Canadian race car driver and Niverville native David Richert, earned himself a position on the podium after a chaotic weekend of racing in Austria at the Red Bull Ring. The 3rd place result came on Sunday afternoon in the second race of the AFR Remus Formula Cup weekend after Race 1 was completed earlier in the morning.
David Richert on track in Austria at the AFR Remus Formula Cup.
Unfortunately Richert’s first race of the weekend ended in disaster as Ukrainian driver, Danilo Pronenko, made contact with Richert’s car while the two were accelerating down a long straight. The two cars were side-by-side after exiting the second corner when Pronenko moved across the track forcing contact with Richert at 150km/h. The result was a big incident as both cars were sent spinning and approaching competitors narrowly avoided being collected in the mayhem.
Sunday’s incident came on the heels of an enormous pile-up which marred proceedings for the original start of Race 1 the day before. The first race was initially started on Saturday but a massive eight car accident at the Start Line on the opening lap sent two drivers to hospital, forced the stoppage of the race, and ultimately the postponement of the restart till Sunday morning.
After Richert’s accident in the first race, he was forced to start from the back for Race 2 but was able to slice his way through the field and bring home not just one, but two trophies. In addition to the AFR Remus Formula Cup standings, Richert was also classified in the smaller, newly rejuvenated, Interserie Championship results.
It has been a very challenging weekend for us at the Red Bull Ring but anytime you can leave with a trophy there’s usually a smile on your face as well. We had rain, we had sun, we had crashes, we had success…so if our goal this season was to gain experience, we certainly had it dumped on us this weekend. ~ David Richert
Richert will return to Canada for the mid-season break as he continues preparation for his next race which is scheduled to take place at the 24 Hrs of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium during July.
