Audi customer teams win 17 titles in one weekend

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Success story in Italy: Once again, the Audi RS 3 LMS was in a class of its own in Italian touring car racing. The compact Audi won no fewer than seven titles in various classes of the TCR Italy at the finale, including the overall title for the third time in a row after Nicolas Taylor successfully defended his title from the previous year. Starting from fourth place at Misano, finishing second in the first race behind a Hyundai was sufficient for the Canadian to secure the coveted title one day before the end of the season. Three days after his 20th birthday, the young driver from PMA Motorsport relegated Nicola Baldan from Aikoa Racing to third place. Baldan was Taylor’s toughest opponent in the title fight, starting the race from ninth place and also driving an Audi RS 3 LMS. In Sunday’s race, the newly crowned champion Taylor secured his fifth victory of the season, which also meant that his team, PMA Motorsport, won the team title. Baldan once again finished in third place, making him the runner-up in the championship. Audi also performed well in various classes: Denis Babuin won the Master classification in the first race with Planet Motorsport and finished second on Sunday, making him the best driver of the year in this classification. Sandro Pelatti from PMA Motorsport finished third in both races in this class. In the Rookie category, Carlo Alberto Bocca from BF Motorsport was the best participant in both sprints and thus also won the annual classification. Nicolas Taylor was twice the best “Under 25” driver and thus in addition to the overall classification also won this age group in the championship. The TCR Italy DSG for race cars with dual-clutch transmissions also held its final race at Misano. Andrea Palazzo from Aikoa Racing was the best Audi driver in third place in the first race, while Gustavo Sandrucci from Casals Motorsport won the second sprint and, as on the previous day, the Master classification. Sandrucci thus won the Coppa Nazionale TCR Italy DSG Master in the Audi RS 3 LMS. His teammate Sebastian Gavazza was also the third-best “Under 25” driver on Sunday. Another title went to Carlotta Fedeli, who won the Trofeo Nazionale TCR Italy DSG Femminile in the RC Motorsport Audi ahead of Seda Kaçan from Texaco Team AMS. The Audi RS 3 LMS was successful in two classes at the final round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. In the TCR classification, Goroyan RT by sharky-racing with Danny Brink/Artur Goroyan/Oleg Kvitka/Roman Mavlanov finished as winners with a 1.52-minute lead over the Audi from Møller Bil Motorsport with Anders Lindstad/Kenneth Østvold/Håkon Schjærin. The winning Audi with the number 777 thus clinched the TCR class of the 2025 KW Team Trophy ahead of the Audi from Møller Bil Motorsport. Danny Brink and Artur Goroyan are also the winners of the TCR class in the 2025 NLS class winners trophy ahead of Håkon Schjærin. Max Kruse Racing won the AT3 class in the race with Timo Hochwind/Max Kruse/Nico Otto, finishing two laps ahead. For former professional soccer player Kruse, it was his first outing in an Audi, having previously competed in NLS races in another TCR race car. This Audi with start number 10 also secured the team the season victory in the AT3 class of the 2025 KW Team Trophy ahead of its sister car with number 333. Timo Hochwind also won the AT3 category of the 2025 NLS class winners trophy ahead of Jasmin Preisig. Audi finished the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge as the second-best brand. In the final race at Road Atlanta, Canadians Sam Baker and James Vance finished third for Team Baker Racing as the best drivers in an Audi RS 3 LMS. This puts Audi behind Hyundai and ahead of Honda and Cupra in the final standings after ten races. The Belcar Endurance Championship also held its final race. In the fifth round at Zolder, Olivier Bertels/Nick van Pelt in the VP-Racing Audi RS 3 LMS secured their fourth class victory of the year in the SuperSport category after 74 laps. The driver duo thus won the title in their class and finished second overall in the championship. This success brought the total number of championship titles won by the two generations of the Audi RS 3 LMS to 161 worldwide since the program began at the end of 2016. The Audi RS 3 LMS achieved several podium finishes in German club racing as well. In the sixth round of the Cup- und Tourenwagen-Trophy at the Nürburgring, Manfred Lewe finished second in both sprints in his class. In the first race, third place went to Michael Haager in another Audi. In TCR México, the Audi RS 3 LMS finished second and third in the sixth event, the longest race of the year. In the 24-hour race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, RE Motorsports 2 with Axel Matus/Nico Rivas/Esteban Roche/Fabian Welter finished second, 1.02 minutes behind. Third place went to the Apycsa Racing Team with Jorge Abed/Yusif Abed/Omar Chávez/Rubén Rovelo.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

