„O’zapft is!“ (It’s tapped!) were ADAC Sport President Hermann Tomczyk’s closing remarks as he opened the Oktoberfest on the Hockenheim Ring, thereby also marking the official end to the 2017 ADAC motorsport season. The festival’s guests included all drivers from the different ADAC series, among others, the Austrian TCR Germany driver Simon Reicher. He relished the closing party’s culinary specialties and enjoyed the fun atmosphere after a strenuous season and showdown weekend in Hockenheim.

As the youngster firmly held his Runner-Up Rookie Trophy in his hands, he looked back on the entire 2017 season, one that did not quite live up to his expectations. “My original goal was winning this year’s Honda Rookie Challenge”, the 17-year-old clearly states. While he celebrated a very convincing start into the season, particularly the last two races at the Nürburg Ring and Hockenheim Ring were unsatisfactory. “We were having a tough time with the car – due to lack of testing opportunities, we often found the right set-up just a bit too late.” Reicher had fueled enough self-confidence from this year’s highlights, though, so that he could clearly pinpoint the season’s difficulties in car set-up and workflow, not doubting his own driver abilities. “The weekend at Red Bull Ring was absolutely amazing!”, explains the touring car pilot, who drove an excellent comeback in that weekend’s second race. “I totally messed up in the qualification, but played massive catch-up, advancing from 32nd to 14th and taking home the fastest-rookie trophy in race two. In Zandvoort, I also crossed the finish line as fastest rookie, taking home critical championship points in extremely difficult conditions”, the high school student summarizes his best moments. However, after poor results at Nürburg Ring, Reicher was forced to see his champion aspirations drift into the distance. “When you have the goal clearly in mind and experience difficulties finding back to full-attack mode, that’s not really motivating”, says the seventh grader. Despite an up-and-down season with emotional highs and lows for Simon Reicher and his Certainty Racing Team, the youngster’s learning curve grew steadily upward. “I certainly learned a lot this year, and you always learn something new all the time. In our first ADAC TCR Germany season we laid the foundation to build and improve on in the coming year. Results in the midfield, so a constant performance in the TOP 15 should be possible. But in motorsports you never know what surprises are waiting behind the next corner”, Reicher shares his forecast.

“We’ll just wait and see what opportunities 2018 has in store for us. We are open to everything”, the sympathetic Runner-Up Rookie smiles.