After 33 years: GEBHARDT MOTORSPORT, the newly crowned championship team in the Prototype Cup Germany, returns to the United States.
The last time the MOMO-GEBHARDT C901 Audi Turbo competed in a US IMSA series race was in 1991. Gianpiero Moretti, John Paul Jr., and Derek Bell participated in the race at Watkins Glen, marking their final appearance under the direction of Fritz Gebhardt in the United States. Prior to this, the iconic MOMO/GEBHARDT livery was an American favorite at 45 IMSA races between 1988 and 1991. Gebhardt’s last race in 1991 symbolized the end of a longstanding relationship with professional sports car racing in the U.S. – Seven years later, in 1998, American entrepreneur Donald “Don” Panoz held the inaugural Petit Le Mans, a ten-hour endurance race at Road Atlanta in Georgia. This internationally renowned event will take place for the 27th time from October 9 to 12, 2024, with the IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge for LMP3 cars included in the supporting program. GEBHARDT Motorsport will use this opportunity to celebrate its 2023 Prototype Cup Germany championship victory with a guest appearance across the Atlantic. Two Duqueine D08s will be shipped overseas by the team from Baden to compete against local contenders.
A key difference from the Prototype Cup Germany: drivers race alone, without driver changes or pit stops. As a result, the new champions, Markus Pommer (33, from Heilbronn) and Valentino Catalano (18, from Westheim/Pfalz), will race individually in two GEBHARDT Motorsport Duqueine D08s. Catalano will compete in the familiar black-and-red team colors, while Pommer will represent new team partner Pinaxis, sporting a previously unseen color scheme. “After our success at home, we’re curious to see how we perform internationally and explore future possibilities,” says team founder Fritz Gebhardt. “To this end, we’ve added a third Duqueine D08 to our fleet—this is the championship-winning chassis Markus Pommer used to win the 2023 German Prototype Championship.”
Not only will the successful LMP3 prototypes and their drivers make the trip to Road Atlanta, but key personnel from GEBHARDT Motorsport will also attend, led by Karl David Jennings. Jennings, an Englishman and nephew of IMSA champion John Fitzpatrick, gained extensive experience with the U.S. racing series up until the 1990s and is looking forward to reuniting with old colleagues. On-site, GEBHARDT Motorsport will collaborate with a local partner, Vintage Racing, led by Michael Eberhardt, who will support logistics and technical operations alongside the team. The two IMSA VP Racing Sportscar Challenge races will take place on Thursday and Friday. Each race will last 45 minutes, ten minutes shorter than the Prototype Cup Germany competitions. The first race will begin on October 10, 2024, marking a new and exciting chapter in the team’s long history, which remains under the leadership of Fritz Gebhardt.
Sponsors
GEBHARDT Intralogistics Group – Founded in 1952 as a small metalworking shop, the GEBHARDT Intralogistics Group is now one of the world’s leading material handling companies with over 500 employees and your partner for demand-driven internal material flow. They plan and develop customized solutions for customer projects. With GEBHARDT, everything comes from a single source. For over 70 years, GEBHARDT has been successfully setting the internal logistics of companies around the world in trade, industry and distribution in motion.
REYHER Nchfg. GmbH & Co. KG – For many decades, EYHER has stood for secure C-parts supply and customer-oriented services. F. REYHER Nchfg. GmbH & Co. KG was originally founded in 1887 as a hardware, ship supplies and tools trading company directly at the Port of Hamburg. Around 70 years ago, the family-owned company specialized in fasteners and fixing technology. Today, with an annual turnover of around 480 million euros, REYHER is one of Europe’s leading trading companies, supplying more than 11,000 customers worldwide from its central location in Hamburg-Altona. www.reyher.de/en/Next Intralogistics GmbH – next intralogistics GmbH is a company founded in 2017 in Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg, which specializes in the sale of flexible, scalable conveyor systems that are ready for Industry 4.0. We offer the conveyor technology and other components for intralogistics via the webshop for B2B end customers. Machine manufacturers and system integrators also benefit from our range of services as our partners.
LSJ Advisory GmbH – For more than 15 years, LSJ Advisory has been advising entrepreneurs, companies and investors on a range of matters, from small and medium-sized transactions to complex capital market-related assignments requiring the experience and expertise of an investment bank. Our focus is on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and on transactions related to Asia and North America. In particular, we advise in the industrial sector, including mechanical and plant engineering, chemicals, industrial tech, as well as industrial and healthcare.
