is one of a dying breed in the German GT Championship, as he is the only driver this year who is eligible to score points for the Trophy classification. The Sporting Regulations of the series determine who is allowed to collect points for the Trophy classification at all. This is precisely laid down in Article 6.4.
There it says: “All drivers of the following categories take part in the ADAC GT Masters Trophy classification: drivers of the category Non-Professional, who are older than 30 years drivers of the category Semi-Professional, who are older than 35 years ”
This only applies to Spengler in 2022, who “of course already looks more at the overall standings”. “If I leave a few guys behind me in qualifying who should actually be in front of me, then I’m already proud. But basically, when you’re in a classification and you’re the only one there, it’s a bit frustrating. ”
Florian Spengler flirts with NLS programme
How to win more drivers for the Trophy classification again, however, Spengler doesn’t know a solution for that either. Therefore, he too is looking around for alternative programmes for his Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II. One possibility would be the Nordschleife. He will definitely contest another VLN race there “this year”.
“Whether it will be more, we don’t know yet.” In any case, the Car Collection driver already knows the series and the track: “I drove GT3 there once, at least in qualifying. Unfortunately, our team boss had an accident in the race. But in qualifying we were able to perform quite well.” Incidentally, the stint dates back to 12 October 2019.
At that time, Spengler shared the Audi 33 of EFP Car Collection by TECE with Elia Erhart and the already mentioned team boss Peter Schmidt. In qualifying for the 51st ADAC Barbarossapreis, then the eighth round of the season, the trio finished in twelfth place.
So far, Spengler and Winkelhock have only managed to beat this result once in the current ADAC GT Masters season: On Spielberg Sunday, they finished eleventh. The duo has already shown that they can achieve even more in the second half of the season.
