Rolf Ineichen: Time for a change
NEW TEAM AND CAR After four years in GT3 racing, Rolf Ineichen is changing teams and brands. Already next week the fast gentleman racer from the canton of Lucerne will drive an Audi from WRT. The professional W Racing Team from Belgium has two Lucerne drivers in its Audi squad this year. While Fabio Scherer [...]
The professionally set-up W Racing Team from Belgium has two Lucerne drivers in its Audi squad this year. While Fabio Scherer joins the DTM with WRT, Rolf Ineichen moves from Grasser Racing to Vincent Vosse's team. After four successful years on Lamborghini in the Austrian team of Gottfried Grasser (GRT), the fastest GT3 amateur in the German-speaking region will take his seat in an Audi R8 LMS in the future.
Same path as Bortolotti
Mirko Bortolotti's change of brand was one of the decisive factors. Like ADAC GT Champion Patric Niederhauser, the Italian is a factory driver for Audi Sport customer racing as of this year after having been associated with Lamborghini for many years. With Bortolotti as the driving spearhead at GRT, Rolf Ineichen won the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring in 2019.
First Dubai, then Daytona
Ineichen will make his debut in the new team together with his brother Mark on January 10/11 at the Dubai 24 Hours, where WRT will field two Audi cars. Their teammates are Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde, Niederhauser's partner in the 2019 ADAC GT Masters. Six years ago, the brothers took overall victory in Dubai on a Porsche with the Stadler team from Reinach AG.
On the fourth weekend in January, Rolf Ineichen with Bortolotti, Dries Vanthoor (B) and Daniel Morad (Canada) will set his sights on a third Daytona victory in the GTD class (analogous to GT3 in Europe) with WRT. At the first event in Florida a year ago, a WRT Audi finished third in the classification of the race that ended prematurely due to rain. Next March, WRT plans to compete at Sebring for the first time, probably with a similar lineup as at Daytona.
WRT premiere in the ADAC GT Masters
At the turn of the year, the Belgian team also announced the expansion of its commitment by entering the ADAC GT Masters 2020, without naming the drivers. It can be assumed that Rolf Ineichen will be chasing the title here. In four seasons so far, Ineichen has won three rounds in this international German GT3 series, the same number as compatriot Patric Niederhauser in 2019.
Mark Ineichen (CEO and Chairman of the Board) and Rolf Ineichen (COO) are the owners of OTTO'S, the discount chain founded by their legendary father Otto Ineichen. Every Monday after a race, they are back in their offices in Sursee, if possible, to run the family business. Despite the team change, this will hardly change in 2020.
