ROWE Racing is the
motor racing
Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...
team of the German
lubricant
A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...
manufacturer ''ROWE Mineralölwerk GmbH''. Since 2011 ''ROWE Racing'' has competed in series such as the
VLN (Association of Nürburgring Endurance Cup Organizers), the
GT World Challenge Europe
GT World Challenge Europe (known as the Blancpain GT Series between 2014 and 2019) is a sports car racing series organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's G ...
(former Blancpain GT Series), the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) is a grand touring car series sanctioned by ITR e.V. who have been affiliated to the DMSB-FIA since 1984. The series is based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The ser ...
and the
24 Hours Nürburgring
4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures.
In mathematics
Four is the smallest c ...
. In 2020 it won both the
Nürburgring 24 Hours
The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car and GT endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Grand Prix track") circuits of the Nürburgring in Rhineland-Palat ...
and the
Spa 24 Hours
The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies.
History
The Spa 24 Hours was ...
.
Team
The team was founded in 2011 by Michael Zehe and Hans-Peter Naundorf. The operations of the racing team are made by ''Motorsport Competence Group AG (MCG AG)'' who is a development partner and service provider for the automotive and racing area.
Under the name Team ROWE Motorsport the team entered the VLN championship in 2009. Team co-owner Michael Zehe ran an
Audi TT with
Franz Rohr. In 2010
Michael Zehe,
Marco Schelp and
Alexander Roloff ran the
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S during the season with occasional support from Mark Bullitt. Bullitt was a racing driver living in Germany but racing under an American licence. The team achieved a number of top ten overall finishes.
Mercedes-Benz years
![Roweracing 24hrennen2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Roweracing_24hrennen2013.jpg)
Late 2010 Naundorf was contacted by ROWE Mineralölwerk GmbH CEO Michael Toe about entering a
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (C197 / R197) is a front mid-engine, 2-seater, limited production grand tourer developed by the Mercedes-AMG division of German automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, with the assistance of David Coulthard. The car is ...
in GT races. Naundorf worked with Florian Rhotert to enter ROWE Racing in the
VLN, a championship solely racing at the
Nürburgring Nordschleife
The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...
. The team entered three cars (one co-entered with
Christian Mamerow) in the first race of the season, the 58th ADAC Westfalenfahrt. In the
GT3 class the team entered two SLS AMG GT3 cars and one
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S. Only one SLS AMG GT3 took the start, which subsequently failed to finish. The Porsche finished the race in seventeenth place with drivers
Michael Zehe,
Alexander Roloff and
Marco Schelp. After the first race the team decided to no longer enter the Porsche and focusing on entering three Mercedes-Benz sportscars. In the second round of the season the co-entered Mamerow/ROWE Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 won the race with Mamerow and
Armin Hahne
Armin Hahne (born September 10, 1955 in Moers, West Germany) is a German racing driver, best known for his exploits in touring car racing. The highpoint of his career was winning both the 1982 and 1983 Spa 24 Hours driving BMW's. Another highli ...
driving. The team with Zehe, Roloff and Roland Rehfeld won their second race near the end of the season during the 34th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen The teams best placed car in the
2011 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2011 ADAC Zurich Insurance Group, Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 39th running of the 24 Hours Nürburgring, 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over June 25–26, 2011. 135 out of the 202 starters were classified.
Resume
With Cor ...
finished seventeenth, the other two cars failed to finish.
Jan Seyffarth
Jan Seyffarth (born 12 July 1986, in Querfurt, Bezirk Halle) is a German racing driver. He has competed in such series as the FIA GT3 European Championship, Rolex Sports Car Series and Porsche Supercup
The Porsche Supercup (officially known a ...
joined the team in VLN in 2012. Seyffarth and Roloff won the 52nd ADAC Reinoldus-Langstreckenrennen with only a tiny margin of 0.338 seconds. When
Thomas Jäger
Thomas Jäger (born 27 October 1976) is a German professional racing driver.
Career
Born in Chemnitz, Jäger competed in the Renault Eurocup, Renault Spider Trophy in 1997.http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/407/career/ Career statistics at Driver D ...
joined the team for the 6 hour ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen the team scored their second victory. The
2013 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2013 ADAC Zurich Insurance Group, Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 41st running of the 24 Hours Nürburgring, 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over May 19–20, 2013. The race was suspended for over 9 hours due to heavy rain.
T ...
was very successful for the German team. ROWE Racing finished third and fourth. For the 2013 season Seyffarth ran the VLN races with various teammates. With Seyffarth,
Lance David Arnold
Lance David Arnold (born 8 June 1986 in Duisburg) is a German racing driver. He has competed in such series as the Rolex Sports Car Series and Porsche Supercup, as well as the 2009 24 Hours of Nürburgring.
In November 2011, Arnold partnered wit ...
and
Nico Bastian
Nico Bastian (born 15 April 1990 in Heidelberg) is a racing driver from Germany. He currently competes in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup for Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is ...
the team won the OPEL 6-Stunden ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen. The team won the race again the following year with Jäger and Serffarth. A new driver pairing of
Christian Hohenadel
Christian Hohenadel (born 20 September 1976 in Dudweiler) is a German racing driver.
