VLN: Two Audi R8 LMS ultra in VLN round 6 at the Nürburgring

By Tarek Ramchani

The Nürburgring Nordschleife will play host to the sixth round of the VLN Endurance Championship this weekend. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra will compete in the upper SP9 class in the 37. RCM DMV Grenzlandrennen.

Phoenix Racing who won the prestigious Nürburgring 24 Hours is back to VLN after skipping the fifth round due to a clash with the Blancpain Sprint Series. The Erst Moser team will enter a single Audi and will target to achieve a new overall victory. The #5 R8 LMS ultra will be in the hands of team's regulars Frank Stippler and Marc Basseng, the two Audi GT works drivers will be joined by Roman Rusinov.

The second Audi is from Twin Busch Motorsport. Their yellow and blue #44 R8 LMS ultra will be driven by the borthes Dennis and Marc Busch.

The Audi teams will have to fight against strong rivals from BMW, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche teams.

Audi privateer teams will fight for SP4T and SP3T class victories with their Audi TTS and Audi TT RS cars.

Both qualifying and the four-hour race will be held on Saturday.

Photo credit: VLN Endurance Championship

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Spa 24 Hours: Emotional second for Team Parker Racing in 24-hour debut with Audi

By Tarek Ramchani

The Audi brand had a very successful race at the Total 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. A great overall victory with Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and strong performances from all four customer teams in the different classes.

Team Parker Racing who entered the Gentlemeb Trophy class in the stellar event of the Blancpain Endurance Series performed very well. The British Audi team took an emotional second place with their white and green #22 Audi . Not bad for a team debuting in 24-hour endurance races with the all conquering R8 LMS ultra.

The car was shared by Ian Loggie, Leonid Machitski, Carl Rosenblad and Julian Westwood. The four drivers were among the strongest in a very demanding field.

Team Parker Racing achieved an amazing 28th place overall (out of 61 entries) and were right behind the winning #51 Ferrari 458 GT3 from team AF Corse in their class.

With strong results at the Spa 24 Hours, Team Parker Racing is now third in the overall Gentlemen Trophy teams' standing with 58 points. Ian Loggie and Julian Westwood are fifth the drivers standing with 50 points each.

The British will be back at the Nurburgring, the season finale of the Blancpain Endurance Series and a special 1000km event.

Photo credit: Audi Media

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DTM: Audi driver Tambay to feature Playboy in the DTM

Audi Press Release

•          23-year-old Frenchman sporting the colors of the men’s magazine
•          Spectacular graphics for Edoardo Mortara’s Audi RS 5 DTM
•          Final tests as ‘rehearsal’ for season opener at Hockenheim

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DTM: Adrien Tambay second fastest in Hockenheim free practice session

By Tarek Ramchani

It's the season finale for the German DTM series at Hockenheim this weekend. Audi drivers performed very well in the free practice session this morning with five drivers within the top 10.

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French Driver Adrian Tambay Joins Audi A5 DTM Squad

Audi Sport Press Release :

• Eighth Audi A5 DTM for youngster Adrien Tambay
• Team-mate of Rahel Frey in Audi Sport Team Abt
• Race against the clock in vehicle preparation

Six weeks before the new DTM season opens at the Hockenheimring on April 29 the decision has been made: Audi will be fielding a total of eight vehicles in the competition with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. By signing the 21-year-old Frenchman Adrien Tambay Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich is yet again giving an opportunity to a promising young driver.

Two-time champion Mattias Ekström, Filipe Albuquerque, Miguel Molina, Edoardo Mortara, Mike Rockenfeller - as many as five examples give proof of AUDI AG’s successful promotion of young talent in the DTM. Now following in these footsteps is Adrien Tambay, the son of the former Formula 1 racer Patrick Tambay. As Rahel Frey’s team-mate in Audi Sport Team Abt, he will be driving one of the total of eight new Audi A5 DTM cars.

"We were poised for fielding eight vehicles in the DTM as early as last year and are assuming that no later than in 2013 all manufacturers will be competing with at least eight cars," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "As we had to develop an extremely challenging hybrid car - the Audi R18 e-tron quattro - for the Le Mans 24 Hours and concurrently a completely new DTM vehicle we were initially planning for seven cars in 2012. I’m happy that the opportunity to enter eight cars has now materialised. I’m convinced that in view of the DTM’s high level it’ll be advantageous to compete with the maximum number of possible cars. The competition will be very close - an additional vehicle also means an additional chance. Plus, an even number makes more sense than an uneven number in terms of logistics and team effort."

By signing Adrien Tambay Audi is purposefully following its strategy of discovering talents and retaining them for the brand early on. "We took several young drivers on board in recent years, some of whom joined us from Volkswagen’s talent incubator in Formula 3," says Dr. Ullrich. "I feel that today Audi has a very good base in terms of its driver line-up, which also means that the brand is oriented toward the future. This also applies to Adrien (Tambay), who convinced us in tests and is a good fit for the Audi family."

The 21-year-old Frenchman, who was active in formula racing since 2007 and took fourth place in the international "Auto-GP" series, prevailed in a multi-step evaluation of young drivers. The ultimate decision in favour of Tambay was made after a final test on Monday. The DTM rookie will start testing in the Audi A5 DTM for his new race team as early as during the official DTM track tests in Valencia (Spain) next week.

Whether Tambay will already be on the grid at the Hockenheimring season opener is not certain at the moment. "We’re currently working at full stretch on duplicating a sufficient number of cars of the A5 DTM model that was homologated on March 1 and to ensure appropriate spare parts supply," explains Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "This is a major logistical feat and puts maximum demands on the entire squad. Our aim is to field the eighth car as early as possible."

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