Will Hunt has extended his relationships with Sussex Autos and Adrenalin Motorsport into the fifth round of the 2023 Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS), the ROWE 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen (7-8 July).
With backing from Hailsham-based automotive transmission parts distributors and Torque Converter remanufacturers, Sussex Autos, Hunt scaled the third step of the NLS podium on his first ever competitive outing on the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife last month (16-17 June).
The West Sussex-domiciled racer will once again team up with fellow Motorsport UK Academy graduate Toby Goodman and Germany’s Klaus Fassbender in the #501 Adrenalin Motorsport-run BMW 330i production touring car.
However, the podium-winning trio will become a quartet when James Lay – Hunt’s chief adversary in the 2021 Radical SR1 Cup title fight – completes the Adrenalin line-up for the forthcoming six-hour run around ‘The Ring’.
Four years in the SR1 Cup yielded the 2018 ‘Rookie Cup’, seven outright race victories and 20 podium finishes, and Hunt’s time in the category culminated in an epic season-long fight for out-and-out championship glory in 2021.
Hunt and Lay consistently locked out the top two positions in the SR1 races, but the former led the most laps and achieved more race wins than all of his opponents, and he was in control at the top of the standings until a late-season retirement gave his foe enough of an edge to take the crown.
It was a friendly and respectful rivalry and Lay’s arrival at Adrenalin Motorsport is sure to add to the potency of the Hunt-Goodman-Fassbender combination, which proved so strong in NLS 4.
Having brought silverware back home to Sussex with no prior experience of racing at ‘The Green Hell’, Hunt believes he and his teammates can build on their success in NLS 5, and his ambitions are confirmed by the fact he is leaving sufficient space in his luggage for another trophy.
“I was so happy to come away from my very first Nürburgring race with a third-place trophy in a class that was super competitive, but I think we always had the potential with a team of Adrenalin Motorsport’s calibre behind us.," said Hunt. "To have progressed up the leaderboard through my race stints was pleasing, especially as the tyres were going off and the heat inside the cockpit was so intense, and I should be even stronger this time around because experience counts for so much on the Nordschleife.
“I believe Toby (Goodman), Klaus (Fassbender), James (Lay) and I have what it takes to produce another big result in NLS 5. In fact, having James along will be great; he’s a huge talent and I really enjoyed battling him for the 2021 Radical SR1 Cup, even though the title didn’t go my way, because it was a friendly rivalry and we have a lot of respect for each other. Being a six-hour race, the physical and mental exertion will be higher, but we’re all up to the challenge and I’m keener than ever to bring home more silverware for my sponsor, Sussex Autos, without whom this wouldn’t be possible.”