By Johan Laubscher
This weekend was headlined by round one of
the 2012 DTM season. The weekend also saw Audis competing successfully all over
the world, east to west, north to south.
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 28-29
April 2012
2. The Events
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DTM
-
Chinese R8 LMS Cup
-
Grand Am
-
SA Production Cars
-
French GT Tour
-
VLN
-
Spanish GT/Int GT Open
-
Pirelli World Challenge
-
BTCC
-
HSR – Mitty
-
VdeV
-
Czech Series/FIA CEZ
- Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge
-
FIA Hillclimb
2.1. DTM
The opening round of the long awaited DTM
season was held at Hockenheim. A lot of excitement surrounded the new
generation of DTM cars and the new addition of a third manufacture to the
series. The Audi teams were very fast during the practice sessions culminating in
pole position for Mattias Ekström in qualifying. The race
would see Ekström take an early lead but the two Mercedes-Benz
cars quickly claimed the first two positions and controlled the race from there
onwards. Mattias Ekström took the new A5 DTM’s first podium result finishing in
third. Four Audis finished in the top ten.
2.2. Chinese Audi R8 LMS Cup
The first
round of the new Audi R8 LMS Cup was held at Shanghai. Sixteen Audi R8 LMS cars
lined up for the first event. Marchy Lee took pole position in his Audi Ultra
sponsored R8 LMS. Alex Yooug won the first race, making him the first victor in
the new series. Adderly Fong claimed the second race victory.
2.3. Grand Am
Round three of the Rolex Grand Am Series was
held at Miami in torrential rain on Sunday. From the three Audi R8 GRAND-AM
teams only APR Motorsport took part. Limitless racing will debut later in the
season and Oryx unfortunately withdrew from this event due to other commitments. The
APR R8 qualified well and stood a chance of a top fifth class finish, however
the driver pairing of Dion von Moltke and Dr Jim Norman finished seventeenth in
class in the end.
2.4. South African Bridgestone Production
Cars
The third round of the South African production
car series took place at Aldo Sctribante in Port Elizabeth. Within the Audi
camp the weekend belonged to the reigning champion Michael Stephen who took
pole position, two race victories and the overall victory for the day. These
results saw Stephen catapult himself into second in the overall championship
standings. The other Audis also finished well on the day with Nieyaaz Modack taking the
title of drive of the day in his older Audi A4.
2.5. French GT Tour
The opening weekend of the French GT
Championship was held this weekend with five Audi R8 LMS cars on the grid. The cars were
entered by Team Audi France (WRT), Saintéloc Racing and JWS Racing. Race one
was won by the Saintéloc Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Gregory Guilvert
and Paul Lamic. The other Audis also did well on the day, the Team Audi France
R8 LMS ultra claimed a top five in race 2.
2.6. VLN
The third round of the VLN series is
traditionally the warm up event for the Nurburgring 24 Hours. As such the grid
was packed and there was no shortage of Audi cars. Seven Audi R8 LMS cars were
entered from Audi Sport Team Phoenix, W Racing Team (WRT), Audi Race Experience
(TKL Motorsport), Raeder Motorsport and Mamerow Racing. In the end the #5 Audi
Sport Team Phoenix R8 LMS ultra of Christopher Mies and Markus Winkelhock
finished second overall and the #15 Phoenix car in fourth. The #272 Raeder
Motorsport Audi TT RS won the SP4T class. There were seventeen Audis in the
race.
2.7. Spanish
GT / International GT Open
The first round of the Spanish GT series and the International GT Open series were combined at the Algarve circuit in Portugal. Team Novadriver was present with a two car team, their first event running two cars. The team was entered for the Spanish GT results and finished second and third in race one. Another second place finish was achieved in race two.
2.8. Pirelli World Challenge
Two Audis would again take part in the third round of the series held in Salt Lake City. The GMG Racing Audi R8 LMS continued to show progress as the team gets to know the car. Anders Hainer in the R8 LMS finished in thirteenth place and the Don Istook Audi TT RS finished twenty-sixth overall.
2.9. BTCC
Rob Austin Racing was plagued with engine
troubles at the third round of the BTCC. In the end it was not the best weekend
for the team at Thruxton with no top ten finishes. A highest result of
thirteenth in race three. The team is hoping for better luck next time out.
2.10. Walter Mitty Challenge – Historic Sports
Car Racing (HSR)
The annual Walter Mitty Challenge was held at
Road Atlanta. Two Audi R8 LMP cars were entered for the event. GMT Racing
entered R8 #606 driven by Travis Engen and Rogers Motorsport entered R8 #607 driven by Andy Wallace and Doug Smith. The Rogers Motorsport #38 Champion
Racing liveried R8 took victory in the endurance race.
2.11. V de V
Round two of the French V de V series was a four hour event held at the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans. The AB Sport Auto team entered their newly acquired ex-WRT Audi R8 LMS. The team qualified well but unfortunately the team was not classified in the results.
2.12. Czech Series / FIA CEZ
The first round of the FIA Central European
Zone series was held alongside the first race of the National Czech series at
the Hungaroring. One Audi was entered in this event, an Abt-Audi TT-R
driven by Tomáš Liedl.
2.13. Grand Am Continental Tire Challenge
The APR Motorsport Audi S4 was entered for
the round at Miami but did not take part in the event. Hopefully we will see the car out
on track next time out.
2.14. FIA Hillclimb Championship
The FIA Hillclimb Championship visited Austria for the Rechberg Hillclimb last weekend and a variety of Audis competed. The Audi A4 STW of
Andreas Marko once again won his class. The newly modified ABT-Audi TT-R of Viver
was also at the event along with various other Audi quattro and S2 cars.
2.15. Other Audi news
The big news from last week was the Truth in
24 website and trailer going live at www.truth-in-24.com with the news that the download
will be available from Monday 14 May 2012. For the American readers Speed will
be showing the film this coming weekend, but it will most likely be a shortened
version. The first Speed broadcast is scheduled for 5 May at 16:00 pm ET.
3. Next Weekend’s events (5-6/05/2012)
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WEC SPA
-
DTM
-
Italian GT
-
CITE
-
Japanese Super GT
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STCC
-
ADAC GT Masters
-
ADAC Procar
-
South African Midas Clubmans
The weekend proved to be a solid weekend for
the Audi brand in the world of motorsport. Some fans may be disappointed by the
DTM results but they can be rest assured that the teams will be working incredibly
hard to take victory at round two next weekend.
All photos are hosted at their respective
website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
