By Johan Laubscher
The 12 Hours of Sebring was held this weekend, round
two of the new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Five Audi R8 LMS cars took
part fielded by four different teams, the same entries which took part in the
24 hours of Daytona.
The Audi Sport customer racing contingent was represented by five Audi
R8 LMS cars from four different teams in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. Flying
Lizard Motorsports returned with their two-car Audi R8 LMS team. Their #35 R8
LMS was piloted by Seth Neiman, Dion von Moltke and Filipe Albuquerque and
their second #45 R8 LMS by Nelson Canache Jr., Spencer Pumpelly, Alessandro
Latif and Markus Winkelhock. Tim Pappas unfortunately suffered food poisoning earlier
this week and did not compete in the #45 machine, thus Alessandro Latif was
moved from the #35 driving crew to aid the #45 entry.
One-car each was entered by GMG
Racing, Fall-Line Motorsports and Paul Miller Racing. GMG Racing’s #32 Audi R8
LMS was driven by James Sofronas, Alex Welch and Marc Basseng. Fall-Line
Motorsports’ R8 LMS had Christopher Mies, Charlie Putman and Charles Espenlaub
behind the wheel and Paul Miller Racing had Bryce Miller, Christopher Haase and
Matthew Bell.
The track action got under with three
practice sessions on Thursday, followed by a fourth practice session and
qualifying on Friday.
Qualifying concluded in a similar
fashion for the Audi teams. The Audi R8 LMS cars were again relegated to the
mid-field positions. GMG Racing’s Audi R8 LMS proved to be the fastest Audi by
taking sixteenth place within the GT Daytona class. The #48 Paul Miller Racing
Audi R8 LMS grabbed eighteenth. The remaining trio of Audis qualified together
in positions twenty through twenty-two, with Fall-Line Motorsports ahead of the
two Flying Lizard Motorsports R8 LMS cars (#45 and #35).
The race itself got underway at 10:15 local time on Saturday morning. The Audi R8 LMS cars were involved in the battles within the top ten during the incident filled race. By the end of the long and gruelling twelve hours, three Audi R8 LMS teams had made it into the top ten, one of them in the top five.
The race itself got underway at 10:15 local time on Saturday morning. The Audi R8 LMS cars were involved in the battles within the top ten during the incident filled race. By the end of the long and gruelling twelve hours, three Audi R8 LMS teams had made it into the top ten, one of them in the top five.
The #35 Flying Lizard Motorsports crew
of Seth Neiman, Dion von Moltke and Filipe Albuquerque
brought their R8 LMS across the line in fifth place within GTD, less than ten
seconds behind the GTD race winning #44 Magnus Racing Porsche. Fall-Line
Motorsports finished sixth with the #46 R8 LMS, a further seconds back from the
#35 car.
Flying Lizard Motorsports’ #45 R8 LMS rounded out the top ten Audi runners by taking eighth within the GTD class. GMG Racing and Paul Miller Racing finished just outside of the GTD top ten, with eleventh and twelfth places respectively.
Flying Lizard Motorsports’ #45 R8 LMS rounded out the top ten Audi runners by taking eighth within the GTD class. GMG Racing and Paul Miller Racing finished just outside of the GTD top ten, with eleventh and twelfth places respectively.
The
TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will now be heading to Mazda Raceway Laguna
Seca for round three of the series, 3-4 May.
Photo credit: Audi Communications - Motorsport
