Overall victories for the Audi R8 LMS in Europe, Asia, and New Zealand

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Victories in three countries: On the third of four race weekends in the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo Sprint, the Tresor Attempto Racing team secured its first overall sprint victory of the year. Two weeks earlier, the team had won the endurance title in Italy. The Italian-German driver combination of Rocco Mazzola and Fabio Rauer staged a convincing comeback from seventh on the grid in the first race at Imola. Mazzola made up two places in the Audi R8 LMS in the first half of the race before Rauer took over and returned to the track in third place. After a drive-through penalty for an opponent ahead of him, the German was in second place. On lap 21 of 29, he finally overtook the leading Lamborghini and won by 1.2 seconds after 52 minutes of racing. At the same time, Tresor Attempto Racing took second place in the GT3 amateur class with Alberto Clementi Pisani and Marco Cassarà. The following day, the duo won this classification in the second race after an exciting battle with a Mercedes. This gave the Audi drivers a 31-point lead in the amateur title competition ahead of the finale. At the China GT Championship finale, Audi customer team Winhere Harmony Racing took overall victory in the first of two races. Andy Deng started second in the Audi R8 LMS in Shanghai. He initially lost a position in the scramble at the start. During the pit stop, the Chinese driver had to complete the longest mandatory pit stop time of 93 seconds as a solo driver and returned to the race in third place. He then moved up to second place and closed in on the leader. The Audi driver’s lap times were around two seconds faster, enabling him to overtake a competitor in a Ferrari shortly before the end and win by a clear margin of 10.6 seconds. In the Masters class, victory in the same competition went to the Audi R8 LMS from Incipient Racing with Xiao Min and Air Tong. The GTC Pro-Am category was won by Johnson Huang/Shaun Thong in the Audi from BC Racing by 610. Actor, dancer, and singer Wang Yibo attracted a lot of attention. The popular Chinese entertainer shared an Audi from Uno Racing with David Pun and finished third in the Am classification. In the second race, there were three more class trophies for the Audi R8 LMS: Andy Deng was the best Pro participant. Xiao Min/Air Tong once again won the Masters category, while 610Racing with Pan Deng/Yang Xiaowei took third place in the GT3 Am category. On the fourth race weekend of the Thailand Super Series, the customer team B-Quik Absolute Racing celebrated an early class title win. Aaron Lim and Haziq Oh won the Am class in both races at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia. In the second race, they even finished second overall after Oh had led until shortly before the end. This means that the two Malaysian drivers can no longer be caught in the GT3 Am class standings of the Asian racing series, even at the finale in November. Audi Sport customer racing scored another class title in the Michelin 24H Series Europe. In the final race, the Barcelona 24 Hours, Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport secured third place in the GT3 Am class, which was enough to win the corresponding championship classification. Andrey Solukovtsev/Vasily Vladykin prevailed in this category with a two-point lead after standing on the class podium in Catalonia together with Alex Aka, Sacha Kakad, and Maksim Kizilov. Juta Racing finished one place ahead of the British team, securing second place in the GT3 Am team and driver standings. The Lithuanian team put their faith in the amateur driver pairing of Arunas Geciauskas/Nicola Michelon/Gavin Pickering/Lars Viljoen/Zhang Yaqi. Haas RT achieved the best overall result in an Audi R8 LMS. The team from Antigua finished the race in second place overall ahead of Juta Racing, relying on Ramez Azzam/Peter Guelinckx/Nicolas Guelinckx/Matisse Lismont. The Saintéloc Junior Team contributed another podium finish in Catalonia. Michael Doppelmayer, Elia Erhart, Ernst Inderbitzin, Pierre Kaffer, and Stéphane Tribaudini shared the cockpit of the French team’s Audi R8 LMS and finished as the second-best Pro-Am team. With Haas RT, Juta Racing, the Saintéloc Junior Team, and Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport, each of the four Audi customers led the endurance race at least once at different points in the race. Together, the customer teams racked up 256 laps in the lead in the Audi R8 LMS. At the season opener of the South Island Endurance Series in New Zealand, Steve Brooks and Bill Riding celebrated a strategically clever victory in the Audi R8 LMS. The driver pairing led the 3-hour race in Christchurch from start to finish. The Wolfbrook Motorsport team took advantage of one of the many safety car phases for a quick splash-and-dash service, deliberately not filling the tank completely so as not to lose positions on the track. In the final stages, the strategists were therefore forced to save fuel instead of refueling again. This put the Audi under pressure from a Lamborghini, but Riding maintained a 0.567-second lead to the finish line with his economical driving style. A second Audi R8 LMS also managed a podium finish. Luke Manson and James Penrose finished third for Team International Motorsport, 6.3 seconds behind Brooks/Riding. The battle for the International GT Open title remains exciting for Audi customer team Eastalent Racing. Last year’s champions Christopher Haase/Simon Reicher improved from sixth on the grid to second place in the first race at the seventh and penultimate event in Barcelona. In the second race, the German-Austrian driver pairing in the Audi R8 LMS finished seventh, directly ahead of their championship rival Levente Révész. With only five points behind the Hungarian Mercedes driver, Haase/Reicher still have a good chance of defending their title at the finale in Monza in October. Team I.S.R. also contributed a podium finish. The Czech driver pairing Libor Milota/Filip Salaquarda took third place in the Pro-Am classification in the first race. At