Harald Proczyk

Harald Hari Proczyk (born November 9, 1975 in Knittelfeld ) is an Austrian automobile racing driver .

Life

Proczyk grew up near the Österreichring . The trained driving safety instructor drove four races for the first time in 1995 in Formula Ford and celebrated four race wins. In 1996 and 1997 he competed in isolated races in Formula Opel . In 1998 he switched to touring car racing and in the first year of the Citroën Saxo Cup celebrated the runner-up title in the junior championship. In 1999 he took part in the German Touring Car Challenge (DTC) (Citroën Xsara) as well as in Formula König in the Red Bull Junior Team.

Also in 2000 he was able to retract the runner-up title in the Citroën Saxo Cup. In 2001 he drove in the Ford Puma Cup and the Porsche Carrera Cup , where he was the best rookie. 2002 again participation in the Ford Puma Cup. From 2003 to 2006 two runner-up titles in the Ford Fiesta Cup. In 2007 he won the championship in the Honda Civic Cup. Also in 2007 he made his debut in the Austrian State Rally Championship , where he and co-driver Mario Puster finished seventh overall at the Castrol Rally.

From 2007 to 2010 Proczyk took part in the Mini Challenge . He drove a total of three runner-up titles.

In the 2010 Nürburgring 24-hour race , he achieved class victory in a BMW M3. In 2011 he entered the ADAC GT Masters with a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 and finished 5th overall, becoming the best Mercedes driver. In 2012 he again competed in the ADAC GT Masters with his Austrian team-mate Dominik Baumann and finished 9th overall.

Also in 2012, Proczyk took part in the FIA GT3 European Championship with a Lamborghini Gallardo . Despite his late entry into this series, he and his teammate David Mengesdorf climbed to the podium eight times and thus took third place overall. Again in a Lamborghini Gallardo, he gave a lot of gas in both the FIA GT Series and the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2013 . With his team mate Dominik Baumann, he achieved three race wins in the Pro-Am of the FIA ​​GT Series and was thus runner-up again.

In 2014 he celebrated four race wins and another four podiums in the Blancpain Sprint Series with teammate Jeroen Bleekemolen . With a Lamborghini FLII, which was used by the Grasser Racing Team, these successes meant third place overall in the championship.

In 2015 Harald Proczyk founded his own team. Under HP Racing he fielded a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 in both the ADAC GT Masters and the 24h Series. Alternating with teammates Andreas Simonsen and Bernd Schneider , the newly founded team achieved three podium positions and finished fifth overall in the ADAC GT Masters. In the 24h Series they were successful with two third places and victory in the 24-hour race in Barcelona .

In the 2016 ADAC TCR Germany premiere season, the HP Racing team also started with a Seat Leon TCR. Two race wins and a further three podium places meant third place in the team standings and Harald Proczyk won the runner-up title. After this success, HP Racing also fielded a Seat Leon TCR in the ADAC TCR Germany in 2017. With two podiums and a victory in the final in an Opel Astra TCR, they finished sixth in the team standings and Harald Proczyk finished fourth overall in the drivers' standings.

Web links

• www.hari-proczyk.at