The name Connor De Phillippi only really meant anything to hard-core fans of motorsport before 2013 when the American was accepted on Porsche's junior programme after achieving good results in the American Star Mazda formula racing championship series. He spent three years in Porsche one-make cups before switching to GT3 racing for the 2016 season and finally making the breakthrough.

Team Montaplast by Land-Motorsport signed the 23-year-old to drive one of the two Audi R8 LMS cars which the outfit from Niederdreisbach to the east of Cologne is fielding for their debut season in the ADAC GT Masters. New team, new car, new series - you would have thought that De Phillippi would need some time to settle in. However, there was already some indication that he would quickly find his feet in the Super Sports Cars League at official pre-season testing when he managed to post third-fastest time.

This much is clear after the first two race weekends in Oschersleben and at the Sachsenring, De Phillippi and the ADAC GT Masters go together perfectly, as is borne out by one pole position, three second places and a P7, putting him in top position in the drivers' standings along with his more experienced team-mate, Christopher Mies and giving him the lead in the new junior class for drivers under 25 years. "The ADAC GT Masters is still very new to me, but I'm pleased to have been given the chance to line up in this great series," said De Phillippi. "Well, we've obviously made a strong start to the season, but that's due in part to our intensive preparation over the winter and to the support we get from Audi," he told us.

What is also certainly helping De Phillippi is the fact that he already knows some of the ADAC GT Masters circuits from his time in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland; the Sachsenring, for example, and the Lausitzring where races five and six will be staged on the weekend of 3rd-6th June. The American will then jump back in the plane and travel the approximately 9,500 kilometres as the crow flies from his home in San Clemente, California back to the Lausitzring. De Phillippi: "We tested there with the Audi R8 LMS immediately after the Sachsenring weekend. Another finish in the Top Three would be really great. We might even be in with a chance of winning, with a bit of luck!"