Together with Daniel Keilwitz, he won four races and the drivers championship of the 2010 FIA GT3 championship, driving a Callaway Corvette Z06.R GT3
In the ...
and
Maro Engel
Maro René Engel (born 27 August 1985) is a German professional racing driver based in Monaco. He is a long-time Mercedes-AMG factory driver, FIA GT World Cup Champion, Nürburgring 24 hour winner, DTM race winner, Suzuka 10h winner, Macau GT ...
won the ROWE sponsored DMV 250-Meilen-Rennen in 2014
Renger van der Zande
Renger van der Zande (born 16 February 1986) is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zan ...
joined Engel and Seyffarth for the openingsrace of the VLN series. The race was cut short after a heavy crash by
Jann Mardenborough
Jann Mardenborough (born 9 September 1991) is a British professional racing driver competing in the Japanese Super GT series. In 2011 he became the third (and youngest) winner of the GT Academy competition, beating 90,000 entrants. He was rewar ...
in the
GT Academy
GT Academy (also known as Nissan PlayStation GT Academy and NISMO PlayStation GT Academy as part of the Nissan partnership) was a television programme run by Nissan and Sony Interactive Entertainment, which provided an alternative route into re ...
Nissan GT-R Nismo in which one spectator was killed. ROWE Racing was in the lead when the race was red flagged. Hohenadel and
Klaus Graf
Klaus Graf (born 21 July 1969) is a German professional racing driver. He is the son of rally driver Peter Graf. He lives in the United States while competing in the American Le Mans Series. He resulted LMP1 class champion in 2012, and runner-up ...
scored the second season victory for the team at the 38th RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen In
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
the team also ran one round of the
ADAC GT Masters
The ADAC GT Masters is a grand tourer-based auto racing series founded by the international Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and supported by the German ADAC automotive club. Similar to an earlier ADAC GT Cup series in the 1990s, the new GT ...
series.
Stef Dusseldorp
Stef Dusseldorp (born 27 September 1989 in Winterswijk, Gelderland) is a Dutch racing driver.
He started a career in formula cars in 2007, having competed in series such as Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup (5th in 2008) and the German F ...
and Nico Bastian represented the team at the Nürburgring finishing eleventh in race one and thirteenth in race two.
ROWE Racing first entered the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2015. The teams best finish was a fourth place at the
1000km Paul Ricard. At the prestigious
24 Hours of Spa
The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies.
History
The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their a ...
the team (with
Daniel Juncadella
Daniel Juncadella Pérez-Sala (born 7 May 1991) is a Spanish racing driver who currently competes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. He is son of Xavier Juncadella and nephew of José María Juncadella, Alex Soler-Roig and Luis Pérez-Sala, als ...
, Nico Bastian and Stef Dusseldorp) was in the lead at the 6 hour and 12 hour marks, scoring valuable points for the championship. A problem on the alternator caused the team to retire with less than sixty minutes to go.
![Siegerfoto ROWE RACING 24h Spa 2016](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Siegerfoto_ROWE_RACING_24h_Spa_2016.jpg)
BMW Motorsport factory team
Starting in 2016 the team received factory support by
BMW Motorsport
BMW M Motorsport (formerly BMW Motorsport) is the division of BMW responsible for motorsport-related activities, including works-run competition programmes in touring car racing, sports car racing, motorcycle racing and Formula E.
The current orga ...
. The team entered two
BMW F13 M6 GT3 cars in the
Blancpain Endurance Series
The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...
and Sprint Cup. After a fourth place at Silverstone the team picked up its first Blancpain Endurance Series win at the prestigious
24 Hours of Spa
The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies.
History
The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their a ...
. In 2020 it won both the
Nürburgring 24 Hours
The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car and GT endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Grand Prix track") circuits of the Nürburgring in Rhineland-Palat ...
and the Spa 24 Hours.
The team participated in the
2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
The 2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters was the thirty-fifth season of premier German touring car championship and also twenty-second season under the moniker of Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters since the series' resumption in 2000.
It was the first ...
by fielding two BMW M6 GT3 cars full-time. The cars were driven by BMW factory drivers
Timo Glock
Timo Glock (born 18 March 1982) is a German professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He raced in Formula One for the Jordan, Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia F1 teams. He finished 10th in the Drivers' Championship in both ...
and
Sheldon van der Linde
Sheldon van der Linde (born 13 May 1999) is a South African motor racing driver. He has been competing in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters since 2019 and is currently the DTM champion, after winning his maiden title in 2022.
Career
van der Lind ...
, with the latter scoring the team's best result of the season by finishing in fourth place on one occasion. On 15 February 2022, the team announced that it would not return to the series in
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
and instead use the new BMW M4 GT3 cars for endurance racing.
Timeline
Competition Vehicles
ROWE Racing competed with up to four
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3
The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG (C197 / R197) is a front mid-engine, 2-seater, limited production grand tourer developed by the Mercedes-AMG division of German automotive manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, with the assistance of David Coulthard. The car is ...
until 2016.
The team ran the
BMW M6
The BMW M6 is a high-performance version of the 6 Series marketed under the BMW M sub-brand from 1983 to 2018 (with a break from 1990 to 2004).
Introduced in the coupe body style, the M6 was also built in convertible and fastback sedan ('Gran C ...
GT3 from 2016 till 2021. Since 2022 it runs the BMW M4 GT3.
Results
Complete 24 Hours of Nürburgring results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Complete Blancpain Endurance Series results
(
key
Key or The Key may refer to:
Common meanings
* Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm
* Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock
* Key (map ...
) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
References
External links
*
Website of ROWE MINERALÖLWERK GMBHWebsite of MCG AG
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe Racing
German auto racing teams
2011 establishments in Germany
ADAC GT Masters teams
Blancpain Endurance Series teams
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters teams
International GT Open teams
BMW in motorsport
Porsche in motorsport
Auto racing teams established in 2011