Christian Engelhart travels to the ADAC Masters Weekend at the Red Bull Ring (10th - 12th August) with fond memories of his last visit. Last year, the Bavarian driver notched up a victory in his very first outing in the Super Sports Car League, sharing the cockpit with Norbert Siedler. This year too, things are going well for the 25-year-old who now partners Carrera Cup champion Nick Tandy in the Porsche 911 GT3 entered by Team Geyer & Weinig EDV Unternehmensberatung / Schütz Motorsport. After taking home a respectable points haul from the race at the Nürburgring, Engelhart is currently fourth in the standings and will have been boosted by a first win of the season in the Porsche Supercup (one of the support series to Formula 1) at the Hungaroring.

After an almost perfect start to 2012 with a victory in the season opener at Oschersleben, the results posted by the Porsche ace duo of Engelhart and Tandy have been rather up and down. "The team was new at the beginning of the year, so you could say that we have experienced a steep learning curve," says Engelhart. "We didn't have much time to prepare, and we soon found ourselves having to cope with setbacks such as a collision at the start of the Zandvoort race and a puncture at the Sachsenring. But now we have settled into a good rhythm, and I'm feeling well at home in the team. The first half of the season didn't go completely as we would have wished, but all the same, I'm happy with fourth place in the table."

Engelhart certainly gets around - in addition to the ADAC GT Masters, the 25-year-old also competes in the Porsche Supercup. Alternating between single-marque competition and driving a Porsche 911 GT3 R in the ADAC GT Masters does not present a problem: "At the end of the day, a Porsche is a Porsche. With its paddle shift and additional electronic aids, the GT3 R we have for the ADAC GT Masters is actually easier to drive than the one we have for the Porsche Supercup. On the other hand, though, setting up the GT3 R is a more complex process."

The Porsche team gets assistance from the IT industry in finding the perfect setup and taking the right decisions: "Our team sponsor, IT consultancy Geyer & Weinig, supports us with its expertise and plays an active role on the race weekends. The core business of Geyer & Weinig is evaluating and improving the quality of IT provision, so they use their IT expertise to analyse our data and help us take the right decisions."

Engelhart, a graduate of Formel BMW ADAC, one of the junior academies run by Germany's largest motoring organisation, is optimistic about a more successful second half to the season. "We are hoping for a victory at the Red Bull Ring," he says with a laugh. "Last year, though, the weather conditions made for a chaotic race. I am very happy to be returning to the Red Bull Ring and also to be getting back together with Nick Tandy who had to miss out on the Nürburgring weekend due to a clash of engagements."