Richard Lietz

Richard Lietz

Richard Lietz in the Autorlando sport Porsche

Lietz 2005 in Oschersleben

Lietz 2008 in the Porsche from IMSA Performance at the 1000 km race at Silverstone 2008

Richard Lietz in the Autorlando Porsche RSR, Dubai 2009

Lietz in the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche at the Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race in 2009

Richard Lietz (born December 17, 1983 in Waidhofen an der Ybbs ) is an Austrian racing driver . The native of Lower Austria , is the son of Sylvia and Christian Lietz, has two siblings (Elisabeth and Phillipp) and lives in his home town of Ybbsitz .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

His motorsport career began in 1997, at the age of 14. Initially active in karting and various ice races , he switched to the BMW Formula ADAC Junior Cup in 2000, where he completed its basic training as the best participant last year. In the first season he finished several races on the podium. In the following year he stayed in the championship and underpinned his previous year's results with two victories at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz and the Salzburgring . In 2002 Lietz switched to the German Formula 3 Championship , but had no chance with his older Dallara . He also competed in the Austrian Formula 3 Championship and won twice at the Autodrom Most . In 2003 Lietz also competed in the Austrian Formula 3 championship and again won two championship races. He turned his back on the German Formula 3 , which was now held as a cup, in favor of the new Formula 3 Euro Series . With the exception of the rainy qualification at the Hockenheimring , in which Lietz narrowly missed pole position, he was unable to distinguish himself during the season and only finished three of the 20 races in the points.

rally

In addition to his appearances on the racetrack, Lietz also competed in several rallies. He finished the Harrach Sprint 2001 as best in his class. The following year he entered Group N at the Waldviertel rallye and was classified as fifth. In the years up to 2007, Lietz was also registered in various other ice races and rallies. In 2003 he won the races in Palfau and Gaflenz . His last victory in this discipline was in 2007 at the Leiben autumn rally.

Porsche brand cup

In 2004 he switched from formula racing to GT cars and took part in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany . Through various placements among the top five drivers, Lietz secured fourth place overall in the championship and the title of Rookie of the Year . The following year Lietz was retained in the championship and finished the season in fifth. In addition, he drove in the Porsche Michelin Supercup for tolimit motorsport and won the race in Magny-Cours there . With another podium finish in Hockenheim, he also secured the title of Rookie of the Year in the Supercup . In 2006 he made his last appearance in both series of one-make cups. While he finished fourth overall with a win in Barcelona in the Carrera Cup, he collected enough points in the Supercup with several podium finishes and victories at the Circuit de Monaco and Hockenheimring to finish third in the championship at the end of the season. Due to his good performance, he was promoted to the Porsche works squad at the end of the year.

International GT Open

In his first year as a Porsche works driver, he was assigned to the Italian team Autorlando Sport with whom he participated in the International GT Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 . In 2007 Lietz shared his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Joël Camathias and won the series by four points ahead of Andrea Montermini and Michele Maceratesi. As the defending champion, he stayed with Autorlando, but was given a new team-mate. He and Gianluca Roda had to admit defeat to last year's runner-up despite five race wins. In the following two years Lietz continued to drive with Roda and ended both the 2009 and 2010 seasons as runner-up in the series. In 2009 the team had to admit defeat to Marcel Fässler and his former teammate Joël Camathias, in 2010 Pierre Kaffer and Álvaro Barba López .

