Autosport (UK)

Top BMW squad back in GTWCE

- GARY WATKINS

Two-time Spa 24 Hours winner Rowe Racing is switching back to the GT World Challenge Europe after a season in the

DTM to run a two-car factory programme with BMW. It will field a pair of new M4 GT3S for six works drivers across the five Endurance Cup rounds of the series.

BMW stalwarts Augusto Farfus and Nicky Catsburg will renew the partnershi­p that yielded the Interconti­nental GT Challenge title with Walkenhors­t Motorsport in 2020. They will share one of the M4s with Nick Yelloly, a BMW driver since 2019. The second M4 will be driven by the three members of BMW’S junior programme: 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Neil Verhagen, who have cut their teeth with BMW racing on the Nurburgrin­g Nordschlei­fe since 2020.

It will be Rowe’s first campaign with BMW in the GTWCE, formerly the Blancpain GT Series, since 2018. Its switch to Porsche, while still running Bimmers at the Nurburgrin­g 24 Hours, yielded a second Spa victory in 2020 with a 911 GT3-R after its 2016 triumph with the BMW M6 GT3.

“It is going to be an exciting year, with three very experience­d BMW M works drivers in one car and the three guys from the BMW junior team in the other – it is the perfect mix,” said Rowe team boss Hans-peter Naundorf. “We are very proud that BMW M Motorsport has entrusted us with accompanyi­ng the next step of the BMW junior team.”

Former BMW Motorsport boss Jochen Neerpasch, who is a consultant on the revival of the junior programme he launched in 1977, explained that the three juniors had now “completed their apprentice­ship on the Nordschlei­fe”. “They will be put to the test in the GTWCE,” he said. “They will be driving at race tracks that are new to them, and will be up against the best GT drivers in the world.”

Rowe will also return to the Nurburgrin­g 24 Hours in May with a pair of M4s as it bids to repeat its 2020 victory with the

M6. The factory drivers for this programme have yet to be announced.

 ?? ?? Left to right: juniors Harper, Verhagen and Hesse clearly have standard-issue BMW hair gel
Left to right: juniors Harper, Verhagen and Hesse clearly have standard-issue BMW hair gel

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