By Johan
Laubscher
1. The
Weekend
Focussing on
the weekend of 8 - 9 March 2014
2. The
Events
- V de V Test Days
- Super Taikyu Test Day
2.1. V de V Test Days
The French V de V Endurance Series held two
test days at Magny-Cours this weekend, from Friday to Saturday. One Audi was
present, an Audi R8 LMS ultra fielded by W Racing Team (WRT). The car was
entered for drivers Harry Teneketzian, Maxime Jousse and Grégoire Chaix.
The 2014 V de V gets underway at Circuit de
Barcelona-Catalunya from 21-22 March.
2.2. Super
Taikyu Test Day
The Super Taikyu
held its official test day at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan on Sunday. The entry
list included thirty-four cars, including two ST-X (GT3) machines. K's Frontier
was among the entries with their Audi R8 LMS ultra.
K's Frontier,
listed as Direction Racing, will be entering one Audi R8 LMS ultra in the 2014
Super Taikyu Endurance Series. This is the ex-GAINER DIXCEL R8 LMS ultra that
was used in the 2012 Super GT. The team has upgraded the car from the 2012 R8
LMS ultra specification to the 2013 spec.
K's Frontier
acquired and entered the car in two Japanese European Touring Car Challenge
(ETCC) races last year, when they evaluated the car for use in the 2014 Super
Taikyu.
The 2014 Super
Taikyu season gets underway with round one of the series at Twin Ring Motegi
from 29-30 March.
2.3. Other
Audi News
The new 2014
Audi RS 5 DTM was revealed at the Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday, during the Audi
Sport Press Conference. The new RS 5 DTM shared the stage with the new Audi R18
e-tron quattro.
Felix
Baumgartner will be driving an Audi R8 LMS ultra at selected Nürburgring events
during 2014, including the Nürburgring 24 Hours. He will be driving with Audi
race experience (TKL Motorsport). He will be driving alongside three very experienced
Audi drivers: Frank Biela, Marco and Pierre Kaffer. Baumgartner will be taking
part in the VLN test day, the Nürburgring 24 Hours qualifying race, two VLN
events and the Nürburgring 24 Hours itself.
The official
FIA World Endurance test days, known as “The Prologue,” will be held from 28-29
March. Two Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars are on the entry
list. The Audi squad will be among six factory LMP1 cars, two each from Audi,
Porsche and Toyota. The #1 Audi will be driven by Lucas Di Grassi, Loïc Duval
and Tom Kristensen. The #2 Audi will be shared by Marcel Fässler, André
Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer.
Sébastien
Loeb Racing was out testing at Estoril in Portugal this week. They were testing
their Oreca 03 LMP2 and one of their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was seen testing
at Silverstone on Wednesday and on Thursday they were out testing at Monza.
It has been a busy few weeks for the Belgian
Audi Sport customer racing team. They were out testing at Nogaro in France last
week and at Silverstone and Monz this week. Tests at Paul Ricard, Zolder and
Spa are also on the team’s schedule for the coming weeks, including the
official Blancpain GT Series test days at Paul Ricard on Tuesday and Wednesday
next week.
The team will be entering up to four cars
within the Blancpain GT Series and taking part in two 24 Hour races.
The new Blancpain GT Series is a combination
of the Blancpain Endurance Series and the Blancpain Sprint Series, for teams
who are able to commit to both individual series.
The team will be entering four cars in the Blancpain
Sprint Series and three cars in the Blancpain Endurance Series, with an
additional fourth car at the Spa 24 Hours. Three of their four cars will then
be in the running for the combined Blancpain GT Series.
WRT will be joined by G-Drive Racing during
2014, with a G-Drive car fielded in the Blancpain Sprint Series and the
Nürburgring 24 Hours.
WRT will also be fielding an Audi R8 LMS
ultra in the V de V Endurance Series in France, for drivers Harry Teneketzian
and Gregroire Chaix.
The ACO is hosting a special Le Mans display
at the Geneva Motor Show this week. A number of Le Mans winning cars are on
display, including two very special Audi race cars.
Twenty-one cars are on display in total. Two
Audi race cars are among the various cars on display. The two cars represent
Audi’s first Le Mans win (2000) and their latest Le Mans win (2013).
The 2000 Le Mans winning Audi R8 of Frank
Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro is joined by the 2013 race winning Audi
R18 e-tron quattro of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loïc Duval.
The 2014 Geneva Motor Show is open to the
public from 6-16 March.
Team Parker Racing is one of the newest Audi
Sport customer racing teams of the 2014 season. They had their first track test
with their new car at Silverstone on Wednesday.
The team has acquired one new Audi R8 LMS
ultra for their 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series campaign. The R8 LMS ultra will
be driven by Ian Loggie, Chris Jones and Julian Westwood.
The testing at Silverstone was also the first
opportunity to see Team Parker Racing's new white, black and green livery.
The Blancpain Endurance Series gets underway
at Monza from 12-13 April.
The 2013 Italian Superstars Series saw the
Audi Sport Italia squad defeating the balance of performance to take yet
another set of titles for the new Audi RS 5 quattro.
