Ekris Motorsport concludes GT4 European Series Northern Cup season in style with a pair of wins

NÜRBURG (17 September 2017) – Ekris Motorsport already having secured the GT4 European Series Northern Cup title during the previous race weekend at Circuit Zandvoort, its drivers Ricardo van der Ende and Max Koebolt concluded the season in style. With a pair of pole positions and as many race wins at the Nürburgring, the two drivers of the Ekris M4 GT4 made their championship title shine even more. Their success in the Eifel brought the total to five victories and eleven podium finishes from twelve races, an outstanding result. “A great reward for our team effort,” team manager Stian Boers comments. “From previous years, we already knew that the Nürburgring suits our cars, but this weekend really was perfect. Conditions were ideal and concluding the Northern Cup season like this is giving us a good feeling. Now, our next goal is to win the overall European title.”

“The story of 2017 is the Ekris Motorsport team,” British commentator David Addison said during the live stream and the final round of the Northern Cup season made it clear once again. The Ekris M4 GT4 already came out on top in both qualifying sessions, Max Koebolt and Ricardo van der Ende leaving no doubt about who were the favourites for this weekend’s races at the Nürburgring. In first qualifying, Max Koebolt claimed pole position for the first race with a time of 2m04.828s while Ricardo van der Ende secured the best grid position for race two with a time of 2m04.635s. In the first race on Saturday afternoon, Koebolt immediately took the lead of the 37-car strong field and held on to it until the pit stop. After the driver change, van der Ende rejoined the race in first place and went on to win with a margin of over ten seconds. The second race saw van der Ende convert his pole position into the race lead. He kept his cool at the restart following a ten minutes’ safety car intervention, brought the car into the pits while in the lead and left it to Max Koebolt, who completed the job in a skilful way.

Meanwhile, the Ekris M4 GT4 has also racked up its first wins in the GT4 European Series Southern Cup: last week, drivers Julien Piguet and Frédéric Johais took the BMW Team France Ekris M4 GT4 to victory in both races at the Magny-Cours circuit. With Ricardo van der Ende and Max Koebolt, the Ekris Motorsport team will also be taking part in the final two rounds of the Southern Cup, at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya on 30 September and 1 October and at Circuit Paul Ricard on 14 and 15 October. These events also count towards the GT4 European Cup overall classification.

Ricardo van der Ende: “Once again a fantastic weekend and great work by the team. The basic set-up was already good and we only had to make some minor adjustments. That shows that we not only have completed the development of the car, but we are also in control of it, so that we know how to react to changing conditions. We have concluded the Northern Cup season in style, our next goal is the European title.”

Max Koebolt: “A perfect result to conclude the season. We have shown once again what we have been doing all year long: not making any mistakes which leads to such results. Two pole positions and a pair of race wins speak for themselves, but even more important is the fact that we were in a position from which we were able to control the races. That makes us feel really well. We did everything right and we can look back upon this weekend with satisfaction.”