Customers celebrated no fewer than five victories with the Audi R8 LMS in the individual competitions at the ADAC Racing Weekend at the Lausitzring on the first weekend in June. In addition to many other club racing successes, the handover of the 100th Audi RS 3 LMS gen II rounds off the Audi Sport customer racing balance sheet.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Three wins at the Lausitzring: In the second weekend of the GTC Race, Audi customer teams triumphed in all three competitions at the Lausitzring. Car Collection Motorsport won the one-hour endurance race with Julian Hanses/Finn Zulauf in the Audi R8 LMS. Zulauf defended his position after the start against Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Arnold, who stayed close behind him. At the pit stop, Car Collection Motorsport worked better than the competition so that Julian Hanses finally crossed the finish line with a 26-second advantage. Third place went to Carrie Schreiner/Peter Terting in an Audi R8 LMS from Land-Motorsport. Julian Hanses now leads the GT60 powered by Pirelli standings by 4.57 points. In the subsequent first sprint, Car Collection Motorsport again prevailed with Julian Hanses. Second place went to Moritz Wiskirchen from Team équipe vitesse. An Audi one-two-three victory was completed by Carrie Schreiner in third place. In the second sprint, the customer teams even managed a 1-2-3-4 victory with the R8 LMS. Audi Sport driver Markus Winkelhock won the competition for équipe vitesse from pole position. Peter Terting followed five seconds behind in the Audi from Land-Motorsport. With a gap of three seconds, Moritz Wiskirchen from équipe vitesse crossed the line in third place, after having had a duel worth seeing with fourth-placed Finn Zulauf from Team Car Collection. Julian Hanses is now 3.1 points ahead of Moritz Wiskirchen in the sprint standings. Markus Winkelhock follows just 1.19 points behind.
First season successes in German club racing: Team Bliss Autosport by XR Racing competed in the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy for the first time this year. Paul Hochberger won the second competition in the Audi R8 LMS on the second race weekend of this club racing series with a 27-second lead over a Ferrari. His teammate Marco Reinbold switched into the cockpit just ten minutes after the end of the race to secure victory in the immediately following second sprint of the Norddeutscher ADAC Börde Tourenwagen Cup race series on the same circuit.
Two second places in Great Britain: Team Cook Racing has claimed two more trophies in the British GT Cup Championship. The driver duo Sacha Kakad/Hugo Cook finished second in the first sprint race at Snetterton on the third race weekend, 1.2 seconds behind the leader. In the fourth race over a duration of 50 minutes, the two drivers had to admit defeat only by 0.478 seconds, finishing second again.
Audi R8 LMS GT2
Leading the standings in Belgium: Team PK Carsport took over first place in the GTA standings for the fastest sports cars in the field at the second round of the Belcar Endurance Championship. Peter Guelinckx, Bert Longin and Stienes Longin scored second place in the 3-hour race at Spa. After the two best lap times in qualifying had been cancelled due to exceeding the track limits, the yellow Audi R8 LMS GT2 only started from seventh position in the Ardennes. Bert Longin subsequently improved to second place before handing over the car to Peter Guelinckx. The gentleman driver, who is only in his third season of racing, managed a flawless drive. In the end, Stienes Longin took over the cockpit and reduced the gap to the leading Porsche from 30 to 10 seconds. At the season opener in Zolder, PK Carsport had already clinched second place as defending champions. The third event on the calendar is the Zolder 24 Hours at the end of August.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
Podium in the south of France: Audi customer team Speedcar was the best squad with an Audi R8 LMS GT4 at the second round of the GT4 European Series. Robert Consani/Benajmin Lariche improved from fifth on the grid to position three in a field of 55 race cars in the first race at Le Castellet. Remarkably, although the team made a planning error and missed the permitted pit stop window, Benjamin Lariche preserved third place after a five-second time penalty thanks to strong driving. In the Pro-Am classification, Grégory Guilvert/Christophe Hamon in another Audi R8 LMS GT4 lead the standings with a ten-point advantage. Likewise, their Saintéloc Racing team as the best of 13 teams is ten points ahead of the nearest rival.
Two trophies in club racing: Team Konrad Motorsport scored two second places in the second round of the Special Touring Car Trophy. Jürgen Hemker secured the two trophies at the Lausitzring in the Audi R8 LMS GT4.
Victory and second place: Seyffarth Motorsport and its drivers enjoyed a good third race weekend in the Norddeutscher ADAC Börde Tourenwagen Cup. In the first sprint, Tobias Erdmann won his class in the Audi R8 LMS GT4. In the second sprint, Bernd Schaible was second in his category also in an Audi R8 LMS GT4.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Class victory at the Lausitzring: Max Gruhn prevailed in the second race of the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy. The junior driver won his class in the Audi RS 3 LMS with a one-lap advantage in the 40-minute competition at the Lausitzring.
Trophy in the Netherlands: The Danes Jesper Henriksen/Frederik Vodder were the second best team at the third round of the DMV NES 500 at Assen. They finished second in their class after three hours of racing in the Audi RS 3 LMS.
Three podium results at Spa: Two Dutch Audi customer teams returned from the third Supercar Challenge event with a total of three trophies. Laurens de Wit finished second in his class in the first race at Spa for Bas Koeten Racing in an Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of Tim Schulte/Paul Meijer from Certainty Racing. In the second race, de Wit was again the best Audi driver in third place ahead of his brand colleagues.
Number 1 in the TCR World Ranking: Frédéric Vervisch took over the top position in the Kumho TCR World Ranking in the 22nd calendar week. The Belgian Audi Sport driver leads the permanent comparison of worldwide participants by two points ahead of Frenchman Yann Ehrlacher. Vervisch most recently scored 18 championship points at the second round of the TCR World Tour in the Audi RS 3 LMS fielded by Audi Sport Team Comtoyou at Spa.
Milestone reached: A little more than one and a half years after the start of production, the 100th example of the Audi RS 3 LMS gen II has already been completed. Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing, personally handed over the anniversary car to Christian Scherer of the Scherer Group. After 180 first-generation examples were produced, Audi’s touring car has existed in its second generation since 2021. The model, which can deliver up to 250 kW (340 hp), competes in worldwide TCR racing series. It has clinched a total of 29 drivers championships and 72 other titles since 2017, including first place in the global “TCR Model of the Year” ranking three times.
Coming up next week
08–09/06 Le Mans (F), round 2, Le Mans Cup
09–11/06 Winton (AUS), round 3, TCR Australia
09–11/06 Riga (LV), round 2, BaTCC
09–11/06 Hockenheim (D), round 1, ADAC GT Masters
09–11/06 Vallelunga (I), round 3, TCR World Tour
09–11/06 Vallelunga (I), round 3, TCR Italy
09–11/06 Slovakiaring (SK), round 4, TCR Eastern Europe
10/06 Oulton Park (GB), round 3, TCR UK
10–11/06 Monza (I), round 3, 24H Series powered by Hankook European Series
10–11/06 Okayama (J), round 2, TCR Japan
10–11/06 Jarama (E), round 2, Supercars Endurance