Christian Engelhart has been working towards this success for years.
His dream finally came true on Sunday: The racing professional from Starnberg won the ADAC GT Masters title.
Starnberg
- “This is a very special day in my life,” says Christian Engelhart.
He hovers in the seventh racing heaven, has reached the goal of his dreams.
The 33-year-old racing car driver, who has lived in Starnberg with his wife and two children since December 2017, won the ADAC GT Masters on Sunday with his partner Michael Ammermüller (34 / Rotthalmünster).
In the last race of the season in Oschersleben, fourth place in their Porsche 911 GT3 R was enough for the duo to secure overall victory.
On Saturday, the Bavarian duo laid the foundation for this with their third win of the season.
For Engelhart it is the first title in the ADAC GT Masters.
In 2011, the trained vehicle and engine technician celebrated his debut in this German racing series as a professional racing driver - and with one victory.
In 2012, he took the most wins of the season and was third overall.
Last year he narrowly missed the title as runner-up overall.
With a total of 15 race wins, the Starnberg-born driver is the second most successful driver in the history of the so-called “League of Super Sports Cars”.
Only one title was missing - until Sunday.
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Christian Engelhart has lived in Starnberg since December 2013.
© Christian Engelhart
"That was very emotional," says Engelhart. After all, the ADAC GT Masters are "the toughest sprint championship in the world with the most professionals and a lot of brands at the start".
Just before this season he and his partner Ammermüller had been hired by the newly founded Munich racing team SSR Performance.
And that with SSR Performance it was enough to win both titles straight away - driver and team classification - Engelhart has to respect it: “To do that as an absolute newcomer is remarkable.
But the whole team works very professionally. "
He and his colleagues couldn't really celebrate the success due to the corona pandemic, but “it was still a long evening”.
They also toasted their three victories of the season - which meant top marks.
Because no other team was able to win more than once in the “League of Super Sports Cars” in 2020.
In addition to Oschersleben, Engelhart and Ammermüller stood at the top of the podium once at the Nürburgring and once at the Hockenheimring.
Other racing weekends for the series were on the program at the Lausitzring (2nd / 4th), Sachsenring (6th / 6th), Red Bull Ring Spielberg (5th / 4th) and again at the Lausitzring (6th / 11th) .
Christian Engelhart is back in his Porsche this weekend.
Then the final of the GT World Challenge Europe will take place on the Paul Ricard Formula 1 track (France).
And maybe the man from Starnberg will win his next title there, because he and his Dinamic Motorsport team are leading the endurance class there too.