By Johan
Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing on the weekend of 1 - 2 June 2013
2. The
Events
- DTM
- Blancpain Endurance Series
- SCCA World Challenge
- Swedish GT
- V de V
- SCCA U.S. Majors
- RCN
- French Rallycross
- STT
- Czech Hillclimb
- British Hillclimb
2.1. DTM
The DTM arrived in Austria for
the third round of the German series. Audi was full of confidence following
their victory at Brands Hatch last time out, when Mike Rockenfeller took the
race win and the championship lead. The Audi RS 5 DTM cars performed well in
free practice with five cars inside the top ten. Edoardo Mortara, the winner at
this track last year, was the only Audi in the top four shootout and he
qualified in third. Four Audis qualified within the top ten. The race itself
saw Mortara gaining second place at the start but he unfortunately lost the place, and later fell back after a puncture caused by contact. Mike Rockenfeller recovered very well and finished fourth, he had started in thirteenth place after a penalty. Mattias Ekström followed Rocky home, finishing in sixth place, the only two Audi drivers within the top ten. Rocky remains the leading Audi driver in the points, he is in second place just twelve points behind the leader.
2.2. Blancpain Endurance Series
The second Blancpain Endurance Series was
held at Silverstone this weekend. A total of eight Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were
entered in the event: Three from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, two from Phoenix
Racing and three from Sainteloc. The cars showed good pace and the #13 WRT entry
was the highest Audi qualifier in third, all three WRT cars qualified within the
top ten. The three hour race saw WRT performing very well. They managed to get two cars into the top three and maintained the positions with the #1 car finishing second ahead of the #13. A total of four Audis finished in the top ten, the #2 (WRT) finished eighth and the #16 (Phoenix) finished in ninth.
2.3. SCCA World Challenge
The Pirelli World Challenge headed to Detroit
for the fourth round. A much smaller grid took part at the Detroit Belle Isle Grand
Prix, with only nine GT class cars competing. Two Audis were entered at this
event, both from GMG Racing. All eyes were on championship leader, James
Sofronas, in the #14 Audi R8 LMS. He qualified in third and finished the safety
car interrupted first race in fourth position.
2.4. Swedish GT
JB Motorsport has remained unbeaten in
Sweden so far this year. Round two of the Swedish GT Championship was held at Mantorp
Park. The #4 JB Audi R8 LMS was driven by Jan Brunstedt and Christer Lindholm.
They claimed pole position and a comfortable race victory. Jan Brunstedt
remains the overall championship leader.
2.5. V de V
The French V de V Championship was at Paul
Ricard this weekend for a four hour endurance event. AB Sport Auto again
entered their Audi R8 LMS, and they qualified sixth in class. By the end of the
four hour race they had finished fifth overall and first in class.
2.6. SCCA U.S Majors
New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) hosted the
Eastern Conference of the SCCA U.S. Majors this weekend. The Limitless Racing
Audi R8 GRAND-AM, owned and driven by Jason Lee, was entered in the event. Dr
Lee qualified fourth in class for both races. They were up to second in class
during the first race and came home in a well deserved third place, eighth
overall.
2.7. RCN
The RCN held round four this weekend. The previous
event was cancelled due to the dangerous weather conditions on the Friday
morning of the Nürburgring 24 Hours two weeks ago. Four Audis took part in this round of the RCN.
2.8. French Rallycross
Round two of the French Rallycross
Championship was at the “Rallycross de Châteauroux” event. Once again two Audis
were entered: The Racing Team Jagu Audi A1 and the Jimmy
Terpereau (ex-Jagu) Audi A3.
2.9. STT
The Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy (STT) was at
the Nürburgring for the Euro Race weekend. This was round two of the
championship and a total of five Audis competed. This included two SP4T VLN Audi TT RS cars, an Audi A4 DTM R11, an A3 and an ex-ROC Audi 80 touring car.
2.10. Czech Hillclimb
The Czech SVC Náchod Motorsport team competed
in a Czech Hillclimb event this weekend, AMK Ecce Homo
Šternberk. SVC competes with a modified ABT-Audi TT-R driven by Vláďa Vitver.
It is also worth noting that a very special Audi-related car was also entered.
An ex-Karl Hasenbichler March HSS Audi-powered race car (Intersérie) was
present at the event, in its original white/yellow HB livery. The March was
driven by Adam Klus. More about these Audi powered March HSS cars can be seen HERE.
2.11. British Hillclimb
The Shelsley Walsh British Championship event took place this weekend. The Keith Edwards Motors Audi Sport quattro (S1 replica) competed at the hillclimb.
Keith Edwards Motors FB page
2.12. Other Audi News
The Shelsley Walsh British Championship event took place this weekend. The Keith Edwards Motors Audi Sport quattro (S1 replica) competed at the hillclimb.
Keith Edwards Motors FB page
2.12. Other Audi News
The ACO held a very special event on Friday,
an evening for the 90th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The 2012
race winning Audi R18 e-tron quattro was on display at the event, still wearing
its original race-worn bodywork.
Three Audi race drivers were honoured at the
ACO event on Friday. Tom Kristensen, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro were each
honoured and inducted into the ‘Le Mans Drivers Hall of Fame’.
A new official Audi Social News Reader has
been launched and it provides a system that shows all of the various social
media interactions with the official Audi sources. The categories include: General News, Models, Pictures, Videos and most importantly, Motorsport. It is
a very useful tool for all Audi fans. The Audi Social Media Reader can be seen HERE.
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT competed with a
special matte-black Battlefield 4 livery at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The livery
proved to be very popular and the team decided to run it again this
weekend. They fitted two of their three-car team with the Battlefield 4 livery, for round two
of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone. The #1 and #13 Audi R8 LMS ultra cars both featured the liveries.
Special liveries have been seen on many of
the DTM cars this year. Adrien Tambay competed with an Iron Man 3 livery, and
Miguel Molina competed with a special red Audi Cup livery at Brands Hatch. FC
Bayern München logos have been added to the red Audi Cup livery this weekend ahead
of the final.
The Quattro Legende was held this weekend. It was a club event which included Club Audi Sport Suisse (CASS) as one of its partners. It was held from Thursday until Saturday and over 200 Audis were entered. The highlight of the event was a hillclimb for the competitors. A large number of high performance Audi road cars took part, including a few Audi rally / hillclimb cars. Original Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 and replica cars were part of the proceedings.
Club Audi Sport Suisse (CASS) FB page
3. Next
Weekend’s events (8-9/06/2013)
- Le Mans Test Day
- BTCC
- Superstars
- Superstars GT Sprint
- ADAC GT Masters
- French GT-Tour
- ADAC Procar
- Dutch Supercar Challenge
- SVRA
- BRCC
- Cup & Tourenwagen
- Norwegian GT Racing
All photos
are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
