The cat is out of the bag: In 2022, the ADAC GT Masters will take place without Daniel Keilwitz for the first time since 2010. The champion from 2013 confirmed this to “Motorsport-Total.com”. Keilwitz has been part of the championship since 2011, tops the all-time list of winners and has completed 156 races. He will not occupy any of the vacant cockpits.
“It’s a combination of several factors,” said the 32-year-old. The background is that the long-standing sponsor Roller separated from Keilwitz at the end of 2019. He drove at Zakspeed in five races in 2020 and brought together a full-time commitment at Aust Motorsport again for 2021 with smaller sponsors.
But it shouldn’t go on like this: “With a tight budget you can’t compete at the front and that’s not fun.” Together with ex-champion Sebastian Asch, Keilwitz didn’t get anywhere. It either didn’t work out, or when it did, bad luck followed. For example in Zandvoort, after tenth on the grid, he ended up in the gravel bed in the third corner.
2022 season in the Le Mans Cup
Ultimately, a tenth place in the second race at the Lausitzring was the highest of emotions – too little for the most successful driver in the ADAC GT Masters in terms of victories.
He will bridge the 2022 season with a commitment in the Le Mans Cup in the LMP3 class. It is the third ACO league behind the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the European Le Mans Series (ELMS).
He will drive a Duqueine M30-D08 at Rinaldi Racing alongside Steve Parrow. He also competes for the Wochenspiegel team in three races in the 24h Series in a Ferrari 488 GT3.
The main focus is already on acquiring sponsors for 2023, assures Keilwitz. It’s still too early to say which series this will be for. A return to the ADAC GT Masters would definitely be a conceivable solution.
An institution in the ADAC GT Masters
Daniel Keilwitz is one of the first sim racers to make the leap into real motorsport. After several years in the ADAC Procar/DTC and the Mini Challenge, he got his first taste of air in the ADAC GT Masters in 2009 in an Ascari KZR1 from Leipert Motorsport.
The following year he became FIA GT3 European Champion with Callaway Competition. That was the start of a memorable era that continued in the ADAC GT Masters from 2011. For eight years, Keilwitz and Callaway were a thriving marriage that yielded 22 race wins and one title (2013).
In 2017 Keilwitz became “half” champion in the ADAC GT Masters. His teammate Jules Gounon took the championship. Keilwitz is not listed as champion because he had to sit out two races due to injury. However, he played a key role in Gounon’s title win. The fact that he was still runner-up behind Gounon shows how dominant the package has been this year.
After the 2018 season, Keilwitz surprisingly left Callaway Competition. He then drove for Prosport, Zakspeed and Aust, but without being able to build on the successes of the Callaway period. It is an irony of fate that the two legendary parties are now missing out on the ADAC GT Masters for the first time in more than a decade.
Two cockpits were not communicated before the start of the 2022 ADAC GT Masters season. According to information from “Motorsport-Total.com”, a former Porsche driver and a debutant will drive the second Mercedes-AMG GT3 at Landgraf. The second driver pairing at T3 is also open. It is said that in 2022 a woman could start in the German GT Championship. At Madpanda, the second driver has not yet been announced either.