A win and podium places worldwide: The Scherer Sport PHX team bid farewell to the 2025 ADAC GT Masters season with a strong performance in the final race. Thanks to a victory and a third place finish at Hockenheim, Denis Bulatov/Nico Hantke in the Audi R8 LMS jumped from eighth to fourth place in the final standings. In the first race, Bulatov immediately improved from third on the grid to second place. After Hantke took over the GT3 sports car at the pit stop, he attacked front-runner Leo Pichler in the Porsche and overtook the Austrian on the outside lane in the 21st of 32 laps. On a drying track, the team had conserved their tires for a long time, thus preserving crucial reserves for the final phase. Hantke built up a 5.9-second lead by the finish line. It was already the second victory of the season for the driver duo, who had won for the first time three weeks earlier at the Red Bull Ring. In the second race, the Audi drivers finished third after Bulatov overtook Porsche driver Alexander Schwarzer in the 31st of 35 laps. The Audi R8 LMS also enjoyed a worthy end to the season in the DTM in front of 102,000 racing fans. Ricardo Feller continued Land Motorsport’s good form at the finale in Hockenheim, which the team had previously demonstrated in Austria with its first victory of the season. Feller qualified in fourth place for the first race. In the rain, the Swiss driver played to his strengths despite carrying 20 kilograms of success ballast after his previous victory. On lap eight, he overtook Ben Green in a Ferrari, and on lap 25, he passed Green’s teammate Jack Aitken. In the final stages, Feller successfully defended his second place with a 0.11-second lead against attacks from Porsche driver Morris Schuring. Land-Motorsport achieved a podium finish three times in its debut season with the solo entry of an Audi R8 LMS in the highly competitive DTM. In the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, Tresor Attempto Racing ended the season in Barcelona with a class victory in the race and a second and several third places in the standings. Alex Aka/Leonardo Moncini/Sebastian Øgaard won the Silver Cup in the Audi R8 LMS after three hours of racing with a 36.5-second lead and achieved an impressive fifth place overall. The sister car of Max Hofer/Andrey Mukovoz/Aleksei Nesov finished second in the Bronze Cup. Tresor Attempto Racing was the second-best of 20 teams in the combined Silver classification from sprint and endurance races this season and the third-best Silver team in the Endurance Cup. Driver Alex Aka was the best Audi driver, finishing third in the Silver drivers standings in both the Endurance Cup and the combined sprint and endurance standings. At the Shanghai 8 Hours, the Audi R8 LMS took third place overall, a class victory, and further podium finishes. Team Climax Racing completed the marathon with its drivers Li Dongsheng/Li Donghui/Lu Wei/Zhou Liyuan in the third-fastest overall time, winning the GT3 amateur classification in the process. Three other customer teams were also among the frontrunners in additional classifications with Audi: In the GT3 Silver-Am class, HZO Fortis Racing by Absolute Racing with Aaron Lim/Akash Nandy/Haziq Oh took second place ahead of the 326 Racing Team with Wu Yifan/James Yu/Xu Zheyu/Liu Zichen. The Uno Racing Team was the second-best Pro-Am team with Sérgio Sette Câmara/David Pun/Wang Yibo/Rio. In a second race of the South Island Endurance Series in New Zealand that was marked by capricious weather and incidents, Team IMS took third place with the Audi R8 LMS driven by Sam Fillmore/Jonny Reid. Fillmore had secured pole position and led the race in dry weather in the early stages. When rain set in after 40 minutes, a number of competitors skidded off the track during the three-hour race, including Fillmore. This resulted in safety car deployments and a total of two race interruptions. Fillmore/Reid finished on the podium, two laps down. Steve Brooks/Bill Riding, who finished eighth in their R8 LMS after a spin, are now the best Audi customer team in second place in the standings for Team Wolfbrook Racing ahead of the final race. At the finale of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, the équipe vitesse team secured the SP9 Am class of the KW team trophy this season. Michael Heimrich, Arno Klasen, and Lorenzo Rocco were the second-best SP9 amateur team in the field in the final 4-hour race on the Nordschleife in the Audi R8 LMS. In the SP9 Pro-Am classification, Selv/Frank Stippler/Alexey Veremenko also finished the race in second place in their class in the Audi R8 LMS from Juta Racing. The team from Lithuania thus won both the NLS class winner trophy and the KW team trophy in the SP9 Pro-Am classification. In the AT1 class, the 2025 NLS class winner trophy went to Dominik Fugel/Marcel Fugel, who drove an Audi R8 LMS from Max Kruse Racing. At the sixth round of the British GT Cup Championship, the PB Racing with JMH team members celebrated four podium finishes. At Snetterton, Peter Erceg and Marcus Clutton finished third overall and second in the GT3 category in the first race in their Audi R8 LMS, and were the second-best team in both the overall and class results in the three remaining races.

