By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 6 - 7 October
2012
2. The Events
- Superstars
- BTCC
- Portuguese GT & IST
- VIR Gold Cup
- Midas Clubmans
- Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy
- Mickhausen Hillclimb
- Killarney Sports & GT
- Slovakia Amatér Rallye
2.1. Superstars
After a long break the Italian Superstars Championship was back in
action this weekend. It was round seven of the series, hosted at Vallelunga.
All three of the regular Audi RS5 teams were at the event. Coming into the
weekend the young Swede Johan Kristoffersson was
lying second in the championship points, only trailing by nineteen points. The
RS5 cars have been pulled back in recent months due to performance restrictions,
but some of the air restrictor restrictions had been lifted before this
weekend, allowing the cars more performance. The RS5 teams knew this track would be good for them, and they did not disappoint. Vallelunga is known to be harsh on tires and with quattro the RS5 cars were at the top of all the sessions. 1-2-3 in qualifying with
2.2. BTCC
Rob Austin Racing arrived at Silverstone with its two Audi A4 cars.
Leading up to the event RAR again held the photo on-the-roof campaign to help
raise funds for the team. It was the penultimate round of the BTCC season. Small
issues held back the Audi A4s and the team qualified outside the top ten.
2.3. Portuguese GT & Iberian Supercar Trophy
The penultimate round of the Portuguese GT Championship was held at
Estoril. Cesar Campanico and Carlos Vieira from Team Novadriver arrived at the
event with the championship lead, aiming to extend the lead for the title. This
Portuguese GT event was also part of the Iberian Supercar Trophy (IST). The
team got off to a good start by claiming pole position for race one followed by
second position for race two.
2.4. VIR Gold Cup
The Virginia International Raceway hosted the
annual Heacock Classic Gold Cup, also known as
the VIR Gold Cup. It is a historics racing event. The Audi R8 (chassis
#606) of Travis Engen was at the event.
2.5. Midas Clubmans
The Midas Clubmans was once again held at its home circuit of Killarney
in Cape Town, South Africa. One Audi was entered for this event. After losing
an engine at the last meeting, Nieyaaz Modack was back in his ex-Johan
Fourie Racing Audi A4. Modack qualified well and finished race one in third but he did not start race two.
2.6. Cup & Tourenwagen
Trophy
The finale of the Cup &
Tourenwagen Trophy was held at the Nürburgring. Two Audi A3s and one TT took
part at the event. The #1 Audi A3 of Rene Freisberg took victory in race one of
the weekend ans second in race two.
2.7. Mickhausen Hillclimb
Mickhausen Bergrennen is one of the biggest hillclimb events in Germany. The entry list included various Audi cars, with four Audi 50 racers and
the Prospeed Audi Sport quattro S1 replica from Bulgaria. Vláďa Vitver and his
ABT-Audi TT-R were entered for Mickhausen but the unfortunate crash during
testing two weeks ago sidelined the entry. Vláďa was luckily unharmed in the
crash.
2.8. Killarney Sports & GT
The Sports & GT category also took part at Killarney this weekend, alongside
the Midas Clubmans. A white Audi R8 spaceframe race car has been developed privately
for this championship. The development of the car continues but they had a good weekend. Paul Beachyhead
completed the car’s first race finishes this weekend.
2.9. Slovakia Amatér Rallye
The Amatér Rallye Košický Klečenov
was held in Slovakia this weekend. The event was won by Jozefa Béreša
in his Audi Sport quattro S1 replica.
2.10. Other Audi News
An Audi R8 LMS ultra from Audi Sport customer racing was on display at
the Sportlergala 2012 in Kulmbach. Christopher
Hasse was one of the drivers who were also at the event.
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INR8 is a new sister website to Fourtitude, which covers all of the
latest Audi R8 news. The crew from INR8 produced some interesting renders this week
using press photos of the Audi R8 LMS ultra. The renders show the Audi R8 LMS
ultra with the new facelifted Audi R8 parts. It allows us a glimpse of what a
facelifted Audi R8 LMS ultra could look like. If we will ever see the facelift
on the race cars remains to be seen. Our take on the story can be read HERE.
Exciting news emerged this week from the Arc
Audi Racing Program (Istook’s Motorsport). With
the racing season nearing its end the white Audi TT RS of Don Istook has another event on the calendar. They have been
invited by Pirelli to participate in the grand opening of the new Circuit of the
Americas Formula One track in Austin, to be held on 21 October 2012. It will be
very exciting to see the TT RS putting down a few laps at this new race
circuit.
3. Next Weekend’s events (13-14/10/2012)
- FIA WEC
- Blancpain Endurance
- Czech MMCR
- DMV TCC
- Spanish GT
- Dutch Supercar
- Kerrick Sports Sedans
- Brazil GT
All photos are hosted at their respective
website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
