- GT3 sports car from Audi wins GT America and 24H European Series
- Audi RS 3 LMS in front in Belgium, Germany and Italy
- Audi R8 LMS GT4 leads the standings at European level
Customer teams all over the world were victorious with the Audi R8 LMS in GT3 and GT4 versions as well as the Audi RS 3 LMS at the end of May. In addition to overall successes at European level and in America, a wealth of good class results enriched Audi Sport customer racing’s balance sheet.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Victories in America and Italy: Memo Gidley took the first victory for SKI Autosports in the Audi R8 LMS in America. In the GT America powered by AWS racing series, the experienced sports car driver started the first race at the fourth event on the Sebring circuit in second place. He overtook an opponent’s BMW, which had started from first place, in the early stages of the race and built up a lead. However, an infringement of the regulations by his team in the pre-start phase meant a five-second penalty for the private Audi driver.
Gidley managed to make up for this disadvantage during the 40-minute race. In the end, he won by 0.364 seconds ahead of BMW driver Justin Rothberg. Gidley finished second in the second race. Two Audi customer teams celebrated a successful weekend at the third round of the 24H European Series. Team Haas RT achieved overall victory at the 12h Misano, after an Audi R8 LMS had already prevailed at this event a year earlier. Peter Guelinckx/Matisse Lismont/Jef Machiels crossed the finish line in the Haas RT Audi R8 LMS after 416 laps with a lead of just under a minute. Victory in the GT3-Am class and fourth place overall went to Juta Racing with the driver trio of Arunas Geciauskas/Nicola Michelon/Tim Müller.
Continental Racing by Simpson Motorsport provided the third-best amateur team on the Italian Adriatic coast with David Pogosian/Andrey Solukovtsev/Vasily Vladykin in another R8 LMS. In the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup, Audi’s customer teams were delighted with three class victories, good overall results and further trophies. At the second round in Zandvoort, Gilles Magnus/Paul Evrard in the Audi R8 LMS from Saintéloc Racing finished fourth overall as the best Gold driver pairing in the first race. On the demanding dune circuit, they won the Gold classification, distancing their closest rivals from Ferrari by 18 seconds. Tresor Attempto Racing triumphed in the Silver Cup. Alex Aka/Ezequiel Perez Companc finished 3.4 seconds ahead of a Mercedes-AMG in their Audi R8 LMS. Third place went to Ivan Klymenko/Lorens Lecertua in the Saintéloc Racing Audi.
This driver pairing even made it onto the podium in the second race. In second place overall, they won the Silver Cup by 1.9 seconds ahead of Alex Aka/Ezequiel Perez Companc. In the Gold Cup, Leonardo Moncini/Sebastian Øgaard crossed the finish line in second place in the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi. At the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers, Team Juta Racing was the second-best Pro-Am team in the first four-hour race. Elia Erhart/Selv/Frank Stippler/Alexey Veremenko shared the Audi R8 LMS of the Lithuanian customer team. In the second four-hour race, the équipe vitesse team also achieved a class podium result as the second-best SP 9 amateur team.
Michael Heimrich/Arno Klasen/Lorenzo Rocco/Eric Ullström took turns at the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS. Scherer Sport Phx celebrated a successful debut in the ADAC GT Masters. At the season opener at the Lausitzring, Denis Bulatov/Nico Hantke were delighted with second place in the team’s Audi R8 LMS in the second race. At the season opener of the Campionato Italiano GT Sprint, Tresor Attempto Racing achieved three class podium results with the Audi R8 LMS. The Italian-German driver pairing of Rocco Mazzola/Fabio Rauer was the third-best Pro driver team in the first sprint in Vallelunga. Alberto Clementi Pisani/Marco Cassarà were the second-best GT3 amateur team in the first race and won this class by 25 seconds in the second race. Christopher Haase/Simon Reicher finished the second round of the International GT Open in second place in the Audi R8 LMS from Eastalent Racing.
