By Johan
Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing on
the weekend of 14 - 15 December 2013
2. The
Events
2.1. Gulf 12 Hours
The year is drawing to a close and the
motorsport events are becoming less frequent. With few races taking place this
weekend we have included a look at the Gulf 12 Hours, which was held this
weekend.
Two Audi Sport customer racing teams were
included on various versions of the entry list. Originally United Autosports
were included with their R8 LMS ultra on the first draft of the entry list, but
they withdrew their entry. The second draft of the entry list included
DragonSpeed and their R8 LMS ultra, but they also later withdrew their entry
and no Audi R8 LMS ultra cars took part this weekend.
However, on a Volkswagen Group related note,
the Gulf 12 Hours was the GT3 debut event for one of Audi’s sister brands
within the Volkswagen Group, Bentley. The new Bentley Continental GT3 had its
race debut at the Gulf 12 Hours, run on the Yas Marina Circuit in the United
Arab Emirates.
The #7 Bentley Continental GT3 was driven by Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick. They showed good pace and qualified fifth.
The #7 Bentley Continental GT3 was driven by Guy Smith, Steven Kane and Andy Meyrick. They showed good pace and qualified fifth.
The race itself was split into two halves of
six hours each. Team M-Sport Bentley finished third during the first six hour
race, one lap down from the leaders. The Bentley team continued their good form
and finished fourth in the final classification after the second six hour race,
completing the Gulf 12 Hours after fighting for third all day long.
2.2. Other
Audi News
The first new Audi R18 e-tron quattro photo
was released by Audi Sport on Sunday last week. On Thursday Audi Sport released
an additional thirteen photos along with a press release containing details
about the new car. These new photos came one day after the first spy photos
from the Sebring test this week began appearing online. The official Audi press
release of the new Audi R18 e-tron quattro can be seen HERE. The new press
photos can be seen HERE.
Audi also released a new wave of pre-launch Audi
R18 e-tron quattro videos this weekend. The first video, titled “Speed,” was
released on Friday and included various brief glimpses of the new car. The
world premiere of the new R18 e-tron quattro has now also been confirmed as 18
December, next Wednesday. The video can be seen HERE.
The second pre-launch video was titled as “Performance” and it was released on Saturday. The video can be seen HERE.
Audi released another five Audi R18 e-tron
quattro videos, which included one studio video and four interviews. The
interviews included Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and
Chris Reinke. The studio video can be seen HERE and the interviews HERE.
Mike Rockenfeller, the 2013 DTM champion,
will be returning to the DTM in 2014 to defend his 2013 title. He will again be
behind the wheel of the Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM.
Phoenix Racing will be returning to Bathurst
in February, for their third consecutive Bathurst 12 Hour. They will again be
fielding one Audi R8 LMS ultra. The team won the race with a 1-2 finish in 2012
and finished fourth at the 2013 event. Phoenix Racing will be one of six Audi
R8 LMS and ultra cars on the grid, based on the current entry list. They will
be joining Absolute Racing, United Autosports and Melbourne Performance Centre
(Rod Salmon, Mark Eddy / Marc Cini and Equity-One Motorsport).
United Autosports has completed their
preparation ahead of the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour and their Audi R8 LMS ultra has
begun its journey to Australia.
Møller Bil Motorsport has announced that they
will be returning to the VLN Endurance Series in 2014. They will be contesting
six of the events with their SP3T class Audi TT RS. Their drivers will include Håkon
Schjærin, Atle Gulbrandsen and Kenneth Østvold. The team’s mechanics are from
various Møller Bil dealerships in Norway.
Official test days were held at Paul Ricard
in France this week. WRT were present with their Audi R8 LMS ultra and took
part in the testing. Many of the brands were represented at the tests, which
focused on the performance and reliability of the new 2014 Pirelli tyres set
for the GT series. Stephane Ortelli was on hand to support WRT, driving the
plain black WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was very busy this
week, taking part in two sets of two-day tests at Paul Ricard in France and at
Navarra in Spain.
The team had one Audi R8 LMS ultra at Paul
Ricard for the official 2014 Pirelli tyre test sessions this week. They were
also at Navarra for winter testing ahead of the 2014 Blancpain GT Sprint
Series.
A number of drivers were present with WRT at
Navarra. It has been mentioned that Laurens Vanthoor, Roman Rusinov and Polish
driver, Mateusz Lisowski, were among the drivers at the test. Vanthoor set the
fastest time for WRT and he was followed by Rusinov and Lisowski, all three
were only separated by 0.3 of a second.
The 2013 season may be over, but it is
certainly very exciting to see the 2014 season already picking up speed with
winter testing and news.
Audi has released the third edition of the
annual Audi Sport customer racing yearbook. The book includes a look at the
2013 season of Audi’s customer teams from all over the world. The book can be
ordered online HERE.
The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship
liveried Audi R8 LMS was on display at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI
2013) Trade Show in Indianapolis this weekend.
One of Team Novadriver’s Audi R8 LMS ultra
cars was on display at the 1º Salão dos Campeões (Hall of champions) event in
Portugal. César Campaniço was at the show signing autographs. Audi Sport factory driver,
Absolute Racing is on site at Penbay
International Circuit in Taiwan. They are busy preparing their Audi R8 LMS cars
for the TSF Asia All Star Challenge, which will be taking place next weekend.
3. Next Weekend’s events (21-22/12/2013)
- TSF Asia All Star Challenge
- Circuit Hero 500 Km Endurance Race Zhuhai
All photos
are hosted at their respective websites, which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
