VLN: Düchting Motorsport testing Audi R8 at Bilster Berg for Green Hell return

By Johan Laubscher

Düchting Motorsport was testing its Audi R8 race car at the Bilster Berg Drive Resort in Germany this week. It was announced earlier this year that the German team was planning to return its old privately-built Audi R8 to the VLN Endurance Series, given that they could find interested drivers.

The opening round of the 2015 VLN Endurance Series will be taking place at the Nürburgring Nordschleife this upcoming weekend (28 March) and Düchting Motorsport will be fielding the Audi R8 as the #148 entry with the driving squad of Maximilian Hackländer and Pierre Humbert.

This car was originally built to compete in the SP7 class with a downsized V8 engine, but it is now intended to run in the SP8 class and it is expected to be a front-runner within the class. It was built before the era of GT3 machinery, such as the Audi R8 LMS, competing in the SP9 class at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Düchting Motorsport's Audi R8 was one of the earliest developed Audi R8 race cars. The Dutch-built Creventic Audi R8 V8, also called the “CR-8”, was the first privately built Audi R8 race car and debuted at the 2008 Dubai 24 Hours. A few months later the Düchting Motorsport project was revealed and debuted at the 2008 Nürburgring 24 Hours and VLN. It was only later during 2008 that the factory developed Audi R8 LMS program from Audi Sport themselves was publicly announced, before the GT3 machine debuted on track in 2009.

Photo credit: Düchting Motorsport