Audi R8 LMS GT2

Triumph in the finale: LP Racing caused a stir in the sixth round of the GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli. In the first race, Otto Blank/Pierre Kaffer stormed to victory in the Italian team’s Audi R8 LMS from tenth and last place on the grid. Turbulent overtaking maneuvers with contact, technical problems, longer mandatory pit stops due to previous success, and penalties significantly slowed down various competitors in Barcelona. Starting driver Blank worked his way up to fifth place when he handed the Audi over to Kaffer at the pit stop. The experienced German drove to the finish line with a 7.8-second lead, helping the R8 LMS GT2 to its first victory in this series since September 2023 in Valencia.

Audi R8 LMS GT4

Another European title: In the GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club, Team Speedcar secured the team title in the Silver Cup at the final race in Barcelona. This marked a perfect end to the season for the French team with the Audi R8 LMS GT4, after their drivers Robert Consani/Benjamin Lariche had already won the Silver drivers championship in August after four victories this season. The two Frenchmen finished sixth in both races in the final. After five drivers titles since 2018, the Audi R8 LMS GT4 has now helped a team to a title for the sixth time in Europe’s most prestigious GT4 racing series. This was the first time that Team Speedcar had achieved this success. Saintéloc Racing finished the 2025 season in the GT4 France racing series with two podium finishes. Swiss driver Lucas Légeret and French driver Sébastien Rambaud drove the French team’s Audi R8 LMS GT4 to third place twice in the final race at Le Castellet. In the second race, they benefited from three 5-second penalties against the Mercedes-AMG, which had originally finished third, whose drivers had repeatedly exceeded the track limits. The Audi R8 LMS GT4 of the G&H Racing team scored a class victory in the South African Endurance Series. In the fifth round of the series at the Zwartkops circuit, Gianni Giannoccaro/Riccardo Giannocaro/Arnold Neveling won Class B and finished fourth overall. Herrero Racing returned from the fifth round of the French Ultimate Cup Series with three trophies. Pierre Arraou was the second-best participant in the UCS4 classification in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 in the first race, won his class in the second race, and then finished second in the third sprint.

Coming up in the next weeks

16–19/10 Indianapolis (USA), round 8, GT America
17–18/10 Highlands (NZ), round 3, South Island Endurance Series
17–19/10 Beijing (CHN), round 6, GT World Challenge Asia
17–19/10 Beijing (CHN), round 3, SRO GT Cup
17–19/10 Valencia (E), round 5, Campeonato de España GT
17–19/10 Monza (I), round 8, International GT Open
17–19/10 Nürburgring (D), round 6, Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy
24–25/10 Zwartkops (ZA), round 6, Extreme Supercars Driven by Dunlop
24–26/10 Monza (I), round 4, Campionato Italiano GT Sprint
25–26/10 Misano (I), round 6, Coppa Italia Turismo
25–26/10 Okayama (J), round 6, Super Taikyu Series