[FIA GT] Race alliance to race FIA GT in 2006 season

[tux]

Austrian drivers Karl Wendlinger and Philipp Peter will be driving an Aston Martin DBR9 for new Austrian team Racealliance in 2006.

Team ownership is being shared between brothers Richard and Heinrich Karner, who are also Austria's Aston Martin importers, and Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer on behalf of his company JetAlliance, one of Europe's largest on-demand flight services providers. The contracts were signed prior to the the traditional Veal Sausage Party at the "Stanglwirt" in Going.

Karner said : "We are very pleased to be able to launch this Austrian team - and with Karl and Philipp we will have two of Austria's finest racing drivers competing in the 2006 championship."

The team will be managed by Andreas Hainke, a former Zakspeed team manager, who will take charge of the Austrian team with immediate effect.

Karl was the 1999 FIA GT Champion, and returned to the Championship in 2004 with JMB Racing, winning the Donington round in 2004 with the Ferrari 575 M Maranello, and the Magny-Cours round in 2005, with the Maserati MC 12, remaining in contention until the very last race. Philipp Peter has raced on a regular basis since 2001, claiming three N-GT victories in a Porsche and one overall win - the first-ever victory for the Ferrari 575 M Maranello. He claimed two pole positions in 2005, and finished second in the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa and the final round in Bahrain.


lifted from www.fiagt.com

another dbr9 racing wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[pink69]

Hope its as pretty as the Green works cars or the Blue Russian Age one!

[cybersdorf]

For the moment, it's plain white.

[Dani Filth]

not bad if you ask me .. but probably will have some red bull livery
my favorite is the blue RAR
and the team should be one to look for
Philipp was one of the fastest drivers in 2006 . and Karl . well it's Karl

[BSchneiderFan]

Certainly a strong combo, in a fast car. Title contenders?

[cmk]

I'd assume that this announcement puts paid to the idea that there would be 2 Red Bull Astons, since you'd think both would be mentioned in the press release even if the details for the 2nd weren't firmed up.

Interesting as well that we'd seen Peter linked to the RS-Racing Lambo, which never made sense given these Red Bull Aston plans, and now he appears with this program as well. Glad to see him here really, but I hope the Lambo program didn't just get hung out to dry, and that there was really no contract or an escape clause.

[The Badger]

Their press release says "Wendlinger" was a late replacement for Robert Lechner . What happened to Lechner then ?

[Duffacus]

He replaced Lechner at the Dubai 24 hours, Lichtner-Hoyer was also driving the car. But for FIAGT Wendlinger was always the driver.

[cybersdorf]

Originally Posted by Duffacus

He replaced Lechner at the Dubai 24 hours, Lichtner-Hoyer was also driving the car. But for FIAGT Wendlinger was always the driver.

Except that the contract wasn't signed until now. Before, it was a rumour, now it isn't anymore.

[GT-Eins]

Any Ideas who could be candidates for the 2nd Aston?
Would the Lechners be first choice?

[911 GT1]

Money will decide, who gets the second car.

[Bramzel]

Curious how much the Dunlops will lack to the Pirelli's (BMS) and Michelins (Cirtek). They haven't been on top of things at the dry the last couple of years afaik.

[Dauer 962]

Last couple of years the prize was the best argument for using Dunlop’s, but with running two DBR9`s and a RSR this year in FIA GT there is obviously no lack of money. Will be interesting to see if Dunlop is going to raise a serious attack on Michelin and Pirelli.

[Svierge]

Originally Posted by Bramzel

Curious how much the Dunlops will lack to the Pirelli's (BMS) and Michelins (Cirtek).

A little to the Michelins, maybe, but absolutely nothing to the Pirellis, I can assure you!

[Bramzel]

Originally Posted by Svierge

A little to the Michelins, maybe, but absolutely nothing to the Pirellis, I can assure you!

I'm not that sure about that at all. Pirelli has been improving bigtime over the last years, while development at Dunlop has been questionable. Pirelli is also testing a lot at the moment with the BMS, and with the MC12's and Corvette they had several frontrunners last year in FIAGT and with the BMS 550 in LMS.