Franz Redlich

Franz Redlich is a German racecar driver who formerly competed for Gessler at the TM Master Cup level. His last appearance in the series came in 2011.

German Supercars
After an unremarkable spell in Formula A in 2002, Redlich moved to German Supercars for 2003 due to his Gessler connections. He performed respectably in his rookie year, nearly winning two races and was a regular contender for podiums. In 2004, he won his first series championship for Gessler in dominant fashion, winning almost half of the races that season. In 2005 Redlich nearly repeated his championship, but missed out by two points. After 2005, he began a career in American racing after several disputes with race officials throughout his tenure there.

GRL
In 2006 he was ran in the GRL in a solid red #10 car, for which he quickly became known. Redlich was fastest on the road courses, leading to a top ten finish in the points, but performed respectably on the ovals as well. After getting a TM Master Cup ride, he continued to race in the GRL, dominating in 2008, winning almost every single race. After Curtis Darcy repeated the feat in 2009, the GRL banned full time Master Cup drivers.

TM Master Cup Series
In 2008, Redlich was given a ride in the TM Master Cup Series for EisenTech, a team owned by Drew Eisenman. He was by far the best car on the track at the 2008 Round of Estoril, but halfway through, Redlich had mechanical problems, forcing him to give up the lead. Despite this fantastic performance, Redlich was not retained by EisenTech for 2009, replaced by Manny Brown.

TM Junior Series
Redlich considered calling it quits on his stock car career, but instead dropped to the TM Junior Series (which merged with the TM Lights in 2011) with Greg Wittaker Racing. He was reasonable fast, and got another shot at the TMMC in 2010.

Return to Master Cup
After Ian Cooper departed the Volpi Racing Team, the #2 Volpi was left without a driver. After considering former MotoGP driver Brian Sendack and the promising young gun John Parker, Jr., the team eventually settled on Redlich. Despite some very good showing early on, the season quickly took a nosedive toward mediocrity. Redlich failed to qualify for Brazil, while part-time Volpi driver Parker Jr. almost won the race. At the end of the season the team downsized, and left Redlich without a drive.

2011
Gessler, Redlich's old German Supercars employers, announced in late 2010 it would be entering the series with Carl Richter's team. As the only German competing in the TM Master Cup Series, Redlich was their first choice. He was joined at the newly-formed Gessler Richter MC Team by Avery Holtzmann, whom Redlich raced against in the GRL, German Supercars, and the TM Junior Series. Redlich and Holtzmann were immediately fast, often finding themselves on top of the time sheets during preseason testing.

The two worked together well, with Holtzmann outpacing Redlich in the first few races. However, Redlich was usually suffering from misfortune early in the races, leaving him trailing Holtzmann in the points standings. His luck changed when the series rolled into Germany at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz and Redlich qualified on the pole. After a thrilling last lap battle on the superspeedway, Redlich prevailed, winning in front of his home crowd -- winning the pole, setting fastest lap of the race, and the race win.

2012
Despite several other strong runs during 2011, Redlich was again not retained for the 2012 season, as two other former German Supercar drivers, Mathias Taube and Arto Kekkonen, were signed for the 2012 season in Redlich's place. Team owner Carl Richter said that the choice to replace Redlich with Kekkonen and Taube was not an easy choice.

The choice to replace Redlich was not a popular one in the paddock, with some calling the move a poor choice by Richter, blaming Richter's bias towards Avery Holtzmann for the Gessler Richter team's failings in 2011 despite starting the season with one of the fastest cars on the grid.

Redlich had been rumored to be running the second BlackDiamond Racing Omecha BDR3 in the European rounds of the championship in place of Volpi reserve driver Chris Davenport. However, Redlich did not get the drive, with BDR opting to run Holtzmann and Yevgeny Kuznetsov instead.