By Johan
Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing
this week on the weekend of 25 - 26 May 2013
2. The
Events
- Portuguese GT
- Australian GT
- British GT
- CMRC
- Tuner GP
2.1. Portuguese GT
Round two of the Portuguese GT Championship
was held at Estoril this weekend. Team Novadriver took part with both of their
Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. Both cars qualified within the top three, with the #1 Novadriver
Audi taking pole. It was a very good two-hour race for the team. The lead had changed by the first pitstops with the #10
Novadriver Audi leading and their teammates in fifth. An Audi 1-2 had been
established after the second pitstops and this was maintained to the flag.
Victory went to the #1 of Cesar Campanico, Carlos Vieira and Mikko Eskelinen, followed by their teammates João Figueiredo, João Ramos and Manuel Gião in the
#10.
2.2. Australian GT
The third round of the Australian GT took
place at Phillip Island. Two Audis were entered in the event, an Audi R8 LMS
ultra entered by Melbourne Performance Centre and an Audi R8 LMS entered by
Minda Motorosport. Rod Salmon was joined by James Winslow in the MPC entry this weekend. Race one saw both
Audis finished within the top six, as Minda Motorsport finished fifth ahead of
the MPC entry in sixth. The second race saw a reversed Audi order as both finished
within the top seven, with MPC leading Minda Motorosport, finishing sixth and
seventh respectively.
2.3. British GT
The Silverstone 500 was held this weekend,
round three of the British GT Championship. The 500 was a special three-hour event
and three Audi teams took part. M-Sport entered one 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra,
United Autosports with one 2012 Audi R8 LMS ultra and Blendini Motorsport with
an Audi R8 LMS. The teams had performed very well at round two of the championship
but they battled this weekend. None of the Audis qualified within the top
twenty. The race itself saw M-Sport perform very well and they recovered to fourth place overall, the only Audi within the top ten. United Autosports finished seventeenth and Blendini twentieth.
2.4. CMRC
Jamaica hosted the first round of the Caribbean
Motor Racing Championship (CMRC). The event was held at Dover and two Audis
were entered in the event. The ATL Automotive ABT-Audi TT-R of Doug Gore was
part of Team Jamaica and the extensively modified Audi A4 STW of Doug Maloney
was part of Team Barbados. Doug Gore claimed pole position by a healthy margin
on Saturday. Gore converted pole into a dominant race one victory, with Maloney placing his Audi on the podium in third.
2.5. Tuner GP
The annual TunerGP was held at Hockenheim
this weekend, the High Performance Days at Hockenheim. This is a massive tuner
event in Germany with a large number of tuning companies and competitors taking
part. Many Audi cars took part on the day. APR also showed well with their
Stage III TT RS which won their category, the car was entered by Wolf-Power. The overall victory went to MTM with an Audi R8 LMS, posting a 1.06.695 average lap time. Florian Gruber was behind the wheel of the R8 LMS. The car was modified to comply with the street regulation for the TunerGP, and competed under the name of the MTM R8 RS.
3. Next
Weekend’s events (1-2/06/2013)
- DTM
- Grand Am
- Blancpain Endurance Series
- STT
- SCCA World Challenge
- V de V
- RCN
- GT Open
- SCCA U.S. Majors
- Swedish GT
- French Rallycross
- Race Trophy Austria
All photos
are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
