- Thomas Preining, Ricardo Feller and Bastian Buus reunite aboard No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo
- Team looks to continue highly successful GTWC Europe season at home venue
- Bronze Cup squad looking for third consecutive Nürburgring podium
Lionspeed GP’s landmark GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS season is about to reach its next chapter – at home. After a highly successful season, including a historic victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, the team will contest the penultimate round of the Endurance Cup season at the Nürburgring.
Few tracks played as significant a role in the Lionspeed GP story as the Nürburgring. It is here, at this renowned venue in the Eifel, where the teams groundwork was laid. It’s where the team around founder Patrick Kolb enjoyed its early successes in the VLN Series and 24H Nurburgring, starting from 2018 in a 991 Cup car, later making the move to the GT3 Category and eventually founding the team as a standalone operation. The Nurburgring and the Nordschleife were the basis for the future, in which it would solidify itself as one of the fastest-rising operations in international endurance racing.
The 5.148-kilometer Grand Prix circuit will be the battleground for the penultimate round of the Endurance Cup season. Lionspeed GP’s efforts will be spearheaded by the No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, driven by Thomas Preining (AUT), Bastian Buus (DEN) and Ricardo Feller (CHE) and supported by Potentia, a North American-based developer of next-generation industrial and AI infrastructure.
Preining, Buus and Feller will team up in the same car for the first time since their historic victory in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in June. Since then, the team has celebrated further successes, most notably an overall victory during the Sprint Cup-round at Circuit de Nevers-Magny Cours earlier this month, promoting them to second in the Sprint Championship, only 2 points behind the leader.
On the other side of the garage, Lionspeed GP team principal Patrick Kolb (GER) will reunite with Bashar Mardini (CAN) and Alex Fontana (CHE) aboard the No. 89 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo supported by long-time partners Manorhaven, Abacus Global Management, Staloc and Beyond Capital Partners. The team’s Bronze Cup entry also enjoyed success at the 24 Hours of Spa, finishing third in class at the end of 24 grueling hours of racing.
The trio will look to prolong a streak of strong results in Bronze Cup at the Nürburgring: in each of the last two Endurance Cup rounds at the Eifel venue, Lionspeed GP finished second in class.
The traditionally compact schedule during Endurance Cup events means the official track action will be taking place across just two days. Both Free Practice sessions take place for Saturday, with qualifying scheduled for Sunday morning at 9:45 CEST. The three-hour race kicks off at 15:00 CEST later that day. Live streaming is available on the GT World YouTube channel.