By Johan Laubscher
The Blancpain Endurance Series test days got underway at Paul Ricard in France on Wednesday.
Seven Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were listed on the BES test days entry list, three cars from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, two from I.S.R. Racing and single-car entries from Phoenix Racing and Team Parker Racing.
Highlighting the Audi participation was the unannounced participation of a brand new Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport customer racing / quattro GmbH. The all-white R8 LMS was the #1 entry for Belgian Audi club Team WRT on the entry list and was registered as car #999 entered by Audi Sport customer racing on the result sheets. The car attended the event for the SRO Balance of Performance tests and for the BES test days.
The lap times from Wednesday's testing is fairly academic, but the Audi R8 LMS ultra teams showed good pace. I.S.R. Racing set the fastest Audi lap with the #75 Audi R8 LMS ultra clocking the sixth fastest time. The #3 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra was ninth. Phoenix Racing set the fourteenth fastest time. A trio of Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were in positions thirty-two through thirty-four, Team Parker Racing (Audi #24) ahead of I.S.R. Racing (Audi #74) and Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (Audi #2).
The brand new Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport customer racing only completed a few laps and was classified twenty-eighth.
The first day's results can be seen
HERE
The second and final day of testing will be taking place at Paul Ricard tomorrow.
Photo credit:
Blancpain GT Series
I.S.R. Racing
