Kirchberg/Upper Austria – The legendary 1000-kilometer race in Paul Ricard in the South of France expects no fewer than 45 GT3 racing cars from all over Europe this coming weekend (May 28-29). For years, the GT World Challenge Europe race has been the season’s highlight for teams and drivers. Same goes for the young Austrian Simon Reicher, who celebrates his premiere in this race.

After a mixed start into the season at last weekend’s ADAC GT Masters, Reicher’s goal is to deliver consistently fast lap times without any errors. “I am excited to drive the 1000 kilometers in our team of three drivers. This is a unique and special challenge. At least 333 kilometers for each of us means 70 laps of each 15 turns. That means mastering up to 1050 turns at high speed down to a tenth of a second without any loss of concentration.”

Simon Reicher, who has raced in several 12- and 24-hour races, will be in good company among the 135 internationally registered drivers. The 21-year-old already successfully completed the 2019 24-hour race in Barcelona with his team Car Collection Motorsport managed by team director Peter Schmidt. That said, expectations are set high for the Austrian in car number 24 alongside his experienced teammates, Dutchman Milan Dontje and German Patrick Kolb.

“Car Collection has collected a number of championship titles – I am the newcomer. My teammates are very experienced and fast drivers who know exactly what they are doing. I will learn a lot and I am sure we have serious chances for success in the amateur semi-professional ranking. The race serves as an indicator for plans later this season, as we just proposed to compete in another endurance race together. I am hoping for sunshine. What could be better than driving on the sunny South Coast of France? I am particularly excited to compete against my GT Masters teammate Norbert Siedler. We already joked about going from teammates to rivals. Realistically speaking though, it is rather unlikely we will be fighting on track. It is a special opportunity for me to race in my first GT World Challenge Europe race. I am super excited,” reports the college student.

All sessions and races are being held Friday to Saturday (May 28-29) and can be seen live on gt-world-challenge-europe.com. The start of the race is on Saturday at 6PM.