By Tarek Ramchani
The Japanese Super GT is moving to south east Asia this weekend. Round three of the season in Malaysia, the annual meeting at the Sepang International Circuit in extremely hot conditions. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will be there. The two cars are from two different teams and will be entered in the GT300 class.
The first car is from Hitotsuyama Racing. Their #21 R8 LMS ultra will be shared by Akihiro Tsuzuki and British driver, Richard Lyons. In the first two rounds the the ZENT backed Audi finished sixteenth in the GT300 class at Okayama and failed to finish at Fuji.
The second Audi entry is from äpr racing (not related to APR Motorsport in America). Their #30 R8 LMS ultra will shared by drivers Yuki Iwasaki and the new comer to the team, Igor Sushko. At Okayama the äpr car finished in fourteenth place and fifteenth at Fuji, within the GT300 class. Igor Sushko is no stranger to the Audi R8 LMS ultra, as he raced with a R8 LMS for Hitotsuyama in Super GT last year.
Since the start of the season the two Audi teams have really struggled. The two cars have so far never battled for top positions and were always forced to fight in the middle of the pack, or even lower. The GT300 class is very demanding with a very strong and top quality field. However it is really clear that the R8 LMS ultra is somewhat penalized with an unfair Balance of Performance. We hope that both Hitotsuyama Racing and äpr racing will be able to bounce back at Sepang.
Photo credit: Super GT
