By Tarek Ramchani
In addtion to the world famous Spa 24 Hours, Belgium has a second twice around the clock endurance event, the Zolder 24 Hours. Audi has achieved an unprecedented "Triple Crown" this year, by winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Nurburgring 24 Hours and most recently, the Spa 24 Hours. Next month another car from the Ingolstadt brand will try to add a fourth magical 24h victory.
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| 2011 Belgian Audi Club WRT victory |
Last year the WRT Belgian Audi Club won the race overall with drivers François Verbist, Enzo Ide, Bert Longin and Xavier Maassen after a great battle with a ProSpeed Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz SLS. This year the customer Audi team is back to defend its title. A single Audi R8 LMS ultra for a very strong four driver line-up. The car will feature three WRT regualrs, Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium, Edward Sandström from Sweden and the Audi works driver Marco Bonanomi from Italy. These three drivers have already been racing together in the Blancpain Endurance Series, where they have suffered extreme bad luck with a DNF last month at the Spa 24 Hours. The three drivers will be joined by a familiar name, Anthony Kumpen. The Belgian driver raced for WRT in 2010 and won the Belcar Endurance Championship that year.
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| WRT at the Nurburgring 24h 2012 |
During the last couple of years the race has suffered from a lack of competitors, but major changes are happening this year for the Zolder 24 Hours. The race is no longer open only for production based GT cars and touring cars. Smaller prototypes called "CN" are allowed to compete, and the 2012 entry list is expected to be the best in years. The Audi R8 LMS ultra will have to fight hard against these much lighter prototypes. However, as it has been proven many times the reliability of the R8 LMS is its ultimate weapon. Adding to that the extreme motivation at WRT who are trying to win a 24h race this year after two unlucky attempts at the Nurburgring and Spa. Audi will be among the big favorites for the overall win and add a fourth outstanding 24 hour win in the same year.
Photo credit: Belgian Audi Club
More information:
Belgian Audi Club official website
Zolder 24 Hours official website
