Successes for the Audi R8 LMS in three countries
Second place in the standings for Tresor Audi Sport Italia after the endurance season opener Third victory in a row for PB Racing by JMH in British endurance racing Class title for Wolfbrook on New Zealand’s North Island
While Tresor Audi Sport Italia competed for victory with the Audi R8 LMS at the start of the Italian endurance racing season, PB Racing by JMH recorded its third win of the season in Great Britain and Team Wolfbrook celebrated a class title in New Zealand.
Audi R8 LMS GT3 Strong start in Italy: Tresor Audi Sport Italia got the season off to a good start in the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo Endurance at Vallelunga. The driver trio of Alex Aka/Pietro Delli Guanti/Rocco Mazzola started the three-hour race from third place. Aka made up one place in the Audi R8 LMS on his debut on the race track just outside Rome and was then able to put pressure on the leading former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella in a Ferrari. His team-mates Mazzola and Delli Guanti continued the battle for the lead. However, after the number 12 Audi incurred a five-second penalty, the trio of drivers ultimately had to concede defeat by a narrow margin of 5.8 seconds. The second Audi with Glenn van Berlo/Andrea Cola/Leonardo Moncini in fourth place was a mere four tenths of a second off the podium after a strong fightback from 18th on the grid. In the British Endurance Championship, the Audi customer team PB Racing by JMH celebrated a victory at Silverstone from pole position. In changeable weather, Peter Erceg/Marcus Clutton confidently drove the Audi R8 LMS to their third win of the season in the two-hour race with a three-lap lead. In the North Island Endurance Series in New Zealand, Team International Motorsport was narrowly beaten this time after three titles in the past. Luke Manson/James Penrose in the Audi R8 LMS were tied on points with a trio of McLaren drivers for first place in the standings after finishing fourth in the finale at Hampton Downs.
Audi Sport customer racing with 14 drivers in the 2023 season
Twelve familiar and two new faces in the Audi Sport customer racing driver squad Audi Sport signs Simon Gachet and Max Hofer
Audi Sport customer racing is relying on a mix of experience and youth for its 2023 driver squad. In addition to established drivers, the brand also includes two former customer drivers in the driver squad, Simon Gachet and Max Hofer.
Audi Sport is relying on twelve familiar and two new faces for its driver line-up this year. The very different careers and experiences of the individual race drivers enable them to support the brand in the best possible way through their individual strengths in the diverse customer programs and strategic assignments.
The 24-year-old Italian Mattia Drudi’s greatest success to date was winning the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo Endurance in 2021. The talented youngster has also showed good performances in strategic endurance races. Last year, 22-year-old Luca Engstler, who previously won TCR touring car titles, managed to clinch a win both in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie and the South African Endurance Series at the first attempt in his debut season in the Audi R8 LMS. The Swiss driver of the same age, Ricardo Feller, winner of the 2021 ADAC GT Masters in an Audi, has also been part of the Audi Sport customer racing driver squad since last year. He has made a name for himself as a particularly fast and reliable driver. Christopher Haase from Germany is 35 years old and has been a permanent fixture for Audi for more than ten years. In addition to two championship titles, the Bavarian has already clinched four 24-hour overall victories for Audi: he was successful twice at the Nürburgring and once each at Spa and Dubai. His 46-year-old compatriot Pierre Kaffer has already driven sports prototypes, DTM race cars and GT3 models from Audi in his career.
Further title successes for Audi in America, Asia, Italy, and New Zealand
Audi R8 LMS prevails in class standings in GT World Challenge Asia, GT America, Italian sprint racing, and New Zealand Audi RS 3 LMS wins DSG final standings in Coppa Italia Turismo Race victories in GT America and New Zealand for the Audi R8 LMS
The Audi R8 LMS has won a total of six further titles in the GT2 and GT3 variants, spread across four continents. An additional scoring success for the Audi RS 3 LMS touring car brings Audi Sport customer racing’s historic title tally since 2009 to 580.
Audi R8 LMS GT3 Winning streak continues: As in 2023 and 2024, a driver pairing in an Audi R8 LMS once again won the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS Silver Cup. The Chinese driver pairing of Congfu Cheng and Yu Kuai secured this title with the FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom at the final in Beijing. They finished third in their class in both races on the new street circuit in the capital. Congfu Cheng, who competed with a different teammate last year, has thus successfully defended his title in his hometown. The best Audi in the first race was the R8 LMS of the Uno Racing Team with Rio and Shaun Thong, who finished second in the Silver classification and repeated this result the following day. This secured them third place in the Silver class standings. In the second race, the best Audi even managed to make it onto the overall podium. Chinese driver Bao Jinlong and his Swedish teammate Joel Eriksson, who shared a cockpit for the first time, were the third-best Pro-Am driver combination for Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom and finished third in the overall results. Eriksson set the fastest lap of the race. In Italy, the Tresor Attempto Racing team celebrated another title success. After Arkin Aka and Ferdinando Geri’s team had already won the overall title in the Endurance series of the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo in September, the amateur classification of the Sprint series also went to the team from Hanover.