The Spa circuit featured a single race over a distance of 500 kilometers instead of the usual two shorter races. After the defending champions had already managed a second place in the season opener in Portugal, they crossed the finish line in the Ardennes after almost three hours of racing in second place again, 12.5 seconds behind. Haase/Reicher are currently second in the standings, eleven points behind. Team Olimp Racing was the best of three other Audi customer teams in the field. The Polish squad secured third place in the Pro-Am classification with Karol Basz/Marcin Jedlinski. Team PB Racing with JMH Automotive returned from the second race weekend of the British GT Cup Championship with four trophies. At Brands Hatch, Peter Erceg in the Audi R8 LMS took second place in the first sprint. Together with team partner Marcus Clutton, he was again second after 40 minutes in the second race. Erceg secured third position in both the third and fourth races.
At the opening race of the Central European GT Cup Series at the Red Bull Ring, the CCS Racing Team recorded a series of podium results. Thomas Westarp finished the FIA CEZ Endurance race in third place in his class in the Audi R8 LMS. In the two sprints of the GT Cup Series and the P9 Challenge, a total of four second places went to the German. At the second round of the China GT Championship, Audi customer team Winhere Harmony Racing missed out on overall victory in both sprints by just the blink of an eye. The driver pairing of Andy Deng/Luo Kailuo had secured pole position for both races in Shanghai. In the first race, the two Chinese drivers in the Audi R8 LMS were 0.051 seconds short of victory, in the second race they were only 0.036 seconds off the pace after receiving a time penalty of 0.2 seconds for a pit stop that was too short.
As runners-up in the overall standings, they each won the Pro category. The Uno Racing Team, with the driver pairing of Rio/Chen Yechong in another Audi R8 LMS, finished third in the Pro-Am class in the first race. In the amateur classification, the brand’s customers scored a 1-2-3-4 victory: Origine Motorsport with Min Heng/Jason Gu was ahead of 33R Harmony Racing with Yang Haojie/Jiang Nan, Hehehe Racing by 33R HAR with Steven Zhou/Zhen Mingwei and 610 Racing with Yang Xiaowei/Pan Deng in the first race. In the second race, Ming Heng/Jason Gu finished third in the Am classification.
At the Thailand Super Series opener, another trophy in Asia went to an Audi customer team. On the Buriram circuit, Karol Basz and Kiki Sak Nana shared an Audi R8 LMS of the B-Quik Absolute Racing team and finished the first race in third place. Their teammates Sathaporn Veerachue/Adisak Tangphuncharoen won the GT3 amateur classification in both races in another Audi R8 LMS.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Customers triumph in Belgium, Germany and Italy: In the TCR Europe, the Audi customer team Clairet Sport continued its winning streak on the second race weekend. Teddy Clairet took his first win of the season in the second sprint at the Spa circuit in Belgium. In his Audi RS 3 LMS, the Frenchman crossed the finish line nine seconds ahead of his brother Jimmy’s identical car. Teddy Clairet overtook the Lynk & Co of the Swede Viktor Andersson right at the start and could no longer be caught at the front.
Teddy Clairet leads the overall series standings after the first third of the season, four points ahead of his brother. In the team standings, Clairet Sport is already 57 points ahead of the Cupra team Monlau Motorsport. In the Diamond classification, Nicola Baldan in the Audi RS 3 LMS from Aikoa Racing took victory in both races. The Italian currently has a twelve-point lead in this category of the standings. The Audi RS 3 LMS is also continuing its winning streak in the TCR Italy with a number of satisfied customers. Nicolas Taylor celebrated his second win of the season at the second event in Vallelunga. The defending champion won the first sprint for PMA Motorsport ahead of four other Audi privateers.
Thanks to his third place in the second race, the Canadian remains leader of the overall standings with a three-point lead. He is also the best driver in the Under-25 category. Nicola Baldan from Aikoa Racing took two second places, making him Taylor’s closest rival. BF Motorsport’s Pietro Alessi was third in the first race and now occupies the same position in the standings. In the Masters classification, Denis Babuin celebrated his third and fourth wins of the season for Planet Motorsport and extended his lead in the standings to 36 points.
