Three weeks after its sensational victory in the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, the GRT Grasser Racing Team has secured its next championship points in the GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS. In the third Sprint Cup event of the season at the Misano World Circuit, Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper finished ninth (P8 PRO CUP) on Saturday and eleventh (P7 PRO CUP) on Sunday. This secured two and a half points for GRT in the Sprint Team standings.

The promising performance in pre-qualifying on Friday evening initially raised hopes for a more successful race weekend. Jordan Pepper set the fastest lap time of all 43 participating cars with a time of 1:32.393 minutes. In Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session, which was split into two due to the large grid, the South African secured tenth place on the grid. In the one-hour race in the evening, Pepper and teammate Luca Engstler made up one position to finish ninth.

The two DTM drivers staged an impressive comeback on Sunday. Starting from 23rd on the grid, they made up twelve places in the second race, which was interrupted for over two hours due to a serious accident involving the #1 car from the GRT Grasser Racing Team, and ultimately finished the race in eleventh place overall.

In the SILVER CUP, Ivan Ekelchik and Baptiste Moulin once again finished in the points in both races. Driving the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 #19, they moved up one place in their class on both Saturday and Sunday, scoring a total of five championship points for the team and driver standings in the SILVER CUP.

Georgi Donchev and Christian Engelhart were unlucky in both races with the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 #1. On Saturday evening, Engelhart was pushed off the track by a competitor in the last corner and had to retire the car. On Sunday, Donchev suffered a similar fate. The GRT driver spun into the guardrail through no fault of his own, causing the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 to immediately catch fire. However, the 42-year-old Bulgarian was able to free himself from the wreckage on his own and fortunately escaped uninjured in the heavy crash.

The next race weekend in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup will take place between August 1 and 3 in Magny-Cours. The event in France will be the penultimate Sprint Cup event of the season, before the final round in Valencia between September 19 and 21.

Luca Engstler (GER) / Jordan Pepper (RSA)

#63 GRT Grasser-Racing-Team

PRO CUP

Qualifying 1: P10 – Race 1: P9

Qualifying 2: P23 – Race 2: P11

Luca Engstler: “It was a challenging weekend for us. After our success at Spa, we traveled to Misano with high hopes, but ultimately we lacked the necessary pace here. As a team, we still did a good job, made no mistakes, and got the car to the finish line in one piece. In the end, we just weren’t fast enough.”

Jordan Pepper: “After our highlight victory in Spa, it was a difficult race for us in the GT World Challenge Europe. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the performance in our own hands this time. We gave it our best and made the right decisions. That’s why we have nothing to reproach ourselves for. Ninth and eleventh places are not what we expect of ourselves. I hope we’ll get another chance to fight for top positions at Magny-Cours.”

Ivan Ekelchik / Baptiste Moulin (FRA)

#19 GRT Grasser-Racing-Team

SILVER CUP

Qualifying 1: P9 – Race 1: P8

Qualifying 2: P8 – Race 2: P7

Ivan Ekelchik: “We struggled all weekend to get the car set up right. We finally managed to do so toward the end, but we had to fight our way back in the second race after the contact at the start. We got the maximum out of it, though. The team worked well together again, and I’m already looking forward to Magny-Cours.”

Baptiste Moulin: “We are naturally a little frustrated because we had hoped for more. We lost time during the pit stops, so we definitely need to work on that. Then there was my incident at the start on Sunday. We give our best every weekend and prepare meticulously for the races, but we are not currently being rewarded for that. So now I need to clear my head so that I can be back in top form at Magny-Cours.”

Georgi Donchev (BUL) / Christian Engelhart (GER)

#1 GRT Grasser-Racing-Team

BRONZE CUP

Qualifying 1: P7 – Race 1: DNF

Qualifying 2: P11 – Race 2: DNF

Gottfried Grasser, Team Principal GRT: „We have experienced all the ups and downs of motorsport in recent weeks. From the sensational victory at Spa to this difficult weekend here in Misano. We found a good balance for the #63 car and the drivers felt comfortable, but the classification did not allow for a better result. As a result, the points haul is meager – also in the SILVER CUP. Georgi’s serious accident was very tragic. We are just glad that he got out uninjured. This shows once again how good the safety standards of GT3 cars are now. All in all, it was unfortunately not a positive weekend for us. We now have to roll up our sleeves and keep working.“