Walkenhorst Motorsport chases overall victory at the N24

Walkenhorst Motorsport has been pursuing one goal ever since the team was founded: overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. At this year's edition of the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring, the team will make another attempt to bring the winner's trophy to Melle. A high-calibre driver quartet of Aston Martin factory drivers and Nordschleife experts will drive the team's top car, one of the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3s.

"While we have already proven at Spa-Francorchamps that we can clinch overall victories in major 24-hour classics, we have not yet achieved our big goal here in the Eifel," says Managing Director Jörg Breuer. "We've had good speed in recent years, but for various reasons we've never been able to clinch victory. We want to change that this year and we are confident, as we have an extremely strong package with the new Aston Martin and our drivers!"

The team's top car will be driven by the two Aston Martin factory drivers David Pittard and Nicki Thiim as well as Nürburgring experts Christian Krognes and Kuba Giermaziak at the endurance classic in the Eifel. The Dane Thiim already won the race in 2013. Since switching to Aston Martin, he has clinched a class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and twice won the FIA WEC GTE Pro class. He will be competing for Walkenhorst Motorsport on the Nordschleife for the first time. His factory driver colleague David Pittard competed for the team on the Nordschleife and in SRO racing series between 2018 and 2021 and established himself as one of the fastest GT3 drivers. After winning the Eifel classic with a Ferrari team last year, he now wants to repeat the victory with his long-standing team from Lower Saxony.

Christian Krognes and Walkenhorst Motorsport are continuing their long-standing partnership. The Norwegian - who became champion in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie in 2012 - has been driving for the team since 2016. Their greatest joint success was the overall victory at the 24h of Spa in 2018. The driver quartet is completed by Kuba Giermaziak from Poland, who won five NLS races with WMS last year and is regarded as one of the fastest Nordschleife drivers in the current field.

"It's great to be back with Walkenhorst at the Nordschleife as they’re such an experienced team here. Previously together we achieved a lot, but not the 24h of the Nürburgring, so this is unfinished business for me!" said Pittard, who also competes with the team in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup. "Aston Martin also has a great desire to win this race overall after many class victories and I think the new Vantage GT3 will be great around here! Between the 4 drivers, we have won 3 NLS championships, twice the 24h Nürburgring, broken each others lap records, and since NLS8 2021 won 11 of the 21 NLS races that have taken place, mainly thanks to Kuba, so there is no doubting the ability of our line up or the experience we have at the Nordschleife which is so important for this program to be successful"

Nicki Thiim has already achieved many successes in his time as an Aston Martin works driver and is now looking forward to his first start with Walkenhorst Motorsport: "I'm really looking forward to another crack at the Nürburgring! Every fan and every driver, including myself, loves the Green Hell. I am delighted that Walkenhorst Motorsport and Aston Martin Racing are working together and that we will be competing with a very strong line-up! With the experience of everyone involved, I think we can achieve something very big. From now on its full throttle until the 24 hours and we are going to do everything we can to achieve a top result there."

"I'm thrilled to rejoin Walkenhorst Motorsport for another exciting venture, now alongside Aston Martin. Testing the stunning Vantage GT3 for the first time will be an honour, and teaming up with Kuba, David, and Nicki forms a very strong quartet of drivers. I'm sure it's going to be an exhilarating few months of racing leading up to the big goal of winning the 24 hours of the Nürburgring," says the Norwegian Walkenhorst Motorsport regular Christian Krognes.

Kuba Giermaziak, who will contest the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring with WMS for the third time: " It´s amazing that after such a good 2023 season, we are able to drive again in a brand new car on the Nordschleife. We have one of the strongest lineups on the grid together with Christian, Nicki and David, but a new to us Aston Martin. I’m sure that this year we will be much more competitive with the Aston than it was in the years before, even though we have very limited time to get the setup and driving together."

The quartet of drivers has been confirmed for the ADAC 24h Qualifiers (13th and 14th April), the second event of the new Nürburgring Endurance Series (4th May) and the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring (30th May - 2nd June). Walkenhorst Motorsport will announce further details of the endurance programme on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife at a later date.

"I am extremely proud that we will be competing with Christian, David, Kuba and Nicki in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. We are thus combining long-standing drivers from our team with successful Aston Martin factory drivers in our top car. And I am sure that with our driver line-up we will be able to have a say in victory," says Niclas Königbauer, Managing Director Walkenhorst Motorsport.