The Audi RS 3 LMS once again proved its performance with five victories in five series in the middle of the season. Winners’ trophies and podium successes with the three homologated variants of the Audi R8 LMS rounded off a successful penultimate weekend in June.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Convincing results in the middle of the year: The Audi RS 3 LMS underlined its capabilities with five victories and three titles on a single race weekend. In the TCR European Endurance, Texaco Team AMS celebrated its first titles of the year. At the third event of this new racing series, Franco Girolami/Sandro Pelatti achieved a surprise victory at Misano. The Argentinian-Italian driver line-up secured their first win of the season in the PMA Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of Zekai Özen/Barkin Pinar from Texaco Team AMS. Their team-mates Eric Brigliadori/Turgut Konukoglu had retired but were still classified in fifth place. While the championship decision in the overall standings has been postponed until the final in Slovakia on August 25, three other classifications have been decided. All of them went to Texaco Team AMS. The Turkish squad won the team classification early, the DSG title for racing cars with dual-clutch transmissions with Seda Kaçan/Ibrahim Okyay in the Audi RS 3 LMS and the classification for Gen1 models of the first TCR vehicle generation with Zekai Özen/Barkin Pinar in another Audi. The Audi customer team Unitronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports continued its best performances in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. After three TCR victories in the first three races, the team had to admit defeat for the first time two weeks ago with third place. They now celebrated their fourth win of the season at Watkins Glen. Chris Miller/Mikey Taylor won the two-hour race in the Audi RS 3 LMS by two seconds. This gives the American and the South African a 220-point lead in the standings at the halfway point of the season. Their team also leads the team standings and Audi is ahead of three other manufacturers. The Audi RS 3 LMS remained unbeaten for the third time this year in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. As in the season opener, the Norwegian team Møller Bil Motorsport came out on top. Anders Lindstad/Kenneth Østvold/Håkon Schjærin won the TCR classification of the four-hour race with a one-lap lead. Schjærin thus extended his lead in the standings. The Audi RS 3 LMS was also the measure of all things in the second round of the Belcar Endurance Championship. VP Racing won the TA class in Zolder with Olivier Bertels/Nick van Pelt ahead of another Audi from M&D Racing with Manfred Verbeke at the wheel. On the third weekend of the TC France in Spa, Belgium, Ti Boy Racing won the TCR classification with Thomas Léal in the second race ahead of Sébastien Thome from Team Clairet Sport. Both teams relied on the Audi RS 3 LMS. Second place for Thome in the first race and third place for Léal in the fourth race rounded off the podium results. At the third round of the Coppa Italia Turismo, PMA Motorsport took second place in the TCR class in the first sprint in Misano. Riccardo Ruberti finished ahead of BF Motorsport’s Daniele Verrocchio in his Audi. Ruberti subsequently finished third in the second sprint. At the second event of the Sports Car Championship Canada powered by Michelin, four trophies went to the Audi customer teams. Anthony Martella took second place in the Audi RS 3 LMS in the first race in Calabogie ahead of Megan Tomlinson. In the second race, the 24-year-old lady driver Tomlinson was the best Audi contender in the TCR category in second place. Richard Boake, another Audi customer, climbed to the third step of the podium. He remains the leader of the standings with a six-point lead.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Second win of the season: Team Eastalent Racing celebrated an impressive second victory of the season in the International GT Open. Simon Reicher started the first race at the Hungaroring from seventh on the grid. After Christopher Haase took over the Audi R8 LMS of last year’s championship-winning team during the pit stops, he made up position after position. From lap 30 onwards, he was in fourth place as the rain became heavier and heavier. Haase successfully put pressure on the cars in front of him. Various opponents slid off the track, so that the German was already in second place on lap 36. Two laps before the end, the red and white Audi finally took the lead and won by three tenths of a second. In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, an Audi R8 LMS driver pairing once again finished on the podium at the third event. Cheng Congfu/Adderly Fong improved to third place overall in the second race in Fuji. And they did so despite only starting from 18th place and having to serve a 15-second time penalty in the pits for an engine change. The race took place in the Japanese mountain region in dense fog on a wet track. As a result, the driver pairing from the FAW Audi Sport Asia Racing Team won the Silver classification of this race. Despite a retirement in Saturday’s race, Cheng and Fong are four points clear at the halfway point of the season in first place in the China Cup table of the racing series. Équipe vitesse celebrated a class victory at the third round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. The German Audi customer team won the SP9 Am classification in the Audi R8 LMS with Michael Heimrich/Arno Klasen/Lorenzo Rocco in the four-hour race. Klasen and Heimrich thus took the lead in the corresponding category of the standings ahead of the driver duo Alexey Veremenko/“SELV” from the Audi customer team Juta Racing.
Audi R8 LMS GT2
Podium result in Zolder: PK Carsport once again finished on the podium at the second round of the Belcar Endurance Championship. Last year’s championship-winning team took second place with the Audi R8 LMS GT2 in the 125-minute race. However, Bert Longin, Stienes Longin and Peter Guelinckx were not entirely satisfied. After Stienes Longin had secured pole position, his father Bert stayed out of the scrum at the start and handed over the yellow Audi in second place at the pit stop. When Peter Guelinckx fastened his seatbelts, he accidentally touched the starter button on the steering wheel. The V10 engine started while he was refueling, which is prohibited by the regulations. The subsequent drive-through penalty cost the trio a chance of victory.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
Lead extended: For the sixth time in six races of the Championnat de France FFSA GT, CSA Racing recorded a podium result in the Pro-Am classification with the Audi R8 LMS GT4. The participants traveled to neighboring Belgium for the third event of the French racing series season. On the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Gaël Castelli/Rodolphe Wallgren in the Audi achieved second place overall in both races and thus also second place in the Pro-Am classification. As their strongest opponents in the standings had a bad weekend in the Ardennes, the two French Audi privateers extended their lead in this classification to more than 50 points at the halfway point of the season.
Coming up next week
26–30/06 Spa (B), round 2, Fanatec GT Endurance Cup
27–29/06 Spa (B), round 3, Fanatec GT2 European Series
28–29/06 Lausitzring (D), round 4, Eset Cup Series
28–30/06 Spa (B), round 3, GT4 European Series
28–30/06 Nürburgring (D), round 2, GTC Race
28–30/06 Nürburgring (D), round 2, Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy
29–30/06 Ningbo (CHN), round 2, GT Sprint Challenge