ADAC Hockenheim Historic – The Jim Clark Revival 2025: Masters Endurance Legends

Jamie Constable produced another consistent run to bag his second Masters Endurance Legends win of the ADAC Hockenheim Historic weekend. In his Zytek 04S, the Englishman stayed out of the trouble to bring home the goods, while his main rivals tripped over a series of start procedure, pitstop and track-limits infringements.

“I was at the front so I had the advantage this time”, said Constable. “I just had to keep it consistent. We did a new setting, it wasn’t quite as quick but there wasn’t much in it, so I just kept going and going and going, and then you end up where you end up, and we ended up first, which was nice! I wasn’t aware of all the penalties, I mean, you’re just sort of pushing and pushing, aren’t you? You hope you don’t see the black Lotus coming on the last lap behind you. It’s so quick down the straight, but fortunately we didn’t.”

Christophe Bouchut’s Lotus-liveried ENSO CLM-P1 eventually came up six seconds short of beating Constable, already having been handicapped by a drivethrough penalty for jumping the start, but the gap in the results grew to 25 seconds because of his accumulated track-limits penalties. The same applied to the Corvette DP shared by Alex Müller and Matteo Ferrer, that stopped too short for its mandatory pitstop, but both cars kept their second and third places. Behind them, the Andy Parry/Ben Clucas Ligier JSP3 netted the LMP3 class spoils from Mark Drain’s similar car in seventh overall.

“The car was good, all good”, said Müller. “All fine, all reliable, all well prepared by the team. We’re super happy with it. Shame about the double elite driver penalties, though. You know, we still finished only third without a penalty – so that’s good stuff for discussion!”

“I took the second stint in the race”, said Ferrer. “Alex gave me a good position, so it was a good stint in his half. All I did was basically be as consistent as possible, keep the margin that we had and take it to the finish without any mistakes. A lonely race, but no mistakes is a happy day.”

Starting from the front row, Witt Gamski kept his nose clean in the Bentley Continental GT3 while fighting with Drain over fifth place early on, before Ross Wylie cemented their second GT class win of the meeting. In eighth, Kari Makela’s Aston Martin Vantage V12 took second in class.

“Yeah, the fight with the Ligier was a bit of fun”, said Gamski. “The whole thing is really nice, really good fun to do. The drivers do behave themselves really well, I must admit. It was a bit scary starting off with all the LMP cars on the front row, but we got through and Ross brought it home nicely.”

“I really enjoyed it” said Wylie. “The track temperature’s a lot hotter today, so that made it a little bit more challenging to drive. But it’s a great spectacle. I’m just happy to have brought it back in one piece, and we’ll go and enjoy the rest of the day.”

“I’ve never seen this track before, only on television with Formula 1”, said Makela. “And it takes time to learn this track. It looks easy but it’s very difficult. I struggled with the grip of the tyres, I think there was something wrong with the tyre pressures, but anyhow, still a nice experience.”

Hockenheim’s morning glory was equally bright on Sunday as it had been on Saturday, so the Masters Endurance Legends grid was once looking at a contest in perfect racing conditions. Race 1 winner Jamie Constable sat on pole in his Zytek 04S, with Saturday’s surprise runner-up in the shape of the Witt Gamski/Ross Wylie Bentley Continental GT3 sat next to it, well ahead of its GT rival Kari Makela in the Aston Martin Vantage V12. The Ligier JSP3s of Andy Parry/Ben Clucas and Mark Drain occupied the second row, while the Matteo Ferrer/Alex Müller Corvette DP and Georg Hallau’s Norma M2000 shared row 3. From the back after the ENSO CLM-P1’s premature demise the day before, Christophe Bouchut would be hoping to leap to the front with giant steps.

At the start, Constable powered away to leave Alex Müller come through the field to take second place at the Spitzkehre. In Müller’s wake, Bouchut was up into fourth at the end of the opening lap, with only Parry still in between him and the Corvette DP further up the road. In the Bentley, Gamski fought Drain and Hallau for fifth place, with Makela hanging on to their tail. On lap 2, Bouchut was up into third and closing in on Müller, who now trailed Constable by seven ticks, while further back Hallau made it past Drain.

Yet another lap, and the former French F3 champion had moved into second place while producing another fastest lap of the race. However, the ENSO was under investigation for overtaking under the yellow start procedure, so that could prove costly on top of the elite driver time penalty that the car would be forced to take during the stops. Indeed, a drivethrough penalty was issued soon enough… Hallau, meanwhile, was flying, now also having dealt with Gamski to snatch fifth, leaving the Bentley to fend off Drain’s Ligier.

On lap 6, Bouchut duly hit the front without having taken his penalty, while Müller trailed the pair by ten seconds. Parry was a further 20 seconds adrift, with a similar gap opening up to Hallau behind the leading LMP3 car. Gamski and Drain were still at it hammer and tongs, while Makela had lost touch with the warring duo.

Lap 8 was when Bouchut decided to serve his penalty, and the Frenchman ended up a couple of seconds behind Müller’s Corvette – so he had to do it all over again. Constable wasn’t hassle-free either, however, as the Englishman was issued a first track-limits warning, followed soon by a similar warning for Parry. At about the same time, Drain ended his battle with Gamski by spinning off in the Sachskurve, just as the pit window was about to open.

On lap 10, Constable was the first to come in for his stop, handing the lead back to Bouchut who had just repassed Müller for second place. Drain and Gamski joined him, the latter handing over to Ross Wylie. On the next lap, Bouchut took his stop, with Parry following him in to hand the Ligier to Ben Clucas. Right after Makela pitted, Müller also came in to be relieved by Matteo Ferrer, followed by Hallau.

With the longer elite driver stops for Bouchut and Müller/Ferrer, Constable reassumed the lead on lap 14, 11 seconds ahead of Ferrer and with 28 seconds in hand over Bouchut, the Frenchman once again flying and improving his fastest lap of the race. Clucas was fourth, a minute and 12 seconds down, while Wylie had just passed Hallau for fifth overall. Drain and Makela now found themselves quite far away from the German in the open-top Norma.

While Constable slowly increased his margin to Ferrer, Bouchut was still homing in on them, but now hampered by a five-second track-limits penalty. With just over ten minutes to go, this would be a close-run thing. The Frenchman now trailed Constable by 20 seconds, but that had just become 25 seconds – or in fact 30 seconds, because the flying ENSO was once again caught transgressing the limits of the track. On lap 19, it was three strikes and a drivethrough penalty for Bouchut… And talking of penalties, the Corvette DP was called in to serve another stop, as they had failed to fully adhere to their elite-driver time penalty.

So, as the clock wound down to zero, Constable held on for a second strong run to glory. Bouchut finished six seconds away, with Ferrer a further 20 seconds adrift, but their penalties would still need to be included in the results. After they were, they didn’t make any difference for the order. Clucas finished fourth, a lap down but with the LMP3 class win, with Wylie doubling up on GT class wins for himself and Witt Gamski. Hallau was sixth ahead of Drain and Makela, the Finn taking the second step on the GT podium.