PROsport Performance with De Sadeleer and Hasse-Clot in the ADAC GT Masters
Hugo de Sadeleer (21) and the Frenchman Valentin Hasse-Clot (22) will race in the 2019 ADAC GT Masters in the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of PROsport Performance. The young duo completes the team from Wiesemscheid, Germany, near the Nürburgring alongside with Aston Martin factory driver Maxime Martin (Belgium) and record winner Daniel Keilwitz (Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany) for the seven double races to the “League of super sports cars“. As an official race partner of Aston Martin Racing (AMR), PROsport Performance will enter two new Aston Martin Vantage GT3s in the ADAC GT Masters, as well as two Vantage GT4s in the new ADAC GT4 Germany as well as in the GT4 European Series.
“Hugo de Sadeleer in the LMP2 and Valentin Hasse-Clot in the French Porsche one-make cup have already proven their talent. They are young and ambitious, know each other for several years and are keen to set the tone in the hard-fought ADAC GT Masters”, says Christoph Esser, team principal of PROsport Performance. “Hugo and Valentin are a strong addition to Maxime Martin and Daniel Keilwitz. We are delighted to have two such excellent driver pairings in our team. That spurs us on enormously.”
Hugo de Sadeleer, born on 16 July 1997 in Lausanne, started in karting and rose to sports prototypes in 2017 via Formula BMW and Formula Renault. In the team of United Autosport de Sadeleer scored two victories in his first year with the Ligier JS P217 in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and finished as runner-up and best rookie. Also in the Ligier of United Autosport, the Swiss shone at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2017 together with Will Owen (USA) and Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal) in fifth place overall and in 2018 with Owen and ex-Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) in seventh position overall.
“I’m really excited to be able to race my first GT3 season with PROsport Performance and Aston Martin in 2019. This is a new challenge that I’m really looking forward to. GT3 cars are different from the prototypes I drove in the European Le Mans Series, but I know I can rely on my past experience”, says Hugo de Sadeleer, adding: “It’s great that Valentin will be my teammate. We’ve known each other since we drove in Formula Renault 2.0, and I’ve seen him succeed in GTs ever since. I cannot wait to race in Oschersleben in a few weeks with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3.”
Valentin Hasse-Clot, born on 27 February 1996 in Paris, also started his motorsport career in karting and became French champion in the national 150cc kart racing series 2013. Via Formula 4 in France and Italy as well as the Formula Renault, he made his way into the Porsche one-make cup. In 2017 he was best rookie in the French Carrera Cup and already scored his first victory. In addition to the Carrera Cup in France, the Frenchman, who had already gained experience on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, also completed a number of starts in the British Carrera Cup and the Porsche GT3 Cup in the Benelux countries in 2018, where he won the race in Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium) as his most valuable result of the season. Media-Information Page 2
“The best GT3 drivers are racing in the ADAC GT Masters and I want to compete with them. The competition is tough, but that will only improve me. The choice for Aston Martin was logical. They do not have to prove anything in GT sports, they have proven the performance of their racing cars on several occasions. I expect an exciting season, but together with Hugo de Sadeleer – we have known each other since the time in Formula Renault – we will do our utmost to establish ourselves among the best”, says Valentin Hasse-Clot. “After a one-year study in Berlin, I’m looking forward to drive for the German team PROsport Performance. It will be a very interesting collaboration.”
In addition to the young, ambitious duo de Sadeleer/Hasse-Clot, Martin/Keilwitz as two highly experienced and successful pilots will join PROsport Performance for their ADAC GT Masters campaign. Maxime Martin has been driving in the Aston Martin Racing factory team since 2018 in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), which he will contest in 2019 in addition to returning to the German GT scene. The 32-year-old from Brussels, Belgium, drove for four years in the DTM, but Martin was also successful in 2012 with two wins, five podium finishes and two pole positions in the ADAC GT Masters. The track record of Daniel Keilwitz is very impressive too, because with 22 wins in 124 races, the 29-year-old from Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, is the record winner of the ADAC GT Masters. In addition, he finished the race series six times in eight years among the top three, including as a champion in 2013.
On 27/28 April, the 2019 season of the ADAC GT Masters will start at Oschersleben near Magdeburg in Eastern Germany with the first of seven double races. Other stations are Most (CZE) on 18/19 May, the Red Bull Ring (AUT) on 08/09 June, Zandvoort (NLD) on 10/11 August, the Nürburgring, Germany, on 17/18 August and Hockenheim, Germany, on 14/15 September. The finale will take place on 28/29 September at the Sachsenring, Germany.
All races for the ADAC GT Masters will be broadcast live by the German TV channel SPORT1 and can also be watched on the internet.
PROsport Performance, whose roots go back to the eighties, was already racing within the ADAC Masters weekend in 2017 and 2018 and won with Max Hesse (17) the rookie title in the 2018 ADAC TCR Germany. In addition, the team to Christoph Esser took the team title in the 24h GT European Championship as well as the driver and team classification in the “Championship of the Continents” of the 24h GT Series in their first GT3 season 2018.