Third and second place in the Master class in both races means that Francesco Cardone from Aikoa Racing is currently third in the standings in this class. Carlo Alberto Bocca from BF Motorsport won the rookie classification in the first race ahead of Zekai Özen from the Texaco team. Özen won the second race and now leads the standings on equal points with his closest rival. The TCR Italy DSG for racing cars with dual-clutch transmissions also made a guest appearance at its second round in Vallelunga. Audi customers were also among the best participants here with the RS 3 LMS.
Casals Motorsport secured second and third place in the first race with Gustavo Sandrucci and Sebastian Gavazza, before Sandrucci won the second sprint. In the women’s classification, Italian Carlotta Fedeli prevailed over Seda Kaçan in the first race. The Turkish driver then won the second sprint and was the second-best rookie in both races. The Masters classification went to Sandrucci twice, while Gabriele Giorgi took second and third place. In the Under-25 classification, Gavazza was the second-best driver on Saturday ahead of Planet Motorsport’s Mattia Lancellotti, who in turn finished third on Sunday.
In the third round of the TCR UK, Team Power Maxed Racing remained unbeaten in its class. Jeff Alden won the Gen1 classification for older racing cars in each of the three sprints with his first-series Audi RS 3 LMS at Silverstone. At the season opener of the Belcar Endurance Championship, Team VP Racing celebrated a class victory with the Audi RS 3 LMS. Nick van Pelt/Olivier Bertels won their touring car class in the race at Zolder after just over two hours of racing with a two-lap lead.
Armando Stanco/Dario Stanco put in a good performance in the SP3T class at the 24h Nürburgring Qualifiers. The two Swiss drivers won the classification in the two four-hour races of the event with their Audi RS 3 LMS. In both competitions, the Goroyan RT by Sharky Racing team also achieved third place in the TCR classification with another Audi RS 3 LMS. The driver quartet Danny Brink/Artur Goroyan/Oleg Kvitka/Roman Mavlanov took turns at the wheel.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
Second win of the season in Europe: Team Speedcar took the lead in the GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club at the second round with Robert Consani/Benjamin Lariche. In Zandvoort, the French driver pairing celebrated second and first place in the two competitions. In the first race, the Audi R8 LMS GT4 of the Speedcar team was just 0.431 seconds behind the winners on the fast dune circuit.
Third place went to the second car of the French racing team, shared by Gregory Guilvert/Paul Petit. They had led the race for a long time, but were handed a five-second penalty for a mistake at the restart after a safety car period. As in the season opener, Consani/Lariche took victory in the second race. After the start, Paul Petit overtook his teammate Robert Consani until a red flag caused the race to be interrupted.
After the restart, Consani overtook his teammate again and the number 3 Audi R8 LMS GT4 never relinquished the lead. The lead was 2.4 seconds after 31 laps. Robert Consani/Benjamin Lariche are now 13 points ahead of two Ford drivers in the Silver standings. In the China GT Championship, Audi customer team Incipient Racing achieved a podium result on the second race weekend in Shanghai. Chen Sitong/Air Tong Yu finished the first race in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 in third place in the GTS class.
Coming up in the next weeks
30–31/05 Taupo (NZ), round 1, North Island Endurance Series
30/05–01/06 Monza (I), round 2, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup
30/05–01/06 Buriram (THA), round 3, GT World Challenge Asia
30/05–01/06 Queensland (AUS), round 3, GT World Challenge Australia
30/05–01/06 Queensland (AUS), round 3, GT4 Australia
30/05–01/06 Salzburgring (A), round 2, TCR Eastern Europe
30/05–01/06 Fuji (J), round 3, Super Taikyu Series
31/05–01/06 Spa (B), round 2, Belcar Endurance Championship
06–08/06 Zandvoort (NL), round 3, DTM
06–08/06 Zandvoort (NL), round 2, ADAC GT Masters
06–08/06 Mid-Ohio (USA), round 4, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
06–08/06 Portimão (P), round 3, Campeonato de España GT
06–08/06 Hockenheim (D), round 3, International GT Open
06–08/06 Hockenheim (D), round 3, TCR Europe
07/06 Killarney (ZA), round 3, South African Endurance Series
07–08/06 Snetterton (GB), round 3, GT Cup Championship
07–08/06 Slovakiaring (SK), round 2, TCR European Endurance
