Spielberg/Austria: Engineers rarely checked their weather apps as frequently as they did last weekend (September 13–15) at the Red Bull Ring. No good omen was predicted for the sixth round of the International GT Open. One weather warning after another was issued for Austria. Snow, heavy rain, and storms were the weekend’s reports, and temperatures did not rise above the six-degree mark. However, things did not turn out as bad as expected.

Rain dominated the two free practice sessions on Friday. Nevertheless, the two drivers, Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase, managed to defy the weather conditions. The Eastalent Audi R8 LMS evo II with the starting number one finished in second and first place.

Well prepared, Saturday continued with the qualifying and prefinal in the dry. Simon Reicher had to cope with the transition from rainy to dry conditions. He qualified in twelfth position.

Simon Reicher was involved in duels right from the start of the first race. At the end of his stint, he handed over the Eastalent Audi, then in 17^th place, to his teammate Christopher Haase. During the driver change, they took ample time. Due to their second-place finish in the first race and their victory in the second race at Paul Ricard, they were penalized with an additional 15 seconds of pit stop time. “You can’t make up for 15 seconds. That’s damn hard,” said team boss Peter Reicher, but more on that later. All in all, Christopher Haase brought the Eastalent Audi home in ninth place.

It had been raining all night. On Sunday morning, Christopher Haase had his qualifying session, finishing third after enduring three red flag periods in heavy rain. From the start, he put pressure on his competitors under dry conditions, overtaking the second-place driver in the first corner. For the rest of his stint, he pressured the first-place driver ahead of him. A brilliant pit stop strategy catapulted the Audi into first place. For the remainder of the race, Simon Reicher did a consistently good job, finishing first for the Eastalent Racing Team from Kirchberg.

“We had to start our home race here at the Red Bull Ring with a handicap of 15 seconds. Our second and first-place finishes in Paul Ricard resulted in this penalty. The conditions didn’t improve things further. By finishing ninth on Saturday, we were able to reduce our time handicap by 10 seconds. Nevertheless, 5 seconds remained for Sunday. On Saturday, we were lucky that our competitors couldn’t take advantage of it and only scored a few points in the championship. Christopher’s qualifying, finishing third under these difficult conditions, was world-class. I must give my utmost respect to our two engineers, Gunnar and Christian. They planned the pit stop so perfectly that we were able to surprise our competitors. Simon then managed the remainder of the race and brought home the victory. I am incredibly proud to have won our home race here at the Red Bull Ring. My parents‘ home is just 15 minutes away from here. I was honored to get on the podium with my father. Together with my son Simon, my father, and myself, three generations of the Reicher family stood on the winner’s podium. My emotional level is indescribable,” team owner Peter Reicher describes his very emotional weekend.

“I never check the weather conditions before a race weekend. It shouldn’t be our aim to hope for dry, wet, or any other conditions. We must perform and ensure that we are competitive in any situation. Nevertheless, the weather conditions were very challenging. From wet, soaking wet, semi-dry to dry – we had it all. Honestly, we were never completely out of contention. Nevertheless, we did a great job and were even able to compensate for the 15 penalty seconds. Winning today on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring is something truly extraordinary. I never would have dreamed of that. Now we have two more race weekends left in the championship: Barcelona and Monza. We must keep a cool head and maintain our focus. The renewed 15 penalty seconds in Barcelona won’t make it any easier for us,” reported Simon Reicher.

“After 14 years as an Audi Sport driver, finally a victory with an Audi at the Red Bull Ring. I can’t believe it. What a strong performance from the entire team. We have rewritten Audi’s history with Eastalent Racing – with an Austrian team in Austria. It’s like a little fairy tale. I believe that under these weather conditions, we almost always found the perfect setup for our Audi R8 LMS evo II. In my time trial, we were good, but unfortunately not perfect. We need to sit down and reflect at home. We should have taken steps earlier that we ended up taking later. However, finishing third in the qualifying was still a solid result. I am more than satisfied – thanks to Eastalent Racing for a great race weekend,” said Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase.

The Austrian Eastalent Racing Team, now leading the championship, is off to the penultimate round of the 2024 season, from September 27 to 29, in Barcelona, Spain.