By Johan Laubscher
It was another good weekend for the four
rings in motorsport around the world. The weekend did bring some ups and downs
but overall it was successful. It was also the last weekend of 2012 before the
Le Mans 24 Hours. The big race is next weekend.
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 9-10 June
2012
2. The Events
-
FIA GT1
-
Le Mans Scrutineering
-
Grand Am
-
Grand Am Continental
Tire Challenge
-
BTCC
-
ADAC GT Masters
-
British GT
-
Italian GT
-
Japanese Super GT
-
SVRA
-
GT Asia
-
BRCC
-
Midas Clubmans
-
British Hillclimb
Loton Park
- Division 4
2.1. FIA
GT1
The
fourth round of the FIA GT1 World Championship was held at the Slovakia Ring.
The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT arrived at the event for the first time this
year not as the points leaders. The team pushed very hard but once again the
Audi R8 LMS ultra seemed to have been effected by the BoP. The team pushed in qualifying and did manage two top eight spots with the #33 in fourth.
Ortelli had a big scare in the #32 during qualifying as he lost the car and
managed to avoid the wall twice during the resulting high speed spin. The qualifying
race showed strong performances from the team but the second half of the race
and the pit stops did not go as well. Ultimately the #33 finished in sixth and
the #32 just outside the top ten. The Championship race on the Sunday once
again saw WRT pushing very hard but the cars lacking in power struggled, the
cars ultimately finished in fifth and sixth.
2.2. Le Mans
Scrutineering
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As is
tradition the Le Mans scrutineering is turned into a public event and display.
The cars are scrutineered in the centre of town with large crowds attending to
see their favourite cars up close. Just like the previous few years the Audi
cars were scheduled for Scrutineering on the Sunday before the race, Toyota was
scheduled for Monday. All four Audi R18 cars were presented for scrutineering
followed by the traditional team photos. The team, drivers and cars are ready
for the race next weekend which could yield Audi’s eleventh overall Le Mans
victory.
2.3. Grand Am
Once again the APR Motorsport Audi R8
GRAND-Am was the lone Audi on the entry list for round six of the Rolex Grand
Am series at Mid Ohio. The #51 car pushed hard all weekend and claimed an
eleventh position in qualifying. The APR team who have been hoping for improved
luck ultimately finished thirteenth in the closely contested race.
2.4. Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge
The APR Motorsport
Audi S4 was set for a return to the 2012 Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge season at Mid Ohio. The team had signed a
new driver combination for the weekend and the rest of the 2012 season in the
form of Alex Popow and Hector Guerrero. Unfortunately a crash during practice
destroyed the S4 and ended the car’s participation in the Mid Ohio race
weekend. We are hoping that the car can be fixed and get out on track again soon.
2.5. BTCC
Oulton
Park hosted round four of the British Touring Car Championship. One Audi was
present on the gird but it was not driven by Audi regular Rob Austin. The Rob
Austin Racing Audi A4 was driven by former Formula Two driver and race winner
Will Bratt. Bratt was driving the teams second car which last ran in 2011 while
the team’s main car was sidelined due to damage from the last round. Bratt
impressed in practice but qualifying went against the young driver. He drove
very well in race one claiming a top ten in his first ever BTCC race by placing
in eighth followed by a DNF in race two. Despite contact in race three, Bratt managed to score a respectable eleventh place in the race, clearly showing his and the car's potential in the BTCC.
2.6. ADAC
GT Masters
Round
three of the German ADAC GT series was at the Sachsenring. The three regular
participating Audi R8 LMS ultra cars from Mamerow Racing and Prosperia UHC Speed
were present. Qualifying was a very difficult affair for the two teams with the
cars placing well down the order for race one but the #21 did achieve a top
four spot for race two. Race one would see a tremendous charge from the #21 car
as Mies and Sandström charged from thirty-ninth to ninth. The other two Audi placed
outside the top ten. The #21 car did it again in race two as they charged forwards
to battle for the lead, finally finishing in second place in the UHC R8. The
Mamerow car finished in sixteenth and the #22 UHC retired.
2.7. British GT
Round
three of the British GT series was at Rockingham for a two hour race. The
United Autosport Audi R8 LMS qualified in sixteenth for the event. The #23 Audi was very fast during the race having charged forward and battled with the leaders. An engine management issue dropped the car back but the team continued to fight hard and eventually finished in ninth place.
