WTM-Racing has changed the brand. After ten years of competition with Porsche, team owner Georg Weiss will in 2017 rely upon Ferrari. Together with the new partner Rinaldi Racing from Mendig/ Germany, WTM will bring a Ferrari 488 GT3 to the start of the VLN endurance championship races. The driver squad will not be changed: As before, Weiss himself will participate in the Wochenspiegel quartet together with Oliver Kainz, Jochen Krumbach and Mike Stursberg.
The initials WTM will now, however, stand for ‘Wochenspiegel Team Monschau’. Georg Weis: “Over the last ten years, we’ve had a really great time at the Nürburgring with the ‘Wochenspiegel Team Manthey’. Porsche and we have achieved many successful results. It was a fantastic period which has nevertheless now come to an end. It’s time to start something new again.”
Saturday, the 4th of March 2017, was a very special day for Georg Weiss and his team: This was when the new, completely white Ferrari 488 GT3 was delivered to them at the Ferrari test track in Fiorano near Maranello, the headquarters of the renowned sports car manufacturer. Weiss: “That was a very special moment.”
Ahead of the traditional test and set-up session on 18th March at the Nürburgring, some preliminary tests of the new race car, already in the Wochenspiegel design, were already carried out by WTM-Racing in Misano. All of the WTM drivers had the opportunity to get a first impression of driving the Ferrari. The calendar of the team this year currently provides for participations in the VLN races and in the Nürburgring 24h Race.
Georg Weiss: “I am convinced that the cooperation between WTM, Rinaldi Racing and Ferrari will work very well right from the beginning. The look of the Ferrari is fantastic and I hope that it will also be able to show its potential on the race track. I am looking forward to our new project at the Nürburgring and we are sure that an exciting season is lying ahead of us.”
The Wochenspiegel-Porsche Cayman GT4 CS also “moved” to Rinaldi Racing in Mendig near the Nürburgring. Nico Menzel will not be part of the driver team in the 2017 season as he will assume more duties within the BMW junior programme. René Offermann will thus compete in his second VLN season together with Dirk Riebensahm in the Wochenspiegel-Cayman.
