- True Racing comes away with important points on the Monza based high-speed circuit

- Reinhard Kofler and Patric Niederhauser deliver best individual performance in the wet

- Season start in Italy ends very positively, despite some setbacks during the weekend

No less than 36 GT4 cars started the 2019 season at the Monza circuit this past weekend, including the KTM X-BOW GT4 of Austrian-Swiss pairing Reinhard Kofler / Patric Niederhauser.

Weather played a much bigger role than was usually the case in the Italian spring. It was already wet conditions during the unofficial test session on Thursday and brought with it the first problems because Reinhard Kofler had a crash at the end of the start/finish straight. Thanks to great work by Reiter Engineering, the True Racing car was back for the qualifying on Friday with Niederhauser finishing ninth and Kofler sixth.

Im zweiten Rennen gelang Reinhard Kofler und Patric Niederhauser dann schluessendlich ein echter Befreiungsschlag: Trotz angelaufener Frontscheibe und null Sicht im strömenden Regen konnte Kofler den „True Racing“ KTM X-BOW GT4 auf Platz sieben an Patric Niederhauser übergeben, der wiederum auf Gesamtrang vier über die Ziellinie fuhr – eine Glanzleistung von beiden Piloten, wie Teamchef Hans Reiter bestätigt: „Dieses Wochenende war eine Achterbahn der Gefühle. Wir wussten, dass Monza die für uns schwierigste Strecke der Saison ist. Aber dass wir dann auch noch so hartnäckig vom Pech verfolgt werden, das war nicht geplant. Umso schöner ist es, dass wir dank der großartigen Performance von Reini und Patric jetzt doch noch wichtige Punkte mitgenommen haben. Das war im Hinblick auf die Meisteschaft ein sehr wichtiges Resultat.“

Although the weather stayed dry for Saturday's race, unfortunately, it brought no luck for the strong duo. After a strong opening sting from NBiederhauser, a lost turbo hose ended Reinhard Kofler's race on his way to a top six finish.

In the second race Reinhard Kofler and Patric Niederhauser finally were more fortunate. Despite a tarnished windshield and virtually no vision in the pouring rain, Kofler brought the TrueRacing KTM X-BOW GT4 home in seventh place to hand over to Patric Niederhauser, who then powered it to overall fourth at the finish line – a fantastic result by both drivers, which was confirmed by team boss Hans Reiter. "This weekend was a roller coaster of emotions. We knew Monza was going to be the hardest track of the season for us. But we didn’t plan to be so stubbornly pursued by bad luck. That made Reini and Patric’s great performance all the better, and we also take away some important points. This was a very important result in terms of the top team.”

Reinhard Kofler (“TrueRacing”): “That was a weekend that I won’t easily forget. First the crash on Thursday, then the bad luck with the turbo hose in the first race and then driving absolutely blind at more than 200 km/h. It was close to a miracle that I could hand over the car in seventh place. Thankfully, the risk has paid off!”

Patric Niederhauser (“TrueRacing”): "We had our revenge for Saturday. Thanks to the team and to Reini, the car was great. If the race had lasted a little longer, maybe we would have even finished on the podium. I was quite a bit faster than the car in third place. But of course, we are very happy about the points for fourth place!”

Media Contact for Further Questions:

Manfred Wolf

HEAD OF PR / CUSTOMER RACING

+43 664 19 29 939

manfred.wolf@ktm.at