Le Mans Series

In addition to his involvement with Autorlando Sport, Lietz competed in the Le Mans Series together with Raymond Narac in 2007 . While he started from pole position in the GT2 class in two of six races , Lietz and team owner Narac was only able to convert the consistently good qualification results into a podium finish. In the 2008 season he stayed with IMSA Performance Matmut and continued with Raymond Narac. In the racing series, which has now been shortened to five races, the driver duo finished a total of two championship races on the podium. A class win at the 1000 km race in Monza was revoked after the technical inspection. The race stewards found that the connection to the data recording device in his Porsche had been interrupted and subsequently disqualified him and Narac. In 2009 Lietz stayed in the Le Mans Series, but switched to the GT2 runner-up team Felbermayr-Proton. He now shared the cockpit with Marc Lieb . The driver duo finished the first championship run of the 2009 season as class winners. At the following 1000 km race in Spa , Lieb and Lietz also won, but the car was disqualified at the technical inspection. While lovers of the Aston Martin DBR9 of jetalliance racing has been overtaken, the two collided vehicles. In the resulting tire damage, the rear fender was badly damaged. Since the tire was no longer completely covered, the race stewards felt that the rules had been violated and the car was taken out of the ranking. Felbermayr-Proton protested the decision and was awarded the victory again by the arbitration tribunal. After Francisco Cruz Martins in the sister car at the start of the 1000 km race in Algarve pushed away the team-mates who were now leading in the championship and only received two points after repairs, Lieb and Lietz showed up for the last race in Silverstone with an eight point lead. Richard Lietz won the qualification and increased the team's point account to nine points. In the race, however, pursuers Robert Bell and Gianmaria Bruni took the lead. The Porsche boxer engine , on the other hand, only ran on five out of six cylinders. Despite a lack of performance, the German-Austrian driver duo narrowly scored points and ended the championship one point ahead. Lietz also stayed in the Le Mans Series in 2010. He and his team-mate Marc Lieb finished three of the five races as class winners of the GT2. The duo thus defended their title in the championship. In addition, the final in Silverstone was part of the newly announced Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in which his Felbermayr-Proton team also took part. The season of only three races ended on November 7th with the 1000 km race in Zhuhai. The podium placement of Lieb and Lietz and the fourth place of the sister car was enough for Felbermayr-Proton to win the GT2 team championship of the new series.

Le Mans 24 hour race

Lietz's first outing at Le Mans took place together with Raymon Nararc and for IMSA Performance Matmut. The team was supported by Porsche works driver Patrick Long for the 24-hour race . Lietz took over the qualification of the car, which he finished as the second fastest GT2 driver. The trio stayed in the top field of the GT2 in the race and took the lead in the class that morning, which they held until the end of the race. The following year, Lietz competed with both IMSA Performance Matmut and the successful teammates from 2007. However, Lietz was unable to intervene in the race, Patrick Long took over the first job in the car and collided with Seth Neiman , who was spinning on the course in front of him. In 2009 Lietz now drove for Felbermayr-Proton, as in the Le Mans Series. Towards the end of his first stint, he was left behind in the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR after the electronics of the fuel pump no longer worked correctly. In 2010 Lietz returned to the Sarthe with the same line-up, but finished the race that year as class winner in 11th place overall.

Other racing series

As a Porsche works driver, Lietz was already used in various other endurance races in his first season. As early as January 2007, Lietz was registered in a Cup Porsche for the Daytona 24-hour race . Initially, the team, for which he drove with the future Porsche works driver Richard Westbrook , among others , was able to keep up with the top field. A brake change threw the Porsche back, however, a deficit that could not be made up until the end of the race. In the middle of the year followed a deployment with Raymond Narac and Patrick Long in the 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps . The trio of drivers, which had already achieved a class victory at Le Mans a few weeks earlier, finished the most important round of the FIA GT Championship on the podium in the GT2 vehicle category. Until the end of the year, he concentrated on his main engagement in the International GT Open and Le Mans Series.

In 2008, as in the previous year, Lietz was registered for Synergy Racing in Daytona. With Steven Johnson and Patrick Huisman he also took turns with two drivers from last year. In the race, the team finished in the top 10 in the first quarter of the race, Lietz was able to collect a few lead kilometers in the GT class until teammate Robert Doornbos ran into a competitor on lap 183 and damaged the vehicle. The team was able to continue later, but lost a lot of time in the pits and ended the championship run in the lower midfield. After a month's break, Lietz also took part in the American Le Mans Series season opener . He started his first Sebring 12-hour race alongside Patrick Pilet and Johannes van Overbeek . In the 25th minute of the race, Rinaldo Capello in the Audi R10 pushed the team's car off the track while lapping. Despite a longer repair pit stop that was now necessary, the Flying Lizard Motorsports driver trio finished the race in the GT2 midfield. Back in Europe, several championship races followed in the Le Mans Series and International GT Open until he was again entered in August 2008 with Raymon Narac and Patrick Long in the 24-hour race in Spa. As in the races outside of his main program, the run started promisingly. Lietz led several laps in his class until a gearbox failure threw the team far back. While he was driving for IMSA Performance Matmut in Spa , he was registered in the subsequent championship run for his future Le Mans Series team, Felbermayr-Proton. At the side of team owner Host Felbermayr , Lietz could not prevail and finished the first of the one-hour runs several laps behind. In the second race the Porsche failed completely. At the end of the year he drove for Autolando Sport in the championship-independent 6-hour race in Vallelunga. Despite the participation of several more powerful sports prototypes, Lietz finished the race together with Maurizio Fratti and Alex Caffi in second place in the overall classification.

