By Tarek Ramchani
The 2014 FFSA French GT Tour series kicks off this weekend at Le Mans. The Audi Sport customer racing squad is very well represented with no less than seven R8 LMS ultra cars.
The seven Audis came from three diffrent teams. Sainteloc Racing a regular in the French GT will field three cars. One in the main "Championnat de France" with a very strong driver line-up made. fans' favourite David Hallyday is sharing the #42 Audi R8 LMS ultra Gregory Guilvert . The other two Audis are competing in the lower "Coupe de France" open for old spec GT3 cars and Gentlemen drivers. The #43 Audi will have Jean-Paul Buffin and Jacques Wolf as drivers. The #44 Audi will be shared by Gilles Lallement and Fabrice Rossello.
Team Speed Car is back with Audi and a two-car effort. The #30 Audi with drivers Pascal Destembert and Rémy Deguffroy. The #36 car will be driven by Mathieu Lecuyer and Vincent Abril. Last year Team Speed Car scored three race wins all of them with Vincent Abril.
But the main story this year in GT Tour is all about Sebastien Loeb Racing. The team managed by the WRC legend switched to Audi and is fielding two very strong Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. The #50 Audi shared by Anthony Beltoise and Roland Berville. The sister #51 Audi is driven by Mike Parisy and Heni Hassid.
19 cars will enter the Le Mans opener. The Audi teams will have to fight against a field of six Ferrari 458 GT3s, three Porsche 997 GT3 Rs, a McLaren MP4-12C, a BMW Z4 GT3 and a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.
GT Tour teams will have two races at the short Bugati circuit. Race 1 will be on Saturday at 18:20, Race 2 will be on Sunday at 14:10. We wish the best of luck to all three Audi teams and their drivers.
Photo credit: Sébastien Loeb Racing
