By Johan Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing
this week on the weekend of 2 - 3 February 2013
2. The
Events
- Targa
- GMG Track Day
- Zwartkops Festival
The Targa Wrest Point took place in Australia
this weekend. It was round 3 of the 2012-2013 Australian Targa Championship.
The Audi TT RS of Matt and Casey Close took part and continued their good form.
They finished second overall at round two a few weeks ago and this weekend they
again showed great pace. The TT RS pairing finished the event in another very impressive second place in a field of very potent machinery.
2.2. GMG Track Day
GMG Racing held a track day at Auto Club Raceway in Fontana, California. Many cars took part on the day including the turbocharged Audi R8 V10 built by GMG. Among all the cars present were two of the GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS cars, the cars of James Sofronas and Anders Hainer.
2.3. Zwartkops Festival
The Passion for Speed, an annual historic
race car festival, was held at Zwartkops in South Africa this weekend. One
modern category took part on the day, the Extreme Super Cars. Jonathan Du Toit
competed in the category driving the ex-Michael Stephen Class A Audi A4 from
Terry Moss Racing. The Du Toit family acquired the race car from Terry Moss Racing during late 2012,
this was the car’s second event under the new ownership. Jonathan won his class
in both races on the day, finishing eighth and sixth overall respectively in the two races.
2.4. Other Audi News
The annual ACO press
conference announcing the Le Mans entrants was held on Friday. At the event it
was confirmed that two Audi e-tron quattro cars are entered for the FIA World
Endurance Series and three cars are entered for the events at Spa and Le Mans.
The Audi driver combinations were also officially revealed by Audi Sport during the
event's proceedings. The three cars will be driven respectively by: #1 Marcel
Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Treluyer; #2 Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Loïc
Duval and #3 Marc Gené, Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis.
The ACO conducted a poll to determine Le Mans race car icons.
Fans had the opportunity to vote online for their chosen cars. At the press
conference it was announced that the Audi R10 TDI has been nominated as the
most iconic car from the recent decade. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro was also
nominated as the most iconic car from the current day gird .
The ABT-Audi TT-R of Doug Gore from Jamaica was sent to ABT Sportsline
in Germany for repairs. The car has been repaired and also fitted with bodywork from SVC Náchod Motorsport in the Czech Republic. The car has been tested
and was loaded and sent back to Jamaica this week.
Team Nova
Driver has announced their 2013 plans. The team will run two 2013 specification
Audi R8 LMS ultra race cars in the new FIA GT Series and the Supercars
International Series which includes the Portuguese GT Championship.
At the end
of 2012 it was announced that Minda Motorsport would be running the ex-Rod
Salmon Audi R8 LMS during 2013. The team are entered for the Bathurst 12 Hour
and they revealed their livery this week.
During the
weekend Melbourne Performance Centre also revealed the last of their cars for
the Bathurst 12 Hour. The Mark Eddy/Marc Cini R8 LMS ultra livery was revealed
showing another red livery from MPC, this featuring the brands of each of the car’s two
owners: Network Clothing (Mark Eddy) and Hallmarc (Marc Cini).
3. Next
Weekend’s events (9-10/02/2013)
- Bathurst 12 Hour
All photos
are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