Sixth place for Audi at the anniversary race at the Nürburgring
Christopher Haase/Christopher Mies/Patric Niederhauser best-placed Audi drivers All three teams with the Audi R8 LMS at the finish after 24 hours Many attractions around the 40th anniversary of Audi Sport GmbH
Audi Sport customer racing achieved sixth place in the 2023 Nürburgring 24 Hours. Audi Sport Team Land achieved this result after a flawless drive by the three Audi Sport drivers Christopher Haase/Christopher Mies/Patric Niederhauser in the number 39 Audi R8 LMS. The brand also thrilled the 235,000 fans off the track throughout the weekend with many activities surrounding the birthday of its subsidiary Audi Sport GmbH.
“The 24-hour race at the Nürburgring was the perfect backdrop to kick off the birthday celebration of our performance brand Audi Sport GmbH,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Rolf Michl. “Our teams also presented the brand with great commitment.” Five different manufacturers finished in the top six positions in the end. “We saw a fast and tough race with a great diversity of brands in the front field,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “Wolfgang and Christian Land’s squad was flawless for 24 hours. We would have liked to defend our title. Thanks to everyone for their professional efforts and congratulations to Ferrari on their first victory.”
Audi Sport Team Land – winner of the 2017 edition – had started the race from 16th place. The two previous winners Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies, together with driver colleague Patric Niederhauser, kept out of all critical situations in a turbulent race marked by several accidents. They came through a field of 131 race cars without any damage or penalties and finished sixth. The competition also started promisingly for last year’s winner Frédéric Vervisch. The Audi Sport driver was on the grid with his teammates Mattia Drudi, Ricardo Feller and Dennis Lind for Audi Sport Team Scherer PHX. In the course of the first race hours, the number 1 Audi R8 LMS was in the lead at times.
FIA WTCR/24h Nürburgring 2019 Spotter Guide
Juni 17.30–18.05 Uhr Rennen 1 Samstag, 22. Juni 11.00–11.35 Uhr Rennen 2 12.20–13.05 Uhr Rennen 3 Zeitplan Teams und Fahrer Comtoyou Team Audi SportComtoyou Team Audi Sport Comtoyou Team Audi Sport Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport Jean-Karl Vernay (F) WTCR – FIA-TOURENWAGEN-WELTCUP NÜRBURGRING, 20.–22. JUNI 2019 Spotter Guide #10 #52 #69 #22 Aktuelle Informationen www.audi-mediacenter.com Samstag, 22. Juni 15.30 Uhr Start Sonntag, 23. Juni 15.30 Uhr Ziel Zeitplan Teams und Fahrer Audi R8 LMS 24 STUNDEN NÜRBURGRING, 20.–23. JUNI 2019 Spotter Guide #4 #14 #148#15 #29 #5 Phoenix RacingJeroen Bleekemolen (NL)Vincent Kolb (D) Kim-Luis Schramm (D) Frank Stippler (D) Audi Sport Team Land Christopher Haase (D) Kelvin van der Linde (ZA) Christopher Mies (D) René Rast (D) Audi Sport Team Phoenix Pierre Kaff er (D) Frank Stippler (D) Dries Vanthoor (B) Frédéric Vervisch (B) Car Collection Motorsport Stefan Aust (D) Oliver Bender (D) Christian Bollrath (D) Jean-Louis Hertenstein (CH) Audi Sport Team Car Collection Christopher Haase (D) Marcel Fässler (CH) René Rast (D) Markus Winkelhock (D) Giti Tire Motorsport by RaceIng Rahel Frey (CH) Bernhard Henzel (D) Pavel Lefterov (BG) Frank Schmickler (D)
40 facts about 40 years of Audi Sport GmbH
This is where Audi Sport GmbH is based and where the Audi R8 high-performance sports car and the all-electric Audi e-tron GT are built. In 2005, the opening of Audi Forum Neckarsulm. The exhibition and visitor center offers 10,000 square meters of experiential tours of Audi’s modern automobile production and a colorful program of cultural events. An Audi exclusive studio also went into operation for the first time with its establishment, where Audi customers can obtain personal and particularly comprehensive advice on refining and individualizing their model. On October 14, 2023, an event celebrating the 40th anniversary of Audi Sport GmbH will be held for customers and fans in and around Audi Forum Neckarsulm. Manufacturing meets smart factory: The Böllinger Höfe production facility opened in 2014, part of the Neckarsulm plant, has a production area of around 40,000 square meters. With the Audi R8 high-performance sports car and the fully electric e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT models, completely different vehicle concepts are created in one plant. To integrate the electrically powered models into the production process, assembly was expanded by 20 to 36 work cycles. New competencies in the areas of electrification, automation, and digitalization were also added. The strengths and experience of the manufacturing plant were retained. The result was a unique interplay of new technology and craftsmanship for the smart factory and manufactory operation.