KTM Concept to Debut in 24H Barcelona

Photo: Radio Show Limited Listeners’ Collective group (Facebook)

KTM and Reiter Engineering’s concept GT car, which Sportscar365 reported on last month, will make its race debut in this weekend’s Hankook 24 Hours of Barcelona.

A pair of cars, temporarily named KTM GTX, will take part in the 24H Series race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday and Sunday.

Reiter Engineering founder Hans Reiter and KTM’s head of PR / customer racing Manfred Wolf recently confirmed to Sportscar365 that the cars listed for this weekend’s race are the same model that was spotted testing at Imola (pictured above).

Wolf described the 24H Barcelona program as a “test under racing circumstances”, referring to the car as a “test mule”.

He also confirmed that the KTM GTX name is not final, and has simply been given to the car because it will run in Creventic’s SPX class for unhomologated machinery.

Future GT3 cars often run in SPX, such as the 2019-spec Porsche 911 GT3 R which debuted in the 24 Hours of Portimao last year.

Mercedes-AMG’s new GT3 Evo, meanwhile, ran in the SP4 class in this year’s Portimao race in early July. 

As reported in July, multiple sources have indicated to Sportscar365 that KTM and Reiter are working on a future GT2 program, and that this car could eventually form the basis of such a car.

Wolf and Reiter have both played down these claims, instead saying that they haven’t yet decided a future direction for the test mule, which currently uses an Audi 5-cylinder, 2.5-liter engine. 

“Still, there’s no decision made regarding future operation areas [or] classes,” Wolf explained. “The learnings from 24H Barcelona should help to make this decision.”

Two cars will compete at Barcelona, entered under the True Racing banner and with eight drivers split between them. 

Laura Kraihamer, Johannes Stuck and Ferdinand Stuck will all compete with Creventic’s Semi-Pro ratings, while five further Am drivers will also participate: Sehdi Sarmini, Hubert Trunkenpolz, Gerald Kiska and Artur Chwist.

The entry list for this weekend’s race includes four GT3 cars in A6-Pro and a further eight Pro-Am and Am entries in A6-Am.

It includes entries from Total 24 Hours of Spa winner GPX Racing, Bohemia Energy Racing with Scuderia Praha, Frikadelli Racing, Barwell Motorsport, Car Collection Motorsport and Herberth Motorsport.

The race gets underway at 12 p.m. local time (6 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.