After a month's winter break, Lietz drove again as a works driver in the 24-hour race in Dubai , but only finished the race on January 11, 2009 in the midfield. Two weeks later, the Daytona 24-hour race followed, in which he and works driver Emmanuel Collard, among others, took second place in the GT category. During the course of the year, Lietz represented Sascha Maassen in the Italian GT championship , who himself drove outside of his main engagement at the Petit Le Mans . With two podium finishes at the race weekend in Mugello, he helped his team-mate Francisco Cruz Martins win the national GT championship title at the end of the year. The year 2010 began for Lietz with the Daytona 24-hour race. For this he was assigned to a newly founded team with Magnus Racing . He finished the team's debut in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup with Jeroen Bleekemolen in fifth place in the GT class. After that, Lietz started in addition to his main engagement in the International GT Open and the Le Mans Series irregularly for Autorlando Sport in the Italian GT championship. There, Lietz and his GT Open teammate Gianluca Roda drove a Porsche 997 GT3 R in the GT3 class of the series. Together with Raffaele Giammaria , Wolf Henzler and Patrick Pilet, Lietz helped win the driver's title for Roda 2010.

After 2007 and 2008, Richard Lietz is also under contract with the Porsche works team as a works driver in the 2009 season .

statistics

Success list (excerpt)

• 2001: Austrian Rally Challenge: 1st place
• 2007: Champion of the International GT Open
• 2007, 2010: GT2 class victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race
• 2008, 2009, 2010: Vice Champion of the International GT Open
• 2009, 2010: Le Mans Series champions in the GT2 class
• 2018: Overall winner of the 24h race at the Nürburgring (Team Manthey-Racing)

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2007	IMSA Performance Matmut	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Raymond Narac	Patrick Long	15th place and class win
2008	IMSA Performance Matmut	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Raymond Narac	Patrick Long	failure	accident
2009	Felbermayr proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Marc Lieb	Wolf Henzler	failure	electronics
2010	Felbermayr proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Marc Lieb	Wolf Henzler	11th place and class win
2011	Felbermayr-Proton team	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Marc Lieb	Wolf Henzler	Rank 16
2012	Felbermayr-Proton team	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Marc Lieb	Wolf Henzler	failure
2013	Porsche AG Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	Marc Lieb	Romain Dumas	15th place and class win
2014	Porsche AG Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	Frédéric Makowiecki	Marco Holzer	Rank 15
2015	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	Michael Christensen	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 30
2016	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR	Michael Christensen	Philipp Eng	Rank 31st
2017	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR	Frédéric Makowiecki	Patrick Pilet	Rank 20
2018	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 991 RSR GTE	Frédéric Makowiecki	Gianmaria Bruni	Rank 16
2019	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 991 RSR GTE	Frédéric Makowiecki	Gianmaria Bruni	Rank 21

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2008	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Johannes van Overbeek	Patrick Pilet		Rank 20
2009	Farnbacher Loles Racing	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Wolf Henzler	Dirk Werner		Rank 14
2010	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Seth Neiman	Darren Law		Rank 11
2011	Proton Competition	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Gianluca Roda	Christian Ried		Rank 36
2012	Team Felbermayr Proton	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Marc Lieb	Patrick Pilet		Rank 22
2013	Paul Miller Racing	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Bryce Miller	Marco Holzer		Rank 20
2014	Porsche North America	Porsche 911 RSR	Nick Tandy	Patrick Pilet		Rank 20
2015	Porsche North America	Porsche 911 RSR	Nick Tandy	Patrick Pilet	Earl Bamber	Rank 14
2017	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 911 RSR	Laurens Vanthoor	Kévin Estre		Rank 14

Web links

Commons : Richard Lietz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage. In: richard-lietz.com. 2009, archived from the original on September 4, 2009 (original website no longer available).  
• Richard Lietz. In: Speedweek

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harald Gallinnis: Proton gets back GT2 victory in Spa ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: gt-eins.at, June 6, 2009, accessed on June 2, 2020.
2. ↑ Homepage. In: richard-lietz.com. 2009, archived from the original on September 4, 2009 (original website no longer available).  .