Philipp Peter

Philipp Peter (born April 6, 1969 in Vienna ) is a former Austrian racing driver .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Peter’s son Peter began his racing career in karting in 1985 and switched to Austrian Formula Ford in 1988 . After two podium finishes in the season, Peter tried his hand at Formula Opel Lotus , German and Austrian Formula 3 in the following years . Although he finished several races on the podium, he did not achieve the big breakthrough in formula racing until then. In 1994 Peter achieved his first race win in German Formula 3 . Therefore he tried his hand at the German and Japanese Formula 3 championships the following year, but could not build on the result and ended his involvement in formula racing.

Touring car

At the same time as his Formula 3 races, he was awarded a contract in the Super Touring Car Cup in 1995 . There he drove an Audi 80 Quattro for the private MIG team for the entire season . He also competed for Opel in two rounds of the Japanese touring car championship. In 1996 Peter concentrated completely on touring car racing and switched to the Audi works team. With the new Audi A4 Quattro he was able to win one race in the season and finish three more races on the podium, but he only finished the season in the front midfield. In 1997 Peter stayed in the STW, but could not match his previous year's results and ended the season with a podium finish in the lower midfield. At the same time, he competed for Konrad Motorsport and Angelo Zadra in a total of three FIA GT championship races in a Porsche 911 GT2 . However, the podium placement in the GTS-2 class with Franz Konrad in Road Atlanta was the only positive result.

Indy lights

In 1998 Peter therefore switched to the American series Indy Lights . He finished the first year as Rookie of the Year and improved his results significantly in 1999 with three overall wins and three other podiums. However, in both years he lagged behind his teammate and future champion Oriol Servià .

Sports car sport

After his involvement in three GT races in 1997, Peter was registered for the preliminary tests for the Daytona 24-hour race in January 1998 , but was not given a cockpit for the championship run in a Porsche 911 GT1 . Only after the end of his engagement did he return to sports car racing with RWS Motorsport. In January and February 2000, Peter drove a Porsche 996 GT3 R with Luca Riccitelli and Dieter Quester, among others, at the two important endurance races in Daytona and Sebring. With two podium finishes in his class, Peter also got the opportunity to take part in a championship run of the FIA GT Championship at RWS Motorsport in Europe . His main engagement this season, however, was the FIA Sportscar Challenge , which Peter and Marco Zadra finished third in the overall standings. Despite the good performance for BMS Scuderia Italia , he was not given the opportunity to compete again in the Ferrari 333 SP the following year.

In 2001 he switched to the FIA ​​GT Championship and drove in the Porsche 996 GT3 RS with Autolando Sport, Redolfi Orlando and Art Engineering for a total of three different teams. Nevertheless, he won two championship races with different teammates in the N-GT . At the same time, Peter also drove in the Porsche Supercup and ended his first season in midfield. In the following year, his achievements in the Porsche brand cup increased. He won two races and finished two more on the podium, at the end of the year he finished eighth overall behind team-mate Marco Werner . Together with Werner, he was also given the opportunity to take part in the Le Mans 24-hour race . For the Audi factory team Joest Racing he drove the Audi R8 together with Werner and Michael Krumm to third place overall. At the same time, Peter continued to compete in the FIA GT championship , but was only able to clinch a class win with compatriot Toto Wolff in Oschersleben and played no role in the N-GT championship decision.

In 2003, Philipp Peter started in several sports car series. At the beginning of the year, he won the Sebring 12-hour race for Joest Racing . He then drove the Ferrari 550 Maranello developed by N.Technology in the FIA ​​GT championship in Europe and later the Ferrari 575 GTC , finishing the championship run in Estoril with Fabio Babini as overall winner after a series of technical defects . In addition, he competed in the European touring car endurance championship in a BMW from Duller Motorsport and at the end of the year he finished the 1000 km Le Mans race as class winner with Andrea Montermini and Klaus Engelhorn . In the following year Peter concentrated more on the FIA-GT and the touring car endurance championship. Nevertheless, he started at the beginning of the season in the Daytona 24-hour race, which he finished on the podium in its class. The results in the GT championship with Babini remained mixed. The team finished several runs on the podium, but faced several results outside of the top ten.

In 2005 Peter drove exclusively in the FIA ​​GT championship, received a new vehicle with the Maserati MC12 GT1 and returned to the Monegasque team JMB after 2003. With two second places in the 24-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps and in Bahrain, he ended the season in midfield. 2006 saw a number of new opportunities for him. At the 24-hour race in Dubai , he drove to class victory for the Duller Motorsport team with Dieter Quester, Hans-Joachim Stuck and Toto Wolff. In addition, he received a cockpit for the Daytona 24-hour race from his former Porsche Supercup team Farnbacher Racing. He finished the championship run with Marco Werner, Dieter Quester and Luca Riccitelli in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup in second place in his class. In the FIA-GT he switched to the Austrian team Racealliance and received both a new vehicle and a new team-mate with an Aston Martin DBR9 and Karl Wendlinger . Although he won his second race in the series for the team, the driver duo dropped out in several other races and thus played no role in the championship decision. In the middle of the season, he was also given the opportunity to start again in a Le Mans prototype in the eponymous 24-hour race, but was canceled prematurely due to a technical defect.

As a result of his good results, Peter started in three different series in 2007 and in the important endurance races in Europe and America. The season began with overall victory in the 24-hour race in Dubai with Dieter Quester, Dirk Werner and Jamie Campbell-Walter . In the FIA-GT he switched between the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R from PSI-Experiance, the Maserati from JMB, a Ferrari F430 GT from Advanced Engineering and an Aston Martin DBR9 from Gigawave Motorsport, but was only able to post a podium result . In selected races of the International GT Open , however, things went better and he finished, among other things, a race in the Ferrari F430 GT as the overall winner. On two other weekends, Peter drove in the ADAC GT Masters and finished each of the four races with Henri Moser on the podium, two of them as overall winner. He was also registered for the season finale of the Le Mans Series in Brazil and the 6-hour race in Vallelunga.

After the season with more than 27 race starts, Peter concentrated more on the FIA ​​GT Championship in 2008. However, he started again outside the series in the 24-hour race of Dubai, which he finished in third class. In the following season of the FIA-GT he switched to Gigawave Motorsport, where he completed the majority of the championship alongside Allan Simonsen and finished seventh at the end of the year. After the season, however, he turned his back on the series and started in 2009 in the Le Mans Series and the International GT Open. While he could only show two finishings in the LMS Le Mans prototype, he finished the season with his teammate Michal Broniszewski as GTS champion of the International GT Open.

In November 2014 he announced his retirement from professional motorsport.

Private

Philipp Peter lives in Monaco with his wife and son .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R8	Michael Krumm	Marco Werner	Rank 3
2006	Swiss Spirit	Courage LC70	Harold Primate	Marcel Fässler	failure	Gearbox damage
2007	PSI Experience	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	David Hallyday	Claude-Yves Gosselin	Rank 28
2009	GAC Racing Team	Zytek 07S / 2	Karim Ojjeh	Claude-Yves Gosselin	failure	malfunction

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	RWS Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Luca Riccitelli	Dieter Quester	Rank 14
2001	RWS Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Norman Simon	Dieter Quester	failure	suspension
2003	Infineon Team Joest	Audi R8	Marco Werner	Frank Biela	Overall victory

Web links

• Website from Philipp Peter

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philipp Peter resigns