By Tarek Ramchani
The VLN Endurance Series started yesterday at the world famous Nordschleife. Three Audi R8 LMS race cars entered the first round of this unique sportscar championship.
A single brand new Audi R8 LMS ultra was entered by Phoenix Racing the #5 car of Oliver Jarvis and Rene Rast. The other two cars were older Spec R8 LMSs. The sister Phoenix #15 for Frank Stippler, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock. Team Raeder Motorsport entered the third car with Frank Biela, Thomas Mutsch and Christian Hohenadel.
Right from the start it was obvious the race would not be easy at all. The Porsche GT3-R cars dominated the early stages of the race battling with each other ahead of the field. The Audi cars had to chase and catch up. The #5 Phoenix was the best from the Audi camp racing in the top 5 overall in the first part of the race. Later the first disaster came, the #15 Phoenix car crashed while it was in the lead overall. A few minutes later and it was the turn of the #44 R8 LMS from Raeder Motorsport to crash. Bad luck didn't stop hitting the Audi squad and the #5 Phoenix Audi crashed as well. In less than 30 minutes all three cars faced crashes in very rainy weather and a very wet race track. The race was later red flagged with heavy fog on the track, making it impossible to continue. Victory went to the #19 BMW Z4 GT3 from BMW Team Schubert.
Audi was unlucky in the top SP9 class, but did dominate the SP4T class. A 1-2 victory for Raeder Motorsport with their Audi TT-RS. The #272 TT-RS finished as the best Audi car in an amazing 8th overall, ahead of many top GT3 cars.
The season opener wasn't easy for Audi overall. We all hope that the other nine rounds will be better for the Audi R8 LMS. Team Phoenix Racing and Raeder Motorsport will do the full season in VLN. Mamerow Racing and the Audi race experience will join for a part time effort and selected events.
Photo Credits: Norbert Kratz and Julian Schmidt
Photo Credits: Norbert Kratz and Julian Schmidt
