By Johan Laubscher
This weekend was a very positive one for the
Audi brand, both on the factory and privateer fronts. The weekend highlights belonged
to the factory Audi teams with DTM victory and a 1-2-3 at the Le Mans test day.
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 2-3 June 2012
2. The Events
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Le Mans Test Day
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DTM
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Grand Am
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Blancpain Endurance Series
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Superstars
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Portuguese GT
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SCCA World Challenge
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Audi R8 LMS Cup
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Swedish GT
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Sonoma Historics
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British Hillclimb
2.1. WEC
Le Mans Test Day
The 2012 Le Mans event officially got
underway with the test day on Sunday, the first big step towards this year’s
big race. The weekend saw the debut of the two new generation Audi R18 race
cars at the Le Mans circuit, but the Audis were not alone. The weekend was also
the first public debut of the new Toyota LMP1 cars and the first chance to view
the two factory teams head to head. The Audi’s ended the test day with a 1-2-3
in the time sheets with the #2 leading home #1 and #3. The speed of the Toyotas
was extremely impressive and hopes are high for a good race in a fortnights
time.
2.2. DTM
The fourth round of the DTM season saw a debut
victory for car and driver. Edoado Mortara and the Audi A5 DTM celebrated the victory at the Red Bull
Ring in Austria. Mortara was fast all weekend and topped it off by taking pole
position and a flag to flag victory. A total of five Audi A5 DTM cars finished in
the top ten. The victory also marks Team Rosberg’s first DTM win with Audi.
2.3. Grand Am
Only one Audi R8 GRAND-AM team was entered
for the fifth Grand Am weekend of the year at Detroit. The APR team was very fast all
weekend. A great fourth place qualifying was followed by a strong race were the
team lead their first Grand Am race laps. Unfortunately the continuing bad luck
dropped the team to eleventh in class by the end of the race.
2.4. Blancpain Endurance Series
Round two of the
Blancpain Endurance series was held at a very wet Silverstone. Six Audi R8 LMS
and ultra cars were on the grid for the three hour race. The WRT cars raced hard
and claimed a double podium finish by taking second and third on the podium.
The other Audis did well and the JB Motorsport Audi team won the Gentlemen’s
Trophy category, the team’s first international win of this kind.
2.5. Superstars
After dominating the previous two rounds of the series the Audi RS5 teams
arrived at round four of the Superstars series with a 100 kg weight penalty and
new air restrictors. The Audi teams fought hard to score consistent results
during the weekend despite a first lap crash for Morbidelli. Johan Kristoffersson retained his championship lead this
weekend by finishing well within the top ten in both races.
2.6. Portuguese
GT
The third round of the Portuguese GT series
at Algarve also featured the Taça de Portugal, a special event held for the Portuguese
series. Team Novadriver was at the event and it was a dominant display from the
team and its Audi R8 LMS ultra as Carlos Vieira and César Campaniço
won the Taça title.
2.7. SCCA
World Challenge
The SCCA Pirelli World Challenge held round
five at a very wet Detroit circuit. Both Audis on the grid went well. The GMG
Racing Audi R8 LMS claimed its first top ten finish with Anders Hainer claiming
tenth spot in race one. The Don Istook Audi TT RS also showed well and scored
the Hard charger award in the wet first race by passing multiple cars.
2.8. Audi
R8 LMS Cup
Zhuhai hosted round two of the new Chinese
Audi R8 LMS Cup. The sixteen strong grid once again thrilled spectators as the
drivers battled it out on track. The series had a new race winner in the form
of Marchy Lee who also drives the factory R8 LMS ultra in GT Asia. Race two was
drama filled as Marchy Lee and Alex Yoong came together on the last lap gifting the race
win the then third placed Adderly Fong.
2.9. Swedish GT
Round two of the Swedish GT series at Anderstorp
was the first round that GT3 specification cars competed. The GT3 cars will
only compete at certain tracks in the Swedish series. The Alfab Racing Audi R8
LMS qualified second on the grid but unfortunately retired during the race.
2.10. Sonoma Historic Motorsport Festival
The third annual Sonoma Historic Motorsport Festival was held this weekend. There
was a special car on the entry list for Audi fans. The Audi 200 Trans Am (chassis
#4) owned by Eurospec Sport was at the event that featured many old Trans Am
and GTO category race cars.
2.11. British Hill Climb Championship
The Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb was held this weekend and the monstrous
Keith Edwards Motors Audi sport quattro was present at the event
2.12. Other Audi news
The successful Swedish skier Jon Olsson took
part in the 2012 Gumball 3000 in his heavily modified Audi R8 V10 (PPI Razor
& Stasis). The Swede finished first on many of the days and also lead the
event overall. Unfortunately they did not finish the last day of the rally but
Jon did pick up the best driver of the event award.
3. Next Weekend’s events (9-10/06/2012)
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Grand Am
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Grand Am
Continental Tire Challenge
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BTCC
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Midas Clubmans
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ADAC GT
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ADAC Procar
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British GT
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Italian GT
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Japanese Super GT
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SVRA
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GT Asia
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FIA GT1
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BRCC
This weekend was one of many firsts for the
Audi factory teams, first debut for the new Audi R18 race cars at Le Mans and a
first DTM victory for the new Audi A5 DTM. The privateer Audi teams equally
shared the success. Next weekend will be another great racing weekend as we are
all awaiting the big race in France that is less than a fortnight away.
All photos are hosted at their respective
website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
