Door Open to M8 GTE Return, Say Walkenhorst Motorsport
After winning the 2023 Asian Le Mans Series GT Championship, Walkenhorst Motorsport have a dilemma.
The BMW M4 GT3 with which Chandler Hull, Nicky Catsburg, and Thomas Merrill won the title with, is not eligible to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans until 2024 – when GTE cars are phased out in favour of GT3.
Team manager Niclas Königbauer told DSC that the longtime BMW Motorsport customer squad will take up the automatic invitation for Le Mans as Asian Le Mans Series champions.
They would be limited only to an entry in the LMGTE Am category, ruling out the possibility of running an LMP2.
Königbauer said that against a tight deadline to declare their entry after winning the championship, that the team are open to running the BMW M8 GTE, which has not competed at Le Mans since 2019.
The M8 GTE, achieved its greatest victory at the 2020 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona.
However, the M8 achieved only meagre results in the 2018-19 WEC “super season” with a pair of second-place podium finishes as their high mark. The best result for the car in two entries at Le Mans was sixth in 2019.
If the M8 is unavailable, then Walkenhorst would certainly consider entering with a manufacturer other than BMW. Ferrari, Porsche, and Aston Martin have customers in both the upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series, and Corvette Racing are entered in the WEC with their Chevrolet Corvette C8.R – where Catsburg is set to drive for the full season.
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