the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup finale in Valencia, two Audi customer teams secured podium places in the final standings. Gilles Magnus and Paul Evrard drove the Saintéloc Racing Audi R8 LMS to third place in the Gold Cup in the second race. This meant that they finished the Gold Cup season in third place in the drivers standings, while Saintéloc Racing finished third in the team standings. In the Silver Cup, Alex Aka and Tresor Attempto Racing secured third place in the annual classification. In the ninth round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, three class podium places went to the Audi R8 LMS. The best result was achieved by Team Max Kruse Racing. For the debut of an Audi R8 LMS in the AT1 class for alternative powertrains, it relied on a cooperation with the Fugel Group and Land-Motorsport. Dominik Fugel, Marcel Fugel, and Benjamin Leuchter drove the GT3 sports car to first place in this classification and, finishing fourth overall, missed the podium by just 0.517 seconds. The race car runs on E20 fuel with a biogenic component. In the Pro-Am category, the Audi R8 LMS took second place. Juta Racing achieved this result with the driver pairing Selv/Alexey Veremenko. In the SP9 Am class, the équipe vitesse team with Michael Heimrich/Arno Klasen/Sascha Steinhardt finished third in an Audi R8 LMS. In the fifth round of the British GT Cup Championship, customer team PB Racing with JMH achieved three podium finishes. Marcus Clutton and Peter Erceg finished third in the first race at Donington. In the second and third races, the British driver combination took second place in the Audi R8 LMS.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Close decision: Audi privateer Teddy Clairet had contributed to the most exciting finale since the start of TCR Europe in the 2018 season and narrowly missed out on the title after two unpredictable races. For the first time in eight years, the championship ended with a tie on points. The Frenchman, who had led the series after the second and fourth race weekends in the Audi RS 3 LMS, finished the season in Barcelona level on points with the new champion Jenson Brickley from Cupra. Both drivers had the same number of wins this season, with two each, so the higher number of second places tipped the scales in favor of the Briton. In a chaotic first race marked by accidents and sporting penalties, Jimmy Clairet improved from sixth on the grid to third in his Audi, while his brother Teddy moved up from ninth to fourth in another Audi. On the crucial Sunday, five drivers still had a mathematical chance of winning the title. Teddy Clairet, who started in second place, was ultimately ranked second ahead of his brother Jimmy after a sporting penalty was imposed on Ruben Volt, the Honda driver who had originally finished second. While Teddy Clairet took second place in the drivers standings ahead of his brother, their team, Clairet Sport, also finished second in the team standings. In TCR Eastern Europe, too, an Audi customer team was in contention for the title at the finale in Balaton Park, Hungary. Martin Kadlečík, second in the standings in the Audi RS 3 LMS, kept his chances alive going into Sunday’s finale by finishing second in Saturday’s race ahead of teammate Bartosz Groszek. In the early stages, Kadlečik had a duel with his title rival Adam Kout in a Hyundai, which resulted in body contact, and briefly took the lead before falling back to second place. On Sunday, a rough attack by Croatian driver Žarko Knego sent both his own Hyundai and Kadlečík’s Audi off the track in the second lap. In the end, Czech Audi driver Kadlečík finished second in the overall standings and won the junior classification, while his team, Aditis Racing, was the second-best team in the series. Several Audi customer teams were successful in the third round of the TCR European Endurance series. Alessandro Alcidi/Yuri Brigliadori finished third overall in Vallelunga in the BF Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS. This allowed Brigliadori to maintain his lead in the standings with a six-point advantage ahead of the final round. The DSG classification for race cars with dual-clutch transmissions was won by Emilio Damante/Edoardo Maccari from Tuder Motorsport ahead of Berk Kalpaklioglu/Umut Göktas from Texaco Team AMS. Both drove a first-generation Audi RS 3 LMS DSG. In the ninth and penultimate round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, Audi customer team Precision Racing LA celebrated a podium finish with second place. Ryan Eversley and Celso Neto had qualified the Audi RS 3 LMS for second place in the TCR category in Indianapolis. During the two-hour race, the American-Brazilian driver lineup was at the front at times, but ultimately had to settle for second place, 6.9 seconds behind the winner. In the TCR China Challenge, Liu Zichen secured the title ahead of schedule in the fifth round in Shanghai. The Chinese driver won his category in the first race in the 326 Racing Team’s Audi RS 3 LMS and finished third in the second race. This gives him a 101-point lead over Honda driver Sun Ju Ran. The Max Kruse Racing team celebrated a one-two victory in the AT3 class with Audi at the ninth round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. After four hours of racing, Timo Hochwind/Christoph Lenz/Jasmin Preisig in the Audi RS 3 LMS had a one-lap lead over the sister car driven by Christopher Allen/Andrew Engelmann/Robert Mau. Armando Stanco/Dario Stanco also won the SP3T class in an Audi RS 3 LMS. Second place went to the Audi from Goroyan RT by sharky-racing with the driver trio Moritz Rosenbach/Ivars Vallers/Jens Wulf. In the TCR category, Møller Bil Motorsport with Anders Lindstad/Kenneth Østvold was the best Audi team in second place. They were followed by Goroyan RT by sharky-racing with Danny Brink/Artur Goroyan/Oleg Kvitka/Roman Mavlanov in another Audi RS 3 LMS. Lorenzo van Riet was among the best performers in the SuperSport Division at the sixth round of the Supercar Challenge in Zandvoort. After finishing second in the first race with his Audi RS 3 LMS, the Ferry Monster Autosport driver celebrated class victories in both of the following races.

