By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 7 -
8 July 2012.
2. The Events
- FIA GT1
- FIA GT3
- VLN
- Italian GT
- Portuguese GT
- Swedish GT
- STCC
- Midas Clubmans
2.1. FIA
GT1 World Championship
Round five of the FIA GT1 World Championship
was hosted in Portugal. WRT arrived with high hopes at the circuit where the
Audi R8 LMS cars had always done well in the past. The cars qualified in the
lower half of the top ten. The #33 car performed miracles during the first
race by climbing up to second and eventually finishing in third while the #32
car finished lower down. The team was ready for the Championship Race starting
in third position but it all came to an end at the first corner as the #33 was
involved in an incident. The remaining #32 car pushed hard to finish in sixth.
2.2. FIA
GT3 European Championship
The FIA GT3 weekend also took place in
Portugal. Only two Audis were entered in the ever decreasing FIA GT3 field.
Team Novadriver and Saintéloc
Racing entered the two cars. The two Audi R8 LMS ultra showed good pace during
the weekend and placed well in qualifying. Race one saw both Audis finish in
the top six. During race two the Portuguese Team Novadriver car stormed through
the field from ninth to second to the delight of the Portuguse fans.
2.3. VLN
Round five of the German VLN series took
place at the traditional Nürburgring circuit. Three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were
at the event. Unfortunately the two Phoenix Racing cars retired from the race
but there was success for the third car from Raeder Motorsport. The Raeder car put aside its recent bad luck to claim third place during the race. The Raeder
team also took victory in the SP4T class with the Audi TT RS. In total eleven
Audi cars took part in the event
2.4. Italian GT Championship
The third round of
the Italian GT Championship saw the first appearance of Italian Audi legend
Dindo Capello. Now that Dindo has completed his Le Mans obligations he will
contest the rest of the 2012 Italian GT Series. Audi Sport Italia had a dominant
race weekend at Misano. The team took a 1-2 finish in race one and another race
victory in race two.
2.5. Portuguese
GT Championship
Round four of the Portuguese
GT Championship was held alongside the FIA GT1 and GT3 weekend. Team Novadriver
had two cars at the event, the yellow R8 LMS ultra was used for the FIA GT3
races while the red coloured car was used for the Portuguese GT races. The team
scored two podium finishes during the weekend’s Portuguese GT races.
2.6. Swedish GT Championship
The Swedish GT Championship was hosted at
Falkenberg for round three of the series. The top category of the series consist
of FIA GT3 specification cars which only race at selected events. The third
round was the second appearance of the GT3 cars of which one was an Audi R8 LMS
from the Alfab Racing team. The team did well during the weekend and scored
second place during the race.
2.7. STCC
Round four of the Scandinavian Touring Car
Championship was held at Mantorp Park. The event saw the first Semcon Cup class
victory for the new BMS Racing Audi A4 team. Andreas Ahlberg took victory in
the first race followed by second in race two aiding him to close the gap to
the championship points leader. Andreas and his brother Joakim lie second and
third in the Semcon Cup standings for privateer teams.
2.8. Midas
Clubmans
Nieyaaz Modack continued his
domination of the Midas Clubmans series in South Africa. The Audi A4 driver
took another double victory in his Johan Fourie Racing prepared car during round
seven hosted at Killarney in Cape Town.
2.9. Other Audi news
The
annual Le Mans Classic Artcurial Auction had a very special Audi going under
the hammer this year. A 2007 Audi R10 TDI (#201) which twice raced at Le Mans and won the
2008 LMS championship had an estimated auction price of 1300000 – 1600000 Euros.
The car exceeded 1100000 Euros on the stand but it did not meet the reserve,
thus the car was unsold and is still for sale.
Ironically
just after the Artcurial auction of the R10 TDI, news arrived that another Audi
Le Mans race car was soon to be auctioned as well. The 2012 Monterey RM Auction
will see a 2001 Audi R8 (#501) and a 2001 Bentley EXP Speed 8 (Audi R8 3.6 V8 engine),
both of which are currently owned by the same owner. Audi R8 #501 has competed
as a factory car in 2001 ALMS and ELMS before being sold to the Japanese Team
Goh in 2002. The auction will be held on 17-18 August 2012.
On Monday the 2012 Le Mans winning Audi R18 e-tron quattro was
at the Audi Sport headquarters in Neckarsulm, Germany for the traditional post
Le Mans victory celebrations.
The 2012 Spa 24 Hours entry list has been
announced. A total of ten Audi R8 LMS and ultra cars are confirmed for the
event with an additional R8 LMS on the waiting list. The ten entries includes
the seven regular Blancpain Endurance Series entries from WRT, Saintéloc Racing, GT3
Racing and JB Motorsport. The additional entries are from United Autosports,
Alfab Racing and Phoenix Racing. Phoenix Racing will field two cars of which
one has multiple Le Mans winners Fässler, Lotterer and Kristensen.
3. Next Weekend’s events (14-15/07/2012)
- DTM Munich
- Superstars GT Sprint
- Superstars
- Australian GT
- ADAC GT Masters
- French GT
- GT Open
- Kerrick Sports Sedans
- MSS
- GT Asia
All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
