A Close Call for Eastalent Racing

Le Castellet/France – The Austrian Eastalent Racing Team traveled to the south of France last weekend (July 18–20) with a clear mission: to defend its lead in the International GT Open championship at the iconic Circuit Paul Ricard. Memories of last year, when the team celebrated a victory there, fueled high hopes – but this time, things turned out differently.

“Even during free practice, we were struggling. Although it looked better at times, it quickly became clear that this weekend was going to be tough,” Simon Reicher analyzed in retrospect. Saturday’s qualifying session highlighted the challenges: unhappy with his pace, Reicher had to start the first race from eighth on the grid.

The drama began right at the start: “An over-ambitious competitor hit me on the rear in the first lap – I spun and dropped all the way to second-to-last,” said Reicher. He fought his way back to 13th place with great effort before handing over the Audi R8 LMS evo II to teammate Christopher Haase, who continued the charge – further hampered by a 20-second penalty imposed on the team by the BoP after the Hungaroring win.

Then came the shock moment: “Christopher was on course for eighth place when another driver pushed our Audi into the concrete wall with an extremely dangerous move. I have no words for something like that. Only Christopher’s driving skills prevented something much worse – under normal circumstances, our weekend would have been over,” Reicher recounted, visibly shaken. Despite damage to the car, Haase managed to bring it safely into the run-off area.

Strong Response on Sunday

Sunday did not go perfectly either, but the team managed to limit the damage. Christopher qualified the Audi in third place, even though, according to Reicher, “for unexplained reasons we were about five-tenths of a second off the pace on a flying lap.” The Balance of Performance also made it harder to compete on the straights.

In the race, Christopher held his position until the driver change, when another penalty – again five seconds – disrupted the rhythm. In the end, the team finished in sixth place. “Given the circumstances, we can live with that,” Reicher concluded. “But we urgently need to go in medias res and put everything to the test. Otherwise, I see black clouds for the championship – right now, we’re fighting with blunt weapons.”

Team owner Peter Reicher also offered a sober assessment: “It was a weekend to forget. Still, we scored valuable points on Sunday and reduced our handicap by five seconds. That will help us at the upcoming home race. I am especially proud of our drivers – particularly Christopher, who kept his cool in a dangerous situation and prevented more serious damage.”

Christopher Haase was visibly dissatisfied after the difficult race weekend. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to extract that final little bit from the car,” the Audi driver summed up. Although the team had prepared for a challenging event, additional hurdles made an already tough weekend even more complicated.

Despite the adverse circumstances, Haase and the team secured valuable championship points and now rank second overall. “We were good, but we could have been just a little bit better,” Haase concluded.

Next Stop: Home Race at the Red Bull Ring

The team’s focus now shifts to its big home race: from September 5–7, the sixth round of the 2025 International GT Open Championship will take place at the Red Bull Ring. With only a five-second handicap remaining, the team travels to Spielberg motivated and determined to launch a full attack on home soil.