Eastalent Racing Scores Its First Points in the GT World Challenge Europe

Misano/Italy. Last weekend, from 17 to 19 July, the Austrian Eastalent Racing team, led by Team Principal Peter Reicher, scored its first points in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS at the Italian circuit of Misano. In the fifth round of the season and the second Sprint Cup event, the team competed with its Audi R8 LMS evo II against a highly competitive field of 43 GT3 cars.

“This is fantastic. We have finally put points on the board,” said a delighted Peter Reicher on Sunday afternoon.

Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase share driving duties in the Sprint Cup. The series, and particularly its one-hour races, is regarded as the “Formula 1 of GT racing”, where precision and avoiding mistakes are crucial. Eastalent Racing delivered a strong performance on Saturday, finishing eighth and securing its first championship points. Sunday, however, proved less fortunate. Several minor issues and a collision during the race resulted in a post-race 45-second time penalty, dropping the team to 35th place.

“As with every weekend in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, it was once again an emotional rollercoaster,” said Peter Reicher. “Saturday’s eighth-place finish was a really strong result. Unfortunately, we have to put today’s Sunday race behind us. What matters most to me is that our upward trend is clearly visible. That is the most important thing.”

Simon Reicher also reflected on the weekend: “It was incredibly hot. From the outset, we struggled to find our rhythm and pace. However, by the time we reached the two qualifying sessions, we had managed to develop a good setup. Unfortunately, my fastest qualifying lap was deleted due to track limits. A starting position around 15th place would have been possible, but instead we had to start the race from 26th. Ultimately, we were still lacking a little performance. We now need to analyse that and learn from our mistakes. If we continue to improve, we will become stronger step by step.”

Engineer and Team Manager Christian Schmidt-Gogler also drew a positive conclusion: “The supposed double workload did not really feel like one. I was mainly working as trackside manager and race engineer. After starting the weekend on Thursday with a number of minor to moderate issues, we reverted the Audi R8 LMS evo II to our baseline setup on Friday. The entire team worked extremely well throughout the weekend. The fact that Christopher set the fourth-fastest race lap on Sunday and was also the fastest Audi in the field confirms the quality of our work. If we continue to optimise the overall package and manage to complete a trouble-free weekend, we can still achieve a great deal in the Sprint Cup this season.”

Christopher Haase also sees the team’s development in a positive light: “I think we worked very well throughout the entire weekend. We continuously improved the car during free practice, qualifying and the races. With eighth place and our first points, we delivered a strong performance in the Formula 1 of GT racing. Looking back at Sunday’s race, I am convinced that we will achieve even better results in the future. In qualifying, we were missing a few small details needed to extract the absolute maximum. Overall, however, I am very positive about the weekend. If we can carry this momentum forward, it is only a matter of time before we achieve even better results.”

The next challenge is already just around the corner. From July 31 through August 1, the GT World Challenge Europe will travel to Magny-Cours in France, where Eastalent Racing strives to continue its positive trend.