2.8. Italian
GT
Mugello was the host for round two of the
Italian GT series. The two Audi Sport Italia Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were ready
for the event and qualified well. Race one was plagued by penalties and
punctures for the team which presented very good pace. Despite the penalty the
#32 car finished in second after battling for the lead in the closing stages. The
second race also presented bad lack for the team with the highest placing Audi
in fourth place.
2.9. Japanese Super GT
The Japanese Super GT series moved to
Malaysia at Sepang for round four of the series in very warm conditions. Four
Audi R8 LMS and ultra cars were on the grid from GAINER DIXCEL, äpr racing and Hitotsuyama
Racing. Qualifying and the race proved to be difficult for the Audi cars. All
four of the Audis placed outside of the top ten in qualifying. The GAINER #11
R8 LMS ultra was the highest placed Audi in the race with seventh place, which
was enough for the #11 driving crew to maintain third in the points. The other
three Audi finished between eleventh and fifteenth.
2.10. SVRA
The Sportscar
Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) hosted the Historic Enduro 200 at Watkins
Glen this weekend. Two Audi R8 LMP cars were at the event, Audi R8 #606 from
GMT Racing and Audi R8 #607 from Rogers Motorsports. The Rogers Motorsports car
driven by Doug Smith and Andy Wallace qualified in second with the GMT car of
Travis Engen also doing well. The #38 Rogers Motorsports Audi R8 was driven to overall victory in the weekend's endurance race.
2.11. GT Asia
Round two of the GT Asia series was hosted
alongside the Japanese Super GT at Sepang in Malaysia. The factory #7 Audi R8
LMS ultra driven by Marchy and Jeffery Lee was entered for the event racing
under the banner of Audi R8 LMS Cup. The team qualified very well with another
pole for race one. The #7 crew finished the two races at Sepang in fourth and
sixth respectively.
2.12. BRCC
Spa hosted the second round of the newly
created Belgian Racing Car Championship (BRCC). The Belgian W Racing Team entered one Audi R8 LMS for the event comprised of two sprint races and an
endurance race. The WRT team did well in the sprints with Christopher Haase
taking victory in the second race. The endurance race was dominated by the #32
WRT car as Yves Weerts, Kurt Mollekens and Christopher Haase lead the field
from start to finish taking WRT’s second BRCC endurance race win of the season.
2.13. Midas Clubmans
Round six of the Killarney based Midas
Clubmans series once again saw domination from Nieyaaz Modack. Modack won both
races on the day in his Johan Fourie Racing Audi A4. Andre Johnson was also
present on the day with his turbocharged Audi A4.
2.14. British
Hillclimb
The Loton Park Hillclimb was held this weekend
as part of the British Hillclimb Championship. Various Audis were there
including the Keith Edwards Motors Audi sport quattro. An Audi 80 driven by Keith
Murray also claimed a record timed run in his class.
2.15. Division 4
The Division 4 category was a support event at the Slovakia Ring for the FIA GT1 weekend. The Division 4 races formed part of the Slovak and Hungarian racing series and the Auto Sport Team Presskam team was present with their ABT-Audi TT-R with Tomáš Liedl behind the wheel.
2.16. Other Audi news
The official
Audi Sport Facebook page released a great wallpaper which showed rendered images of
the three current race car models from Audi Sport. The wallpaper included the
Audi A5 DTM, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the Audi R8 LMS ultra.
The Truth in 24 II DVD has become available for purchase on Audi's Adrenalin Magazine website. The film comes in a very nice case and is packaged with a well set up DVD. The DVD includes the film with all four language and subtitle versions (English, French, German and Spanish) as well as bonus material. A review of the DVD can be seen HERE.
Link to DVD purchase
The 2012 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb is scheduled for 8 July 2012. A month ahead of the event the course was opened for testing. Various Audis have been entered into the event, including the legendary 1987 Pikes Peak winning Audi sport quattro S1 which will be reunited with its original driver, Walter Röhrl. The well known 034Motorsport Audi A4 was present at the Pikes Peak testing. The 034Motorsport car is normally seen at time attack events across America.
3. Next Weekend’s events (16-17/06/2012)
-
Le Mans 24 Hours
-
Czech series
-
DMV
-
Spanish GT
-
STT
-
RCN
-
Asian GT Series
-
STCC
-
SA Production Cars
The weekend was once again a very busy one for the Audi brand. Next weekend in terms of the list of events
is quieter than usual but the headline event more than makes up for this. The
headliner next weekend is without any doubt the headliner of the year, the
eightieth running of the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours.
All photos are hosted at their respective
website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
