By Johan
Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing
this week on the weekend of 6 - 7 April 2013
2. The
Events
- SA Production Cars
- Superstars
- Superstars GT Sprint
- Super GT
- BRCC Test
- Hungary 12 Hours
- Midas Clubmans
- Killarney Regionals
- Grand-Am
- Belgian Historics
2.1. SA Production Cars
The third
South African Bridgestone Production Cars round took place at Aldo Scribante. The
track traditionally favours quattro cars and that was definitely the case this
weekend. The Audis topped all of the sessions. Terry Moss Racing made it a clean
sweep as they won all three races, Michael Stephen winning race one and three
and teammate Tschops Sipuka taking race two. Melvil Priest also showed very
good form in his VMP S4 with consistent results securing him second overall for
the day. The Ferodo S4 of Bonafede also showed very good pace on the day and
lead race two. The highlight was an Audi S4 1-2-3-4 finish in race three.
2.2. Superstars
Monza hosted
the opening round of the Superstars championship. Audi Sport Italia entered two
RS 5 race cars. Monza is traditionally a difficult track for the Audis, due to
the very high end top speeds, however the team worked well this weekend. A top
four qualifying position and finish was achieved by Gianni Morbidelli in both races. His teammate, Ferdinando Geri, finished in the lower half of the field at Monza, and retired from race two.
2.3. Superstars
GT Sprint
Monza also
hosted the first GT Sprint round this weekend. One Audi R8 LMS was entered by
MTM and driven by Oliver Mayer and Thomas Schöffler. They had good pace all
weekend and placed within the top eight for most of the proceedings.
2.4. Super
GT
The Japanese
Super GT got underway at Okayama. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were entered. A
2013 spec car from Hitotsuyama Racing and a 2012 spec car for äpr racing. The organisers
added a 40kg penalty to the 2013 car during the week leading up to the event. It
proved to be a difficult weekend as the cars qualified in the lower half of the
field and finished fourteenth (äpr) and sixteenth (Hitotsuyama).
2.5. BRCC
Test
The Belgian
BRCC held an official test day at Zolder on Friday. Two Audi R8 LMS cars took
part. The PK Carsport R8 LMS is a full season BRCC competitor, whereas the
Belgian Racing Team (MOMO-Megatron-dF1) R8 LMS used the test day to prepare for
the upcoming ELMS season. More can be read HERE. http://audi-motorsport-blog.blogspot.com/2013/04/two-audi-r8-lms-at-brcc-zolder-test-day.html
2.6. Hungary
12 Hours
One Audi R8
was entered for the 12 Hours of Hungary at the Hungaroring. This was the third 24H Series event of the year. The Audi was
entered by the Red Camel Racing Team. It is one of the R8 V8 race cars which was privately built by Creventic, called the “C-R8”. The team performed well within
the field and qualified in the top three. Problems dropped the team back during
the race and they ultimately finished in fourteenth.
2.7. Midas
Clubmans
Round two of the Midas Clubmans was held at
Killarney in South Africa. One Audi A4 took part, the ex-Tschops Sipuka car now
driven by Andre Johnson. He finished within the top ten overall for the day.
2.8. Killarney
Regionals
A number of
other regional races also took place at Killarney. The Audi R8 spaceframe racer
of Paul Beachyhead took part in the Sports and GT races, as well as a few
classic Audis in the historic car classes on the day.
2.9. Grand
Am
The third
Grand Am round was held at Barber Motorsports Park. Unfortunately no Audis took
part this weekend. Four Audis took part at Daytona followed by one Audi at
round two. Hopefully more Audis will be seen at the subsequent Grand Am races
this season.
2.10. Belgian Historics
Belgian Historic Racing took place at Spa this weekend. The yellow/red/orange Kamei Audi Coupe was entered in the event. Two-time Le Mans winner, André Lotterer, was one of the drivers in the Audi. Lotterer also raced this Audi Coupe at a number of Belgian Historic meetings last year.
Audi Sport Media
2.11. Other
Audi News
MS Racing took delivery of their Audi R8 LMS
ultra cars this week. The delivery also marked the 100th Audi Sport customer
racing race car being delivered.
The ADAC GT Masters entry list was revealed this week. Five Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will be fielded
by three teams. MS Racing and Prosperia C.ABT Racing will each field two cars.
The fifth entry is from YACO Racing.
Christpher
Mies and Rene Rast will be sharing one of the Prosperia C.ABT Racing Audi R8
LMS ultra cars this year. They will form a very strong driving combination in
the ADAC GT Masters.
Møller Bil
Motorsport published a dyno testing video this week. The video featured their
SP3T (four cylinder turbo) engine Audi TT RS race car. The video allowed the first opportunity to
hear the new engine, which is very different from the SP4T (five cylinder turbo) engine that is normally fitted to these cars.
The Czech SVC Vitver Racing team have revealed their 2013 plans and updated race car at the
2013 Motorsport Expo in Brno. The team displayed their newly rebuilt and updated
car which now includes a very aggressive aerodynamic package. Their 2013 plans
are to continue competing in the FIA Hillclimb Championship, and to prepare for a
possible 2014 Pikes Peak entry. More can be read HERE.
Two new
drivers have been confirmed for the Audi R8 LMS Cup. Rahel Frey will be taking
part in the Chinese series this year, adding to her other already confirmed Audi
GT duties. The second driver is Franky Cheng, who comes to Audi from Mercedes-Benz. He will
compete in the Audi R8 LMS Cup and in GT Asia.
The Prosperia C.ABT Racing livery was also revealed this weekend. The team will field two of these Audi R8 LMS ultra cars in the ADAC GT Masters this year.
Christopher Mies FB page
3. Next
Weekend’s events (13-14/04/2013)
- FIA WEC
- ELMS
- Blancpain Endurance
- Brazil GT
- VLN
- Britcar
All photos
are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
