Eastalent Racing Team on the Podium in Monza

Strong team performance throughout the entire weekend

Monza/Italy: The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, located in Lombardy, hosted the penultimate GT Open event last weekend, September 22–24. The Austrian Eastalent Racing Team run by owner Peter Reicher secured more points in the GT Open series and remains a hot candidate for the championship win. With second position in Saturday’s race and sixth position on Sunday, the team took home a well-deserved trophy. “We are now eight points behind in the championship. What more could we want? The GT Open grand finale takes place in four weeks in Barcelona, Spain. The only thing that puzzles me a bit is the big performance gap between the cars, even among our brand colleagues.”

Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase analyzes the weekend as follows: “It was a challenging weekend and the competition was extremely tough. We couldn’t afford any mistakes and had to get everything spot on – both the setup and the teamwork. At the end of the season, you can clearly see that the teams racing for the championship are very focused and don’t get distracted much. Mixed conditions with rain, a drying circuit, and then more rain made our weekend extra difficult. I think we handled it very well. The team performed particularly well in our first race, where we finished in second. We chose a perfect strategy and Simon showed a strong performance in the rain but also in dry conditions with slick tires. In the second race, Simon was able to keep our competitors very much at bay, despite our inherent disadvantages in Monza. That said, I’m very happy with our championship points.”

Simon Reicher explains his point of view: “I was in Monza last in 2017 and this was my first time in a GT car. It was very difficult to find my rhythm. I clearly felt the lack of experience on the circuit. The permanent weather changes – rain, dry, then rain again – didn’t make it any easier. Saturday’s qualifying took place in the dry, while the race began in the rain. Cooling temperatures added to the challenge. All in all, we delivered a great team performance, especially with our pit stop. In terms of strategy, we did everything right. Christopher’s performance – second position in Saturday’s race – brought us back into the championship. On Sunday, Christopher proved his ability with P3 in qualifying. We knew in advance that we would have some disadvantages on Monza’s long straights. The Audi is a car for the corners and not so much for the straights. We had no choice but to defend our position as long as possible. Unfortunately, several crashes and the safety car didn’t play into our cards. I’m all the more satisfied with fifth position on Sunday because I didn’t think the result was possible. Soon we’re off to the grand finale of the GT Open in Barcelona, where we’ll show everyone what we have in store,” says Austrian Simon Reicher.

The final event of the international GT Open will take place October 20–22 in Barcelona, Spain. Eastalent Racing is competing for the coveted championship title in its first international GT Open season.