Rowe Racing - Spa is conquered, the next target is Nurburgring

Rowe Racing, founded by Michael Zehe and Hans-Peter Naundorf in 2008, is the motorsport team based in the town of Sankt Ingbert in Saarland, Germany.

The team began its operation racing in VLN series at Nurburgring in 2009, running the Audi TT but without notable success. The year of 2010 was a significant step forward after Rowe Racing scored numerous top 10 finishes in VLN running the Porsche 911 GTS Cup.

In 2010 Rowe Racing team began partnership with Mercedes-Benz

Late in 2010 Rowe Racing began a partnership with Mercedes-Benz and became a factory-backed team. The debut was in VLN when the team fielded two Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 cars but the results were below the expectations. However, the team hasn’t lost confidence and in the following race at legendary Nordschleife three Mercedes cars were on the grid, one of them being co-entered with Christian Mamerow and that car managed to win the race. Later in 2011, another win in VLN was scored with the car driven by team owner Zehe, Alexander Roloff, and Roland Rehfeld, while the one car managed to finish 24 Hours of Nurburgring and took 17th position.

Rowe Racing began racing with Mercedes

Another two wins were scored in 2012. The first one by Jan Seyffarth and Alexander Roloff at 52nd ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen, while the second one was at 6-hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen when Thomas Jager completed the driver line-up.

Over the years, Rowe Racing became one of the best teams in VLN. In 2013, Seyffarth won the OPEL 6-hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen driving alongside Nico Bastian and Lance David Arnold. The same year, Rowe Racing’s Mercedes cars finished 3rd and 4th at 24 Hours of Nurburgring. The 3rd place in one of the most renowned endurance races in the world again was won in 2014 when the drivers of Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 were Michael Zehe, Christian Hohenadel, Maro Engel, and Nico Bastian.

The next Rowe Racing’s main ambition is to win at Nurburgring 24h

Rowe Racing after 2014 continued to race in VLN with a considerable success but also prepared the cars for other international series.

Blancpain GT Series was a new challenge

After many years in VLN, the Sankt Ingbert-based team decided to try its luck in other series. The choice was the fast-growing Blancpain GT Series, more precisely Endurance Cup of the series. Rowe Racing entered the competition with two cars and no less than 10 drivers shared the seat of Mercedes cars.

Rowe Racing’s Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 at Circuit Paul Ricard, 2015 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup

The first year was fine after the team finished 7th in standings. Nico Bastian, Stef Dusseldorp, and Daniel Juncadella scored the best results as they all finished among top 10 in the Drivers’ Championship. They led most of 24 Hours of Spa that year but due to troubles on the alternator late in the race, they finished 16th.

Switch to BMW and victory at Spa 24h

Before the start of 2016 campaign, Rowe Racing became the team with a support of BMW. The again did a great job in Blancpain GT Series Endurance, as well as in Sprint Cup. After finishing 4th in the race at Silverstone, Rowe Racing’s drivers Philipp Eng, Alexander Sims, and Maxime Martin won Spa 24 Hours with BMW M6 GT3. The team took the 5th place in the Endurance Cup overall standings.

Alex Sims, Maxime Martin and Philipp Eng celebratin victory at Spa

The results in Sprint Cup weren’t as good. The start of the year was excellent after Eng and Sims scored two podiums in the season-opening round at Misano but later in the season, they scored only one top 10 finish before taking the 11th position in the Drivers’ Championship. In the Teams’ championship, Rowe Racing was 7th.

Rowe Racing in ADAC GT Masters

In 2014 team debuted in ADAC GT Masters, fielding two cars. The first year in the new series went relatively well and the team finished 7th in the Teams’ Championship. In the following year, Rowe Racing appeared in just one round at Nurburgring, while in 2016 the team hasn’t competed in ADAC GT Masters.

Rowe Racing, 2014 ADAC GT Masters

The same ambitions for 2017

Rowe Racing wants to continue its progress in 2017. The team will continue to race in VLN and already announced that will run two cars in Nurburgring 24 Hours. In Blancpain GT Series, Rowe will have two BMWs and the team has its sights set firmly on defending the crown at Spa 24h.

Photo: rowe-racing.de, rowe-mineraloel.com, blancpain-gt-series.com, adac-motorsport.de