In 2012 Wolfgang Reip beat 830,000 gamers to the GT Academy Europe crown. Wolfie’s natural talent shone through at Race Camp that summer and since then the affable Belgian has taken the opportunity of being a NISMO Athlete and run with it.
Wolfie’s award for winning GT Academy was a race seat at the Dubai 24 Hours, the traditional prize drive for all graduates. Racing a Nissan 370Z NISMO GT4 with Lucas Ordoñez, Mark Shulzhitskiy and Roman Rusinov as his team mates, Wolfie had a baptism of fire as during his first race stint a car ahead of him lost a wheel and the first Wolfie knew about this was when he hit it at full racing speed. Like a true professional he held his nerve and the team fought back through the night to take an incredible second place in class.
For his first season as a racing driver, Wolfie was chosen to race the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 car in both the FIA GT and Blancpain Endurance Series. After making his debut during a wet weekend at Nogaro in France Wolfie quickly got some good finishes under his belt but by the summer he was hungry for some silverware.
The turning point came at the Spa 24 Hours, one of the toughest endurance races in the world. The all-gamer line-up of Wolfie, Lucas Ordoñez, Jann Mardenborough and Peter Pyzera took a third place podium finish in the Pro-Am class that was littered with vastly experienced drivers. For Wolfie the victory was even sweeter as it happened on home turf.
Wolfie then went on to take second place in class at the Slovakian round of the FIA GT Series. Then in November 2013, like four GT Academy winners before him, he made his LMP2 debut. His performance in the Greaves Zytek-Nissan impressed the listeners of Radio Le Mans so much that they gave him the ‘Spirit of the Race’ award.
At the Geneva Motor Show in March 2014 it was announced that Wolfie had been selected to race the Nissan ZEOD RC at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
