After last year’s season in the Renault Clio Cup, 17-year-old Simon Reicher tackled his new job last weekend, completing his first ADAC TCR Germany event. Confident and well-practiced from his winter training program, the young Austrian had come to realize that “We have much tougher racing here in the ADAC TCR Germany – everyone’s pushing the limits of both their cars and the rules, but other than that, the difference to the Renault Clio Cup is not that big.” Reicher unfortunately didn’t have the luck on his side this weekend and missed his goal of a respectable top-ten finish. As in recent years, the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in the Magdeburg Börde region hosted the season opener. 43 drivers from all over the world competed in the first race of 2017 under cold, but sunny conditions. Simon Reicher, entrant number 54, was having a challenging time with his Audi RS3 LMS during the free practice sessions, thereby not placing beyond 29^th position. This left room for improvement in the upcoming qualification, but the seventh grade student of the Werkschulheim Felbertal only placed 13^th in his qualification group. “We didn’t manage a good set-up based on our data analysis. I also made some small mistakes, so I will be starting the first race from 25^th position in the 13^th row of the grid”, Reicher analyzes the situation before race one. When one is just a bit unlucky, there often is bad luck, as well. After a calm starting phase in the first race, two drivers in front of the young Austrian made contact and spurred a chain-reaction, resulting in Reicher escaping the scene through the gravel. Not much of an issue at first, except that an over-motivated competitor collided with Reicher as he rejoined the track. The youngster retired from the race with significant damage to his front axle, including a flat tire and snapped wishbone.

During the second race of the weekend, the devil struck again. Reicher let the clutch out too fast and lost several positions as he battled with front wheel-spin coming off the grid. “Ok, I thought I had clean starts and clutch management down. Looks like that needs some practice”, Reicher explained. But once the Audi was in motion and under control, Reicher drove a sensational catch-up race and finished in 19^th position. Despite a bumpy start into the ADAC TCR Germany season, Austria’s top-talent can be pleased with 15^th place in the overall championship ranking. He remained somewhat critical, though: “A bit of a bummer that I didn’t show our full potential this weekend.” He added optimistically: “But that’s even greater motivation for the next race.”

The next event for Simon Reicher and his Dutch team certainty.nl is a guest-appearance at Zandvoort in the TCR Benelux series. This will be a perfect opportunity to gather valuable data and experiences at their home track right off Holland’s coast. Thereafter, the ADAC TCR Germany will make its next stop, June 9-11, in Simon’s homeland Austria, at the exciting Red Bull Ring.