Von Oeynhausen wins both Nürburgring races as Joebstl’s title bid unravels

Christoph von Oeynhausen has won both GT3 Revival Series races at the Nürburgring. After taking Race 1 on Saturday, the #888 BMW Z4 GT3 led the field home again in Race 2 on Sunday morning, turning a weekend that was supposed to be about somebody else’s championship into a clean sweep of his own.

Both classifications have now been published by the series, and the championship standings have been updated with them.

Von Oeynhausen makes it two from two

Saturday’s win already carried weight. Von Oeynhausen races in Pro-Am, so an overall victory is a class victory too, and it landed on the day the Pro-Am title fight was expected to be settled. Sunday’s repeat turned a good weekend into the best of his season.

Race 1 gave him a 3.801-second margin over Heiko Neumann’s Team Motopark Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, with Nick Padmore third for TFT Racing in the Audi R8 LMS Ultra. Race 2 followed the same pattern at the front.

Beaubelique’s weekend: pole, a DNF and a recovery

Jean-Luc Beaubelique arrived at the Nürburgring with the biggest lead in the Pro-Am standings and left with the most eventful weekend of anyone.

He and Jim Pla put the #87 Ferrari 458 GT3 EVO on pole for Race 1. They never got to use it. Contact at turn one ended their race after eight laps and the car was classified as a non-finisher, which handed the initiative straight to their rivals.

Race 2 was the answer. Beaubelique brought the #87 home third overall, and because Nick Padmore’s Audi ahead of him is an Am car, that is second in Pro-Am. After a Saturday that produced nothing at all, the class position mattered far more than the step on the podium.

Joebstl retires and runs out of road

Stephan Joebstl needed the opposite of what he got. He and William Nuthall had taken third in Pro-Am in Race 1 in the #52 Michelotto Ferrari 458 GT3 EVO, which cut into Beaubelique’s advantage exactly as they needed.

Race 2 undid it. The #52 retired, and a driver who came to the Nürburgring needing a big weekend leaves with a single scoring finish from two races. With only the Barcelona finale to come, that is close to decisive.

What it means for the Pro-Am championship

Beaubelique came into the weekend 84 points clear of Joebstl with 104 still on the table across the Nürburgring and Barcelona. He leaves it having scored in one race out of two, while his closest challenger scored in one and retired from the other.

The updated standings settle most of it. Beaubelique leaves the Nürburgring on 152 points. His own co-driver Jim Pla is second on 101, and Von Oeynhausen has climbed to third on 98 after taking 51 points out of a single weekend.

1. Jean-Luc Beaubelique — 152
2. Jim Pla — 101
3. Christoph von Oeynhausen — 98
4. Mark Cole and Alvaro Parente — 77
5. Stephan Joebstl — 64

Barcelona is worth a maximum of 52 points. Von Oeynhausen is 54 behind and can no longer reach Beaubelique, and neither can Joebstl. The only driver still mathematically alive is Pla, 51 behind — and he shares the #87 with Beaubelique, so the only route is one where Beaubelique scores nothing while his team-mate scores everything.

Short of that, the Pro-Am title is Beaubelique’s.

Race 2 classification, top three

1. #888 Christoph von Oeynhausen — Classic & Speed, BMW Z4 GT3 (Pro-Am), 24 laps
2. #1 Nick Padmore — TFT Racing, Audi R8 LMS Ultra (Am), +0.769s
3. #87 Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Jim Pla — Storic and Race Cars, Ferrari 458 GT3 EVO (Pro-Am), +3.247s

Pro-Am, top three:

1. #888 Christoph von Oeynhausen — Classic & Speed
2. #87 Jean-Luc Beaubelique and Jim Pla — Storic and Race Cars
3. #47 Mark Cole and Alvaro Parente — Quinntec Racing

The #52 of Joebstl and Nuthall was not classified.

Race 1 classification, top three

1. #888 Christoph von Oeynhausen — Classic & Speed, BMW Z4 GT3 (Pro-Am), 24 laps
2. #65 Heiko Neumann — Team Motopark, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (Am), +3.801s
3. #1 Nick Padmore — TFT Racing, Audi R8 LMS Ultra (Am), +13.660s

Pro-Am, top three:

1. #888 Christoph von Oeynhausen — Classic & Speed
2. #47 Mark Cole and Alvaro Parente — Quinntec Racing
3. #52 Stephan Joebstl and William Nuthall — Michelotto

The full weekend, including the timetable and the Saturday report, is in our Nürburgring round guide.

The GT World Challenge Europe round on the same bill ended with a win for the #007 Comtoyou Aston Martin and the Endurance Cup title for Winward.

Photos: SRO Motorsports