By Johan Laubscher
The first edition of the Audi Motorsport Blog Weekend Round Up, a new weekly article which will cover a brief summary of all the Audi racing from the respective weekend.
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 14-15 April 2012
2. The Events:
Ø Blancpain Endurance Series
Ø VLN
Ø BTCC
Ø Pirelli World Challenge
Ø Portuguese GT
Ø Midas Clubmans Killarney
Ø Kerrick Sports Sedans
Ø STT
Ø Audi Endurance Experience
2.1. Blancpain Endurance Series
Round 1 of the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series was held at Monza last weekend. Six Audi cars were on the 57 car grid for the three hour race. The six cars were entered by Belgian Audi Club Team WRT, JB Motorsport, Sainteloc Racing and GT3 Racing. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT were at the front of the field for the bulk of the race with their two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. The #1 of Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Stéphane Ortelli were in the hunt for the win until a problem with a wheel change during a pit stop caused the car to lose valuable time. The #2 of Edward Sandström, Laurens Vanthoor and Marco Bonanomi came from 37th on the grid to finish second overall, a good result with the sister #1 finishing in 6th. The other four Audis in the race also did well.
2.2. VLN
The VLN race at the Nurburgring was round 2 of the series. It was victory for the FH Köln Motorsport TT RS in the SP4T class with Anja Wassertheurer, Daniela Schmid and Adam Osieka behind the wheel. Three Audis were present in the top class for GT3 machinery. Two Audi R8 LMS cars from Phoenix Racing and Raeder Motorsport. The #15 Phoenix R8 LMS finished 5th and the #44 Raeder R8 LMS finished 15th. Mamerow Racing entered their #14 R8 LMS ultra but unfortunately did not start the race after an accident on Friday. There was a total of eleven Audis in the race, three R8s, three of the SP4T TT RS cars and then also a combination of other TT RS, TTS, TT, A4 and A3 cars.
2.3. BTCC
The second round of the 2012 BTCC season took place at Donington Park. Rob Austin was very optimistic about the weekend feeling that the Audi A4 would be well suited to the track. His optimism was well founded, the car placed in the Top 8 in both practice sessions and in qualifying. The car’s engine gave troubles during qualifying on the same lap where Rob set the overall second fastest first sector time of the qualifying session, which clearly showed the car’s pace. Rob unfortunately retired in race 1 and did not compete in the other two races on the day.
2.4. Pirelli World Challenge
The Pirelli World Challenge at Long Beach saw the debuts of two Audis during the second round of the series. The event witnessed the American debut of the Audi R8 LMS in GT3 specification. The ex-Phoenix Racing car was entered by GMG Racing and driven by Anders Hainer to a respectable eleventh place finish. The other Audi making its debut was the Audi TT RS of Don Istook, a legendary Audi race car builder in America. The car is very new and had small problems all weekend and did very little running, but the white TT RS looks great and will be stronger next time out.
2.5. Portuguese GT
The Portuguese GT series held its second round at Estoril. The Novadriver team had to face strict restrictions on their Audi R8 LMS which held them back during the whole weekend. The team which won both races last time out in round one fought hard and finished second in both races during round two. A well deserved result for Cesar Campanico and Carlos Vieiraand with good points taking into account the restrictions.
2.6. Midas Clubmans Killarney
The Midas Clubmans, a South African race series held its third round over the weekend. Nieyaaz Modack had dominated the series so far taking four wins from the first four races. Modack qualified low for race one and drove very hard in race one and eventually finished second in his ex-Johan Fourie Audi A4. The second race was a Modack dominated race with Modack taking his fifth win of the season. The second Audi A4 in the field, the ex-Sipuka Audi of Iftehaar Dada also competed on the day.
Note: The Audi R8 spaceframe race car of Paul Beachyhead also competed at Killarney in the Sports GT category but did not start any of the races on the day.
2.7. Kerrick Sports Sedans
Round 2 of the Australian Shannons Nationals saw round one of the Kerrick Sports Sedan series at Mallala in Australia. The Audi A4 of Darren Hossack was very fast during the practice sessions but unfortuanlty did not compete in the races due to problems. Hossack did compete in the races, but with another car to score points.
2.8. STT
The German Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy held its first round at Hockenheim. Two Audi were on the grid, a RS4 bodied Audi S4 B5 and the ex-ROC Audi 80 of Joachim Duscher. Duscher had two clear class victories in his Audi 80. The Audi A6 C5 bodied V8-STAR of Sven Fisch was not present at this event, he competed with his newly acquired Passat bodied V8-STAR.
2.9. Audi Endurance Experience
Audi France held the first round of the Audi Endurance Experience at the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans. The series which uses a full gird of only Audi A1 race cars had a full grid and exciting racing.
2.10. Other Audi news
The Swedish Alfab Racing team was at Spa testing their Audi R8 LMS, The team are entered in the 2012 Swedish GT series and also the Spa 24 Hours. The R8 LMS has a new black and white livery.
The American Fingers Crossed Racing team had a shakedown of their Audi A4 B5 at Pikes Peak International Raceway during a trackday. The team are going to compete at the 2012 Pikes Peak Hillclimb with the A4 and an Audi Coupe.
3. Next Weekend’s events (21-22/04/2012)
Ø Superstars
Ø FIA GT3
Ø FIA GT1
Ø DMV
Ø RCN
Ø Brazilian GT
Ø DTM presentation Wiesbaden
Ø Targa Tasmania
Overall it was a strong weekend for Audi around the world in motorsport. The Blancpain series was the highlight of the weekend and hopefully WRT can improve on their second place next time out. Next weekend is yet another exciting weekend being headlined with round two of the 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship.
All photos are hosted at their respective websites which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
