“It’s about time that Summer break finally comes to an end,” the 18-year-old Simon Reicher reflects on the past seven-week “vacation” of the ADAC TCR Germany. The coming race weekend, August 3-5, at the 3,629-meter-long Nürburgring, marks the start of the second half of the season for the young Austrian. “You can demand quite a lot from a racing driver, but free time with no races is not at all negotiable,” Reicher laughs.

The youngster can look back on an exciting Summer break, though. He droves his first laps in a GT3 car from Schubert Motorsport. More specifically, a 550 hp Honda NSX GT3, which should lay the foundation for the coming years. “That was brutal. I was blown away when my dad suggested making this next step in motorsports. And of all disciplines, GT3 has always been the crème de la crème of motorsport in my eyes. The cars look great, the sound is awesome, and the fans can get close to the action. I’m a huge fan of the GT3 scene and its series, such as the ADAC GT Masters and countless 24-hour races,” the eighth-grader of the Felbertal High School explains enthusiastically.

Despite raving about GT3 plans, Reicher is of course looking forward to his 350 hp Audi RS3 LMS. “The ADAC TCR Germany is a fantastic series to move into GT racing. My team YACO Racing and I have ambitious plans ahead of us. The beginning of the season was somewhat bumpy. Unfortunately, I made a stupid beginner’s mistake in Oschersleben, which hasn’t quite cost us our season goal, but now we must definitely go the extra mile,” Simon Reicher analyzes the situation moving forward.

The Austrian is still looking at a promising top-ten position in the championship, which he now has to defend at the Nürburgring. “Well, I don’t really want to secure my place and just play the season safe. We’re striving to move up a couple more positions. We’ve worked hard during the past weeks to achieve our aspirations,” says the sympathetic racer.

Simon Reicher goes into the fourth of seven events of the 2018 season placed in ninth position. “Everything is open. After this coming weekend at the Nürburgring we will know where we stand. I’m confident and looking forward to the races,” Reicher assesses. The races will be broadcast live on the German TV channel Sport 1 and streamed online at sport1.de <http://sport1.de/>. Simon Reicher’s first free practice begins Friday morning at 8:45.