A first test session by the Reiter Engineering Gallardo GT3 took place in Paul Ricard at the official FIA GT3 balance of performance test (above) and this week Reiter Engineering has been back on track at the FIA GT and GT3 Media Days, again held at Paul Ricard.

Reiter Engineering will return to the European FIA GT3 Championship this year with two cars following a two-year break from the series during which it has run its self-developed Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 with great successes in the German ADAC GT masters. In fact during two impressive seasons in the ADAC GT Masters Reiter Engineering netted the teams' titles in 2007 and 2008 and the drivers' championship in 2007 as well as the drivers' vice championship spots in 2007 and 2008.

Alexander Frei and Jonathan Cochet are the first driver pairings for the two Lamborghini Gallardo GT3s that Reiter Engineering will run this year in the European GT3 Championship that have now been announced. A first test session took place in Paul Ricard at the official FIA GT3 balance of performance rides late last month and this week Reiter Engineering has been back on track at the FIA GT and GT3 Media Days, again held at Paul Ricard.

After a highly rewarding 2008, the GT3 category compliant Lamborghini Gallardo racer that is built by Reiter Engineering has already kicked off its 2009 racing action in two sports car series on two different continents. Four Gallardo GT3 cars started the first of the six events that comprise the 2009 Australian GT Championship. The Clipsal 500 consisted of three 20 minute sprint races around the former Formula 1 circuit in Adelaide. Andrew Taplin in #5 Gallardo GT3 led the Lamborghini quartet home in the first race in seventh overall, followed by Mark Eddy and Dean Grant in eighth and ninth places respectively. Ted Huglin in the Team Consolidated Chemical car was twentieth. Eddy and Grant were again in the top ten in their Gallardos in race two with seventh place going to the defending Australian GT champion Mark Eddy, one place ahead of Grant. Ted Huglin was classified in twenty first in the eleven lap race. Grant clinched the best individual result of the weekend in race three of the Clipsal 500. Sixth place confirmed the constant improvement for the driver of the #2 Gallardo while Mark Eddy missed the top ten by a mere two-tenths-of-a-second and was eleventh. Ted Huglin took the chequered flag in nineteenth.

The second round of the Australian GT Championship was part of the programme supporting the Formula 1 opener in Albert Park a week and a half ago. No less than 36 cars competed, including four Gallardo GT3 driven once again by Eddy, Grant, Huglin and Taplin. In Qualifying Eddy held the upper hand in the brand internal rivalry, which meant sixth on the grid in the overall standings. Grant was next up in seventh. Eddy and Grant completed the first 8 lap race in exactly this order because after only one lap the stewards had to deploy the safety car and behind which the race was also ended. Taplin finished 12th while Huglin was 21st. Taplin made a good leap forward in the weekend’s second race and a place in the Australian GT top ten was his reward - as he was ninth at the chequered flag. Eddy once again spearheaded the Lamborghini challenge in seventh position, Huglin improved himself to P19, while Grant had to retire one lap before the finish. A pair of Gallardo GT3s also made the top ten in the third race. Eddy fought his way through the field to third position and, in doing so, took the first podium finish for the Gallardo GT3 in the 2009 season. Taplin improved once again by two positions and took the chequered flag in P7. Huglin once again crossed the finish line in nineteenth place.

Back in Europe meanwhile and the French GT team Ruffier Racing entered a Gallardo GT3 for drivers Nicolas Maillet-Avenel and Mike Parisy in the opening round of the VdeV Endurance Series in Jarama. The Ruffier Team took pole position by almost three-tenths-of-a-second from Pagny and Perrier in a GT2 class Ferrari F430 GT and ahead of the established strong competition from Ferrari, Porsche and Mosler. During the four-hour race in Jarama, Spain Maillet-Avenel and Parisy led the field for much of the race before crossing the finish line in second position with 195 laps completed.