Audi R8 LMS GT2

Two trophies in Spain: In the GT2 European Series, the Audi R8 LMS GT2 scored two podium finishes at the fifth event. Luca Pirri drove the sports car, fielded by his own team LP Racing, to second place in the Am Cup in both races in Valencia. In the second race, the Italian even finished second overall after a spectacular duel with the Mercedes of Czech driver Petr Lisa, who had to settle for third place.

Audi R8 LMS GT4

Podium results in club racing: Tobias Erdmann and Bernd Schaible celebrated a victory with Seyffarth Motorsport in the fifth round of the DMV NES GP racing series. At the Lausitzring, they built up a one-lap lead over their BMW rivals in the two-hour race with their Audi R8 LMS GT4. Two further podium places were added in the sprints for the DMV Super Touring GT Cup at the same event. Erdmann won the Cup 4 category in the first race and took second place in the second sprint together with Schaible. In China, too, an Audi customer team returned from the China GT Championship finale in Shanghai with trophies. In the GTS Pro-Am class, Incipient Racing with He Baifeng/Li Jiahao finished second in both races in the Audi R8 LMS GT4.

Coming up in the next weeks

03–04/10 Teretonga (NZ), round 2, South Island Endurance Series
03–05/10 Hockenheim (D), round 8, DTM
03–05/10 Hockenheim (D), round 6, ADAC GT Masters
03–05/10 Le Castellet (F), round 5, GT4 France
06–08/10 Shanghai (CHN), Shanghai 8 Hours
08–11/10 Road Atlanta (USA), round 10, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
10–11/10 Zwartkops (ZA), round 5, South African Endurance Series
10–11/10 Nürburgring (D), round 10, Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie
10–12/10 Barcelona (E), round 5, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
10–12/10 Barcelona (E), round 6, GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club
10–12/10 Misano (I), round 6, TCR Italy
10–12/10 Zolder (B), round 5, Belcar Endurance Championship
11–12/10 Snetterton (GB), round 6, GT Cup Championship