🇦🇹 Werner Gusenbauer

Werner Gusenbauer was a semi-professional racing in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, a national multiclass endurance championship that fields amateur and professional drivers together across fifteen classes. He drove for TM-Racing by PLUSLINE AG across twelve seasons from 2010 to 2021, racing Toyota GT86 cup cars and BMW one-make machinery in the series' production-based categories. He also made three appearances in the Nürburgring 24 Hours endurance race.[1]

Over his career Gusenbauer took 11 wins and 41 podiums from 73 starts, with his record built almost entirely in the Langstrecken-Serie; he scored two podiums in his three starts at the 24 Hours. His strongest period came within the series' one-make cup classes, where he was closely matched with Dominik Thiemann, a multi-time V5 champion and competitive amateur regular. Against the series' faster drivers he typically ran behind Daniel Zils, an entry-level professional and Bronze-graded driver who won multiple Langstrecken-Serie titles and has raced internationally in DTM and the World Endurance Championship.[2]

Gusenbauer was outpaced by the professional grades who appeared in his races, yet twice finished ahead of drivers of far greater standing; he beat Edoardo Mortara, a Platinum-graded elite professional and Formula 3 Euro Series champion, and Robin Frijns, also Platinum-graded and a champion of Formula Renault, Formula V8 3.5 and the WEC LMP2 class. Such results were isolated finishes in the fluid, multiclass environment of endurance racing rather than patterns of his regular pace.