THE Wallpaper of the year

By Johan Laubscher

 2012 has been another excellent year for Audi in the world of motorsport. Five major endurance events have been won by Audi races this year. The events include the Le Mans 24 hours, Spa 24 Hours, Nürburgring 24 Hours, Zolder 24 Hours and the Bathurst 12 Hours.

It is an outstanding achievement by a single manufacturer. Each event told its own story and resulted in another victory.

Audi Sport have just released a new photograph which features all five of the victorious cars together. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro, three Audi R8 LMS ultras and one Audi R8 LMS. It is a spectacular photo which was released as a wallpaper on the Official Audi Sport Facebook Page this morning. This is defiantly the wallpaper of the year. 

The new Wallpaper as hosted at the Official Audi Sport Facebook Page

Direct link for download HERE.

More information: 

Official Audi Sport Facebook Page

Photos by Audi Sport

Artwork: ABT Audi TT-R Team Need for Speed

By Tarek Ramchani

The ABT Audi TT-R has been a great and winning racer in the German DTM touring series. Abt Sportsline won the 2002 championship title with Laurent Aiello, not bad for a fully privateer effort against works teams from Mercedes-Benz AMG and Opel OPC.

Here is a nice render featuring the TT-R in a special Need for Speed livery. The livery is a real one which has been seen on other cars in the past, and here it matches perfectly with the awesome Abt built machine.

Render by Impact Designs

Editors note: All photos are hosted at www.nogripracing.com and belong to their owners

Video: Team Novadriver Audi at Barcelona Spanish GT finale

By Tarek Ramchani

Team Novadriver had an outstanding 2012 season. The Portuguese Audi team was really busy this year, having raced in four different series. They entered their Audi R8 LMS ultra in the Portuguese GT Championship, Iberian Supercars Trophy, Spanