Bad start at Monza
The first round of the Blancpain Endurance Series started traditionally last weekend at the Autodromo di Monza.
Initially Reiter Engineering had entered the new Camaro GT3, but at testing in Oschersleben a problem prevented the team to run the car and therefor raced it's Gallardo FL2 which also over the winter had an intensive development program.
Reiter entered in the Pro categorie with Albert v. Thurn und Taxis, Tomas Enge and Peter Kox.
During free practice the team found a well balanced set up that gave them a good car for the race.
Albert took the start and instead of having contact opted to take the escape road resulting in losing a lot of places.
However he managed to gain some places back before the first round of pitstops.
The biggest gain however came from the crew of Reiter Engineering who did a tremendous job moving the car up 10! places resulting in P11 when Tomas started his stint.
Tomas did his usual and was flat out all the way posting second fastest lap in the proceedings, unfortunately he collected a puncture and had to return slowly back to the pits, losing a lot of time in the process.
If this was not enough, he got another left front puncture within several minutes and had to return again slowly.
Now they did immediately the regular stop, filled the car, put on a fresh set of tyres and put Kox in for the last stint, albeit staring again from a long way back.
After settling in he found out very quickly that the brakes were not in the best state anymore, and as there was really not a lot to gain anymore, the team decided to bring the car back in one piece and finish the race.
The car crossed the line in 10th place in the Pro categorie.
Needless to say that the team expected much more from this weekend at Monza, as all the ingredients were there..
Peter will start his Blancpain Sprint Series campaign togehter with Marc Hayek this weekend at Nogaro in the Blancpain Racing Gallardo FL2.
