An 18 years old rookie driver will make his debut at the 5th VLN race, the ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen. Hendrik von Danwitz will start in a BMW 235i of Lifecarracing in the Cup5 class together with his father Herbert and with Thomas Leyherr.
Hendrik got the motorsport virus at a relatively late age. “Until I was 14 years old, I was playing football and had no connection to motorsport. Then I accompanied my father to a circuit race and I was right away enthusiastic. Thereafter I started to get some practice in karting at the karting centre of Kerpen which I enjoyed very much and this is how it all started”, he says and explains the beginnings of his passion for motorsport.
And the young rookie has already achieved some successful results. In 2014, we won the club championship of the famous kart club Kerpen-Manheim, followed by victories in the ADAC Kart Masters, the strongest karting series in Germany, and he achieved the qualification to the European Championship final and to the German Championship. In 2017, he changed to automobile racing. Again, things went well from the very beginning. He participated with a VW Scirocco of the Team Lubner Motorsport in the NES 500, the National Endurance Series, and took right away a class win both in Spa-Francorchamps and in Oschersleben and achieved a second place at the Lausitzring. “First of all, I wanted to gain experience and learn how to do a race in the touring car sport. As the Nordschleife represents a very special challenge, we wanted to compete in the VLN as soon as possible, and that is also the plan for the future”, explains von Danwitz who will continue in the VLN with the BMW until the end of the season. For next year, they have then plans to change to a GT4 car.
He is hyper-gladly looking forward to the joint experience with his father Herbert. In the last years, the 55-years old took part in the VLN series amongst others with a Renault Clio and an Audi TT RS, since 2015 he has been competing in the BMW M 235i. “I am excited, it is of course great to compete together with my father. He intends to stop racing after this season. He has been competing in the VLN since quite a few years and will definitely be able to give me some valuable advice. He is ambitious and critical with me, so the tone may become a little rougher from time to time. Next year then, the focus will be completely on me and we will see where it is going”, says Hendrik who also gained first experience recently on the legendary Nordschleife. “I drove the BMW at the RCN. Until then, I knew only the Grand Prix Circuit, the Nordschleife is something totally different. It was cool and I was relatively quick. Unfortunately, we were disqualified in the end because we completed one lap too much.”
Despite his young age and the missing experience in racing, Hendrik von Danwitz is nevertheless self-conscious with regard to his coming tasks: “A few top-ten results should be possible before I wish to fully attack in the GT4 class next year and thus catch the attention of the right people.”
