Super GT: Audi R8 LMS ultra teams at the official Okayama test days

By Johan Laubscher

The Japanese Super GT hosted its first official set of test days at Okayama this weekend. A total of four sessions were spread over Saturday and Sunday, with a pair of sessions each day. Audi Sport customer racing was represented by two teams at Okayama.

Audi Team Hitotsuyama and its W Racing Team supported Audi R8 LMS ultra performed well during the first official test of the 2015 Super GT. The #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra was driven by Richard Lyons, Tomonobu Fujii and Stéphane Ortelli. The Japanese Audi Sport customer racing team also took part in the manufacturer test days at Suzuka last week.

The Audi Team Racing Tech Audi R8 LMS ultra, the third car for JLOC's three-car 2015 squad, arrived at Okayama still wearing its Nova Engineering livery from the 2013 Super Taikyu Endurance Series. The livery was removed on Friday and the plain silver Audi R8 LMS ultra was pitted during the two days of testing by the trio of Shinya Hosokawa and Yoshitaka Kuroda, joined by German Audi driver, Christian Mamerow.

Saturday's proceedings saw Hitotsuyama Racing performing well with two top ten results in the GT300 class, achieving fifth and fourth during the two sessions. Audi Team Racing Tech was seventh and sixteenth.

The final two sessions concluded the Okayama test days on Sunday. Hitotsuyama Racing again showed strong top ten pace with second in the morning and twenty-second during the afternoon, ahead of Audi Team Racing Tech in fifteenth and fourteenth.

Another set of official test days will be taking place at Fuji Speedway from 23-24 March, followed by the 2015 Super GT season getting underway at Okayama from 4-5 April.

Photo credit: 
Hitotsuyama Racing
Stephane Ortelli

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Super GT: JLOC joins Audi Sport customer racing family as Audi Team Racing Tech in Japan

By Johan Laubscher

Long-time Japanese Lamborghini entrants, Team JLOC (Japanese Lamborghini Owner’s Club), will be entering a three-car team with some new German flavour in the 2015 Super GT.

JLOC will again be running Lamborghini vehicles in the GT300 class, beginning the season with two Lamborghini Gallardo GT3 FL2 race cars (cars #87 and #88) and will switch to new Huracan GT3s later during the year. The team’s third car will be a new addition to its line-up, the #86 Audi R8 LMS ultra.

The #86 JLOC entry has been entered under the banner of Audi Team Racing Tech. It is currently listed on the entry list for the upcoming official Super GT test at Okayama (14-15 March) with the driving duo of Shinya Hosokawa and Yoshitaka Kuroda, who will be joined by German Audi driver, Christian Mamerow, as the third driver for the testing.

This specific Audi R8 LMS ultra is the ex-Nova Engineering chassis that competed in the 2013 Super Taikyu Endurance Series. It has been acquired by JLOC and will complete the team’s three-car line-up for 2015.

JLOC will be joining Hitotsuyama Racing as the two Audi entrants on the Super GT grid in the GT 300 class this year.

The 2015 Super GT season will get underway at Okayama from 4-5 April.

Photo credit: 
Audi Communications - Motorsport
Team JLOC

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