Despite an imposing balance of performance,
the Italian Audi Dealer team was able to bounce back and secure both of the
drivers’ titles with Gianni Morbidelli, who won the International Superstars
drivers’ title and later the Italian title as well.
It was almost a complete set for Audi Sport
Italia, as they narrowly missed out on the teams’ title, facing off against the
original victors, Mercedes Romeo Ferraris.
However, the final standings of the 2013
teams’ title was not finalised, as Audi Sport Italia lodged a complaint against
the Mercedes Romeo Ferraris team at Donington Park, regarding technical issues
with bodywork components.
The FIA court has ruled that the components
on the Mercedes-Benz cars at Donington where indeed illegal and their points
have been revoked, costing the Romeo Ferraris squad a total of twenty points.
This points deduction was enough to promote
Audi Sport Italia to the top of the points table, crowning them as the 2013
Superstars Series teams’ champions by seventeen points, adding to the two 2013
drivers’ titles of Gianni Morbidelli.
Audi Sport Italia and up to four RS 5 quattro
cars will be returning to this form of competition this year, as they are
entering the 2014 EuroV8 Series, which replaces the Superstars Series. So far
only one driver has been confirmed by the team, Tomáš Kostka from the Czech Republic.
The 2014 EuroV8 Series will be getting
underway at Monza, 6 April.
Sébastien Loeb Racing held their first
shakedown with their new Audi R8 LMS ultra cars on Tuesday.
The team has begun their on track preparation
for the 2014 season. Sébastien Loeb Racing will be entering a two-car team in
the French GT-Tour and a single car entry in the European Le Mans Series GTC
class.
The ELMS gets underway at Silverstone from
18-19 April, followed by the first French GT-Tour round from 26-27 April.
United Autosports was out testing at Oulton
Park on Tuesday. The team’s Audi R8 LMS ultra took part in the test.
It was the first pre-season test for United
Autosports’ British GT campaign. The Audi R8 LMS ultra will be driven by the
2013 British GT runners up pairing of Mathew Bell and Mark Patterson.
The 2014 British GT Championship will be
getting underway at Oulton Park from 19-21 April.
The Portuguese Team Novadriver squad were out
testing at the Algarve International Circuit this week. The team tested their
two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.
A number of drivers took part in the test
with the Novadriver Audis. It was the first test for Team Novadriver in over
three months.
The team has not yet confirmed their 2014
race program, but they have said that their fans are in for some surprises this
year, as the team continues to move forward in the world of motorsport.
During 2013 Team Novadriver took part in the
Spanish IBER GT Championship, FIA GT Series and won the Portuguese GT
Championship.
ABT Sportsline are on display at the Geneva
Motor Show. They have a number of models on show, including one of their new
red Formula E race cars.
ABT Sportsline will be competing in the 2014
FIA Formula E Championship, with the team name of Audi Sport ABT Formula-E
Team.
The ABT Sportsline Formula E drivers were
recently announced as Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt.
The 2014 Geneva Motor Show will be open to
the public from 6-16 March.
JCR Motorsports - Jeff Courtney Racing is
busy preparing for the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge. Jeff Courtney will be
driving a newly upgraded Audi R8 LMS ultra in the GT-A class.
During 2013 JCR Motorsports competed in the
Pirelli World Challenge, fielding a modified 2012 Audi R8 GRAND-AM (pictured
below), the ex-Oryx Racing car that was briefly used in the 2012 Grand-Am Rolex
Series.
JCR Motorsports has upgraded their 2012 Audi
R8 GRAND-AM to the FIA GT3 Audi R8 LMS ultra specification. This is the first
R8 GRAND-AM that has been upgrade to the R8 LMS ultra specification, visible by
the three support struts in the front window, a feature which was mandated by
the rules on the Audi R8 GRAND-AM cars and the later the GTD Audi R8 LMS
versions.
They will be joining Audi R8 LMS ultra
entries from GMG Racing and DragonSpeed, all competing within the PWC GT and
GT-A classes.
The first round of the PWC will be held at
the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, from 28-30 March.
Seven Audi
R8 LMS ultra cars are heading to the official Blancpain GT Series test days at
Paul Richard this week, Tuesday to Wednesday. Three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars from
WRT, two cars from Phoenix Racing and one car each from Sainteloc and Team
Parker Racing.
The 2014 Le
Mans 24 Hours poster was revealed this week and features all three of the LMP1
factory teams: Audi, Porsche and Toyota.
GMG Racing
were out testing at Thunderhill last week. Three of the team’s Audi R8 LMS
ultra cars took part.
Bret Curtis
Doug Gore’s
new ABT-Audi TT-R livery was revealed last week. ATL Automotive, who has
withdrawn from motorsport, sponsored the Gore TT-R from 2011-2013 and now Gore
is the sole owner of the car and has signed Rainforest Seafood has his new
title sponsor. He will again be competing in the Jamaican and Caribbean championships
this year.
3. Next Weekend’s events (15-16/03/2014)
- Sebring 12 Hours
All photos
are hosted at their respective websites, which are listed within the Weekend
Round Up
