By Tarek Ramchani :
2011 was a great and successful season for WRT in the series. Despite only scoring a single victory last season, consistency was enough to give the Belgians both trophies in the end. The single race victory was at round three, the prestigious Spa 24 Hours. WRT won overall with Mattias Ekstrom, Timo Scheider and Greg Franchi. The team may only have won at Spa but the two R8 LMS cars of the team fought really hard at each race for victories. Many times unlucky while clearly being the fastest on track.
While mainly focusing on representing Audi in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012, the Belgians are returning to the Blancpain Endurance Series to defend both championship titles. Two brand new Audi R8 LMS ultra cars are entered for the full season. For now only Laurens Vanthoor is announced for the driver lineup. The other five drivers will be announced later. The Audi R8 LMS ultra will fight for overall victories, racing in the top Pro-Cup class. Rivals in the class will come from BMW with the Z4 GT3, McLaren with the MP4-12C and Porsche with the 997 GT3 R. While the theoretically lower class of Pro-Am Cup could also bring strong competition for the outright wins, with its very large entry list. As in 2011, WRT will be backed by the Belgian Audi Club, and will have full support from Audi Sport customer racing. Last year the team raced with Audi works drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Marcel Fassler for the full season. We expect the same this year as well, with some factory Audi drivers supporting the team.
In addition to the top WRT team, a third Audi R8 LMS will race in the series. An older spec car for JB Motorsport. A fully privateer team from Sweden. They will enter the amateur class, the "Gentlemen Trophy". The drivers will be Jan Brunstedt and Mikael Bender. Last year they raced in the Swedish GT Series and competed in a few VLN Endurance Series events supported by Phoenix Racing.
Six races are planned for the 2012 season including the stellar event of the series, the Spa 24 Hours at the end of July. The season opener is set at Monza on April 15th.
While mainly focusing on representing Audi in the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012, the Belgians are returning to the Blancpain Endurance Series to defend both championship titles. Two brand new Audi R8 LMS ultra cars are entered for the full season. For now only Laurens Vanthoor is announced for the driver lineup. The other five drivers will be announced later. The Audi R8 LMS ultra will fight for overall victories, racing in the top Pro-Cup class. Rivals in the class will come from BMW with the Z4 GT3, McLaren with the MP4-12C and Porsche with the 997 GT3 R. While the theoretically lower class of Pro-Am Cup could also bring strong competition for the outright wins, with its very large entry list. As in 2011, WRT will be backed by the Belgian Audi Club, and will have full support from Audi Sport customer racing. Last year the team raced with Audi works drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Marcel Fassler for the full season. We expect the same this year as well, with some factory Audi drivers supporting the team.
In addition to the top WRT team, a third Audi R8 LMS will race in the series. An older spec car for JB Motorsport. A fully privateer team from Sweden. They will enter the amateur class, the "Gentlemen Trophy". The drivers will be Jan Brunstedt and Mikael Bender. Last year they raced in the Swedish GT Series and competed in a few VLN Endurance Series events supported by Phoenix Racing.
Six races are planned for the 2012 season including the stellar event of the series, the Spa 24 Hours at the end of July. The season opener is set at Monza on April 15th.
