Why Grasser Lamborghini title contender Jordan Pepper has to do without David Grabengießer at the Sachsenring and which former Abt man will replace him
Grasser Lamborghini driver Jordan Pepper will have to do without his race engineer David Grabengießer at the Sachsenring weekend – and thus without the man who led Mirko Bortolotti to the title with the SSR Performance Team last year and is considered an expert on the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2.
The reason? “Unfortunately, David has a commitment in the IMSA series this weekend,” “That was planned, and we knew about it, of course.”
In fact, there is an overlap this weekend with the US sports car series, which is holding a pure GT race in Alton, Virginia. And Grabengießer is also working for the Lamborghini team Pfaff Motorsport in the US at the same time as Grasser’s 2025 engagement.
Former Abt man replaces Grabengießer at the Sachsenring
But who will replace the man from Erfurt? Grasser is relying on GT3-experienced race engineer Nils Henning, who was responsible for Ricardo Feller at Abt last year, to step in for Pepper this weekend. Apart from that, hardly anyone knows the Huracan GT3 Evo2 as well as the Austrian team owner.
Pepper, who is third in the championship, 15 points behind Lucas Auer, is in good spirits going into the third-to-last race weekend of the season, which heralds the hot phase in the title fight – and set the fastest time in the first practice session.
The 29-year-old South African also did well in testing last Sunday, setting the second-fastest lap time behind Winward Mercedes driver Jules Gounon. “The test went really well,” said Pepper. “We were right up there at the front in the first session.” In the afternoon, the team decided not to focus on qualifying times.
Pepper optimistic after test
For the team, which hardly has a free weekend due to its commitments in the GT World Challenge Europe, it was only the second DTM test of the year. “So we had a lot of things to tick off and try out, especially for the last few weekends, as it’s going to be cooler again now.”
That was quite successful. “We tried different things and it seems like we’ve taken a big step forward. It was also good to see that we’ve made a big step forward as a team compared to last year in terms of the competitiveness of our package.”
Pepper’s DTM debut at the Sachsenring last year didn’t go too badly, “but hopefully we can finish a little further up the field this year. I need that too, so I can fight for the title. I think we have the package to do it, now it just depends on how everything develops on Saturday and Sunday.”
