Solid end to the 2023 season in GTC Race for W&S Motorsport at the Nürburgring

Tim Horrell and Henry Schwalbach in the PARAVAN Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport #75 were able to make up a few positions at the start and had good pace in the rain. They finished tenth in the GT4 class and 17th overall.

Rain clouds also moved over the Eifel for the two sprint races on Sunday and presented the field with a great challenge at outside temperatures of around 3 degrees Celsius. Luca Arnold (#99) lost many places at the start of GT Sprint 1, but fought his way back impressively to third place overall and in the SemiPro classification. In the second sprint race he was also initially on course for the podium when he fell back after spinning. In the end, he finished in second position in the Semi-Pro classification and 19th overall. In his first GT3 season, Luca Arnold finished fourth overall in the GT3 standings.

Tim Horrell (#75) showed a great sprint race in the rain and initially made up many places. But the typical Eifel weather struck again and after 15 laps he crossed the finish line in 14th place in the GT4 class and 21st overall. In the second sprint race Henry Schwalbach (#75) finished 13th in class and 23rd overall.

Tim Horrell and Henry Schwalbach did not participate in any other racing series in the 2023 season apart from the five events of the GTC Race. For the paraplegic driver Horrell, it was even his first motorsport season in Europe. The US-American quickly adapted to the Porsche Cayman GT4, which had been adapted to his needs, and showed a positive development. For Henry Schwalbach it was only his second year in motorsport and the 16-year-old also showed steady improvement. Both W&S Motorsport drivers have learned a lot and gained valuable experience for their further careers in hard-fought motorsport.

Quotes after the race

Patrick Wagner, Team Principal W&S Motorsport: "The boys did well in the typical Eifel weather. Luca was up front the whole weekend and only just missed his first overall win on Saturday. His development over the season has been great and in his first year in a GT3 car he put in an impressive performance. Tim and Henry also drove well and brought the car home safely. They have also taken a step forward and improved throughout the season. We are proud that we were able to implement the project together with our partner PARAVAN and put the focus on inclusion in motorsport."

Tim Horrell, Driver #75: "It was a year of ups and downs but some progress has been made since the start of the season. I can’t thank my team W&S Motorsport and everyone from PARAVAN enough for all their hard work and dedication giving me the best car every time I went out on track. Excited to see what we can all accomplish together in the future."

Luca Arnold, Driver #99: "I can be very happy with my rookie GT3 season in 2023. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is a very different car, but I got to grips with it very quickly and learned to understand the car. That's important because I want to make a contribution to the development of our multi-redundant NX NextMotion central control unit on the race track. It's a shame that it wasn't quite enough for the first GT3 win in the GT60 race, but first place in the PRO classification is a great success. We were also able to score points again in the sprints. We had a good pace, thanks to the whole team!"

Christer Jöns, Driver #99: "Even though I wasn't always actively behind the wheel, the 2023 season was a very intense and good year. Luca mastered the switch to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 brilliantly and we were able to keep improving performance."

Kevin Arnold, Team Principal of the ArnoldNextG Team and CEO of Arnold NextG GmbH: "The weekend was a very good introduction to motorsport for the Arnold NextG. The race track is an ideal development environment. We lay the foundation here and generate data that is essential for future development. The next step is the vehicle integration of NX NextMotion, in order to then determine and test resilient data in the extreme environment of motorsport and to further optimise the system. Luca has made an optimal entry into the GT3 class this season and is well on his way to becoming a development driver. Thanks to the entire team!"