It could not have gone better for the Austrians (28 to 30 April). Eastalent-Racing, entering new territory this year in the international GT Open, secured third place at the Autodromo do Algarve in southern Portugal on Sunday. “Our two Audi drivers Christopher Haase and Simon Reicher made a perfect debut,” reports team owner Peter Reicher. He felt vindicated in his decision to take a new direction: “We have turned everything upside down and completely repositioned ourselves. But I did not expect this result. I was thinking maybe fifth place if things went well. But with fourth place on Saturday and third today, none of us expected that. A great debut for the whole team!”

This positive trend was already apparent on Saturday. With fourth place in the first race of the season, expectations were more than fulfilled. Simon Reicher qualified 17th for the team in the first session. Just a few laps after the race began, the Kirchberger had already made up several places and handed over to his teammate Christopher Haase as planned. Haase then brought the Eastalent Racing Audi across the finish line in fourth.

Now it was clear: there could be even more potential on Sunday. The team around Peter Reicher eagerly awaited the scheduled practice on Sunday morning. Christopher Haase qualified the Audi with starting number 23 in fourth place among the GT3 cars. On the first lap of the race, he secured third place and held it until the driver change. Simon Reicher then defended third place to the finish line.

Both drivers were very positive after their first appearance in the international GT Open. Christopher Haase analysed the situation as follows:
“New team, new championship — not an easy task for Eastalent. We basically focused on getting the fundamentals right. From the fundamentals, you can then achieve solid results. I think we implemented that very well. Now our task is to further optimise our processes and, above all, our performance. We have to be clever, analyse cleverly, solve challenges cleverly — then we’ll be well positioned again at Spa-Francorchamps. However, it will be tough to maintain these results over the season. We'll need to keep improving the fundamentals.”

Simon Reicher was impressed by the Algarve’s rollercoaster-like track:
“The track is like the Nürburgring, just smaller. It goes up and down — it’s incredibly impressive. The course has a really nice flow, but it's very difficult to drive. Because of the many corners and the elevation changes, you often can’t see the braking or steering points. The corner exits aren’t always visible either. A tough challenge, but overall I’m very happy. I didn’t expect P4 on Saturday and P3 today. Everyone in the team did a fantastic job. Let’s see if we can build on this for the next race at Spa-Francorchamps.”

Peter Reicher concluded:
“We need to prepare for Spa. There's still some work ahead of us. I think with Christopher, we have a very good teacher on board who can support us as a team — and especially Simon. I always knew Christopher was a top driver and a true professional, but experiencing him live in the team earns my greatest respect. Hats off. But I’m also proud of my son Simon, who was able to improve a lot by working alongside Christopher. That will be easy to see over the course of the season.”

The second round of the International GT Open is scheduled for the Austrians in just under four weeks. The legendary Ardennes rollercoaster awaits from 26 to 28 May at the Belgian Spa-Francorchamps.

Text: www.kartpress.de / Michael Schulz
Photo: www.kartnet.de / Michael Schulz

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