| Wolfgang Reip | |
|---|---|
 Reip in 2018 | |
| Nationality |  Belgian |
| Born | 1 October 1986 Etterbeek, Belgium |
| Racing licence |  FIA Silver (until 2015, 2019–) [1]  FIA Gold (2016–2018) [2] |
Wolfgang Reip (born 1 October 1986 [3] in Etterbeek) is a Belgian racing driver.
Racing karts from the age of six at his local indoor karting track, Reip began to develop his passion for racing and started racing in 4-stroke karting races around Belgium. Despite moving up to 2-stroke karting at 11, Reip lacked the budget to compete in races and had to wait until 2010 to get his first taste of cars, taking part in the Paris-based Pro Pulsion driving school, where he placed third at the end of the shootout.
Two years later, Reip competed in the 2012 GT Academy competition, which was a joint venture between Nissan and the developers of Gran Turismo with the goal of identifying potential racers via online racing events. Having competed in the time trials alongside 830,000 other participants, Reip advanced as one of the 36 finals to an eight day race camp at Silverstone. At the end of the race camp, Reip won the "GT Academy Race" and became the champion of the 2012 European GT Academy. [4] [5]
Making his car racing debut at the 2013 Dubai 24 Hour in the SP3 class, [6] Reip had nowhere to go when he hit a loose wheel during his stint, which caused the car to be put into the garage for repairs mid-race. [7]
During the rest of 2013, Reip mainly competed in both the FIA GT Series and the Blancpain Endurance Series for Team RJN. [8] [9] In the former, Reip scored three class podiums, two of which at the Slovakia Ring, [10] [11] and the third one at Navarra, on his way to fifth in the Pro-Am points. [12] Meanwhile in the latter, Reip scored a lone class podium at the 24 Hours of Spa and finished 10th in the Pro-Am standings. [13]
Near the end of 2013, Reip made his LMP2 debut at the 6 Hours of Bahrain for Greaves Motorsport. [14] In his only race in prototypes, Reip came fifth overall and third in LMP2. [15]
In 2014, Reip made his debut in the Bathurst 12 Hour and 24 Hours of Le Mans. [16] [17] At Bathurst, Reip wasn't able to finish the race as teammate Katsumasa Chiyo was involved in a crash, [18] while at Le Mans, the Nissan ZEOD RC's gearbox failed in the first hour. [19] Competing in British GT Championship in the second half of the year, [20] Reip finished second in the second race at Spa. [21]
Returning to Bathurst for 2015 alongside Alex Buncombe and Katsumasa Chiyo, [22] they qualified third and despite a last-minute driver change, with Florian Strauss filling in for Buncombe, the trio took a historical win at the Australian enduro after Chiyo went from third to first in the last ten minutes of the race. [23] Following his win at Bathurst, Reip returned to the Blancpain Endurance Series alongside Chiyo and Buncombe, [24] with whom he'd win at Le Castellet and take the Blancpain Endurance Series title by three points at the season-ending Nürburgring round. [25] [26]
Despite winning the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series, Reip was dropped by Nissan in early 2016, [27] and joined Bentley Team M-Sport to defend his Blancpain Endurance Series title. [28] Scoring a lone third place finish at Monza, Reip finished third in the standings in his fourth and final season in the series. [29]
After spending 2017 on the sidelines, Reip made a one-off appearance in the Spa round of the 2018 International GT Open. [30] In the two races, Reip scored a best result of seventh in race one. [31]
Having had hearing problems since 2014, Reip revealed eight years later that he had been suffering from Hyperacusis, which led to an abrupt end to his racing career four years earlier. [32] [33]
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 |  Nissan Motorsports Global |  Lucas Ordóñez Satoshi Motoyama | Nissan ZEOD RC | CDNT | 5 | DNF | DNF |
| Sources: [39] [40] | |||||||
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