By Johan Laubscher
This weekend was a very special weekend. This
is the tenth edition of the new Audi Motorsport Blog Weekend Round Up, which has
been confirmed to continue into the future. With the special tenth edition of
the article comes a very special event as well. It was the legendary Le Mans 24
Hours this weekend which headlined all the Audi Motorsport participation. The
success at Le Mans was brilliant and the weekend also held success for the
various other Audi teams around the world as well.
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 16-17
June 2012
2. The Events
-
Le Mans
-
SA Production Cars
-
Spanish GT
-
STCC
-
Czech
-
DMV
-
STT
-
RCN
-
Asian GT Series
- European Hillclimb Cup
2.1. WEC
Le Mans 24 Hours
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The
eightieth running of the Le Mans 24 Hours saw four Audis entered and the
eleventh overall win for Audi. Strong competition came from the new Toyota team
during the first quarter of the race until the two cars were involved in separate incidents
which included a massive crash for Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota. It was
not plain sailing for the Audi teams. Each of the four cars were involved in
different incidents ranging in severity. The two R18 ultra cars fell behind the
e-tron cars after two crashes for the #3 and various small technical issues for
#4. The race developed into a fight between the #1 and #2 e-tron cars when the
#2 caught the #1 after earlier difficulties. The battle lasted until McNish was
involved in an accident in the Porsche curves. The accident ended the challenge
at the front and the four Audis cruised home to victory. In the end it was a
1-2-3 finish for Audi with the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Marcel Fässler,
André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer taking the victory. It was the first overall
victory for hybrid technology at Le Mans. The #1 lead home #2 and #4 with #3
finishing in fifth.
2.2. South African
Bridgestone Production Cars
Round five
of the South African Bridgestone Production Cars championship was hosted on
the streets of Durban. The event was part of the 2012 Top Gear Festival which
was hosted in Durban for the first time on a temporary street circuit near the Moses Mabhida
Stadium. Five Audis were on the gird for the race with Michael Stephen setting
the pace during the weekend by topping practice and qualifying. Johan Fourie’s
bad luck continued as his S4 retired from the weekend after a qualifying shunt
through no fault of his own. Fourie’s teammate Modack also sustained damage
during the races. The VMP Motorsport S4 of Melvil Priest continues to improve with top three results in qualifying and race two. Michael Stephen
dominated race one followed by a second place finish in race two retaking the championship
points lead in the process.
2.3. Spanish IBER GT
The Motorland Aragon circuit hosted round
four of the Spanish IBER GT series this weekend. Two Audi R8 LMS ultras were
present from Team Nova Driver. The cars have been heavily handicapped but
despite this the team put up a great fight. In the end the team scored a well
deserved podium finish with second position overall.
2.4. STCC
The Scandinavian
Touring Car Championship headed to round three at Sturup Raceway this weekend.
The BMS Racing team was there with their two ex-KMS Audi A4 S2000 race cars.
The team are competing in the Semcon Cup for privateers. The team scored good podium
finishes which enables the two drivers, the Ahlberg brothers, to maintain second and
third in the points.
2.5. Czech
Championship (MMČR)
Round two of the MMČR
from the Czech Republic was held at the Pannoniaring in Hungary. Auto Sport Team
Presskam was present at the event with Tomáš Liedl driving the team’s ABT-Audi
TT-R.
2.6. DMV
TCC
The
second round of the German DMV TCC championship was held at Hockenheim. Two
Audis were on the grid from Roth Racing, the 2004 Audi A4 DTM R11 of Eddy Kamm
and the Audi A4 STW of Marc Roth. Kamm won the first race with Roth winning the
group two class as well.
2.7. STT
The Spezial
Tourenwagen Trophy (STT) was at Hockenheim for the third round. The Audi 80 of Joachim
Duscher was at the event and led his class until falling back during the race. The V8 Star of
Seven Fisch which has an Audi A6 C5 body was also present at the event.
2.8. RCN
The RCN is a series very similar to the VLN
and is also exclusively held at the Nürburgring. Round four of the series was held
this weekend. Four Audis were entered in the event including one of the SP4T
class Raeder Audi TT RS race cars.
2.9. Asian GT Series
The third FRD Asian GT Series race meeting of
the year was held at Zhuhai this weekend. One Audi R8 LMS ultra was present at
the event entered by Team Hong Kong Racing (Absolute Racing). Philip Ma was
behind the wheel.
2.10. European Hillclimb Cup
The Bulgarian Prospeed Team scored their first podium of the year with their monstrous Audi S1 replica. The European Hillclimb Cup was held at the Lo Spino Hillclimb in Italy.
2.11. Other Audi news
Fingers
Crossed Racing continues their preparation for the 2012 Pikes Peak
International Hillclimb. The team is entering one A4 B5 and an Audi Coupe. The
Audi coupe in its current specification had its first outing this weekend. Various Audi cars from different teams will compete at the 2012 Pikes Peak event.
3. Next Weekend’s events (23-24/06/2012)
-
Grand Am
-
Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge
-
BTCC
-
Australian GT
-
British GT
-
French GT
-
VLN
-
GT Open
-
Dutch Supercar
-
SCCA World Challenge
-
SVRA
-
Brazil GT
The weekend was once again a very busy and
successful 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
