Barcelona/Spain: This past weekend (October 11-13, 2024), the Austrian Eastalent Racing Team completed its third test in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint. As team principal Peter Reicher explained at the beginning of the test phase, the team wanted to see if they had a real chance of competing in Europe’s toughest GT3 series. Their advantage: two weeks earlier, they had competed in the International GT Open Championship, which they won in 2023 and are currently leading this season. That race also took place in Barcelona.

In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint, the team from Kirchberg, Austria hoped for a strong performance in their category, the Silver Cup. And already in Friday’s free practice sessions, it became clear that they were on a path to success with their Audi R8 LMS evo II – though some competitors were eager to challenge them. The races on Saturday and Sunday were all about the podium. Twice finishing third, with a trophy in hand – the team could hardly believe their success.

Team principal Peter Reicher commented: “I must say that the entire weekend was very successful for us. Whether we will compete in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint in the 2025 season is something I will decide after the final race of the International GT Open next weekend in Monza. We need to finish what we started before we talk about future plans.” When asked about his hunger for success and trophies, he said: “It’s a great achievement for us to start the series with such success. Two podium finishes in the GT World, our very first, are something really special.”

Simon Reicher, the team owner’s son and one of the two drivers, summed things up as follows: “To put it simply: a fantastic weekend that exceeded all our expectations. We went to Barcelona aiming to reach the podium in the Silver Cup. But already in free practice, we got a taste of the “Formula 1 of GT3 racing”. The drivers here are all absolute professionals. You quickly realize it won’t be easy. My qualifying session didn’t go perfectly, but the rain on Saturday played to our advantage, even though the pit stop wasn’t ideal. There’s still a lot of work ahead. But our strategy was great. With third place, we did almost everything right. My teammate this weekend was Karol Basz. He did everything right in his qualifying session but had a bit of bad luck at the start of Sunday’s race. Nevertheless, he did a fantastic job, and we were able to secure the result. All in all, there are still some things we need to work on – but we expected that as newcomers. In any case, the other teams now know they need to keep an eye on us.”

Polish karting world champion of 2015 and GT3 driver Karol Basz commented on the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint weekend: “My first GT World weekend went very well for us as a team. We reached the podium twice in our Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint debut – what a fantastic achievement! Already in qualifying, we showed great team performance. Simon did an excellent job. We are very happy with the results from both yesterday and today, especially considering the challenging weather conditions on Saturday. We are extremely pleased with this weekend, and I can only thank the team for their amazing work.”

Next weekend, it’s all or nothing for the team from Austria. They are already on their way to Monza, Italy, where the International GT Open Final will take place from October 25 to 27. They may be arriving as championship leaders, but their lead is razor-thin. Can they defend their 2023 championship title?