Jimmy Eriksson geared up for ADAC GT Masters season

Press Release

A new season, a new challenge for Jimmy Eriksson: this weekend marks the start of the ADAC GT Masters campaign as the German sports car championship gets underway at Oschersleben.

Slotting into a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 run by reigning DTM champions Team Rosberg, 27-year-old Eriksson is ready to face stiff competition in a field boasting no fewer than eight manufacturers, 36 top-end GT3 cars, 72 drivers and 23 different teams.

“It’s great to finally get the season going,” says Jimmy Eriksson. “It’s a very strong grid, which is always inspiring, and I’m really looking forward to this new challenge in ADAC GT Masters!”

After racing a Mercedes-AMG GT3 to third place overall in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup last year, Swede Eriksson sets out on a fresh adventure this season with Team Rosberg – a squad which is entering the shrine of GT racing in a new collaboration with Lamborghini, while continuing its DTM involvement with sister brand Audi in parallel.

“We are new to ADAC GT Masters and there will be a learning curve,” Jimmy Eriksson continues. “We’ve had to get to grips with a new car over the winter, and unfortunately we’ve had to cancel a few days of testing due to poor weather. The last few weeks have been very fruitful, though. We had two good tests, at Hockenheim and Most respectively, where we took some important steps. I don’t know how fast we are at the moment, but we should have a decent platform to build on.”

ADAC GT Masters features the universally adopted basics of GT endurance racing, with drivers teaming up in pairs and exchanging stints at compulsory mid-race pit stops. There are two races per weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, both of a one-hour duration.

Driving time is split equally between the two drivers, with one in charge of qualifying the car on Saturday and the other doing the same on Sunday. Whoever qualifies the car must also start the same day’s race.

Jimmy Eriksson’s team-mate in the #35 Team Rosberg Lamborghini is German teenager Jonathan Judek.

“There are clear rules regarding driver pairings and how driving time must be split,” Eriksson explains. “For us, that means I’ll be qualifying the car on Saturdays and Jonathan on Sundays. My own personal goal is to be fighting near the front in my sessions, and then we’ll take it from there in terms of the overall result. I enjoy working with the team and Jonathan, so it should be a fun year!”

The eight manufacturers involved in ADAC GT Masters this season areLamborghini, Audi, BMW, Corvette, (returnees) Ferrari, (debutants) Honda, Mercedes and Porsche.

Among the 70 other drivers to make up the grid alongside Eriksson/Judek are two-time FIA WEC champion and double Le Mans 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard (Porsche), and ex-DTM champion Timo Scheider (BMW).

All ADAC GT Masters races are streamed live online at www.adac.de/motorsport and www.youtube.com/adac.