Klaus Bachler described winning in his FIA World Endurance Championship return in Qatar as “simply a dream” in the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R.
The Porsche works driver regularly competed in other GT commitments such as the ADAC GT Masters, the Nurburgring 24 Hours, and more since he was promoted from his Porsche Supercup campaign in 2015.
Qatar’s 1812 km season-opener marked his first WEC race in eight years, and so he was delighted to win in the new LMGT3 category.
“What a crazy result,” he said.
“It was my first race in a FIA world championship [since 2015 excluding 2017 Le Mans] so winning off the bat is simply a dream.
“Massive thanks to my team and fellow drivers.
“We put so much energy into this project and prepared everything meticulously.
“The first victory is in the bag. Seven more races to go – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans. There’s still a lot ahead of us.”
Along with teammates Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm, the Austrian claimed his first WEC victory having been closest to the feat at the 2015 6 Hours of Bahrain as part of Proton Racing’s GTE Am effort.
The GT3 platform has been used across the world in a variety of sportscar championships. Accordingly, the ACO have introduced as the replacement for the GTE formula for the 2024 season and beyond, with the class first competing in the WEC’s first visit to the Losail International Circuit.
Malykhin qualified the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R in second position behind the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, which was 0.807 ahead thanks to Tom Van Rompuy’s 1:54.883 pole position time.
As the FIA Bronze-rated driver in the #92 lineup, Malykhin drove primarily during the opening portion of the race in order to fulfill his minimum drive time, identical in duration to Sturm’s at 2 hours and 55 minutes.
In doing so, Malykhin took the LMGT3 lead and – along with the efforts of Sturm – built and established a comfortable margin as large as 20 seconds over second position.
Their lead, however, was threatened from the halfway point to the end, especially by the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR crew.
Meanwhile Bachler completed a double-stint in addition to the final one which reached the checkered flag, just 4.866 seconds ahead of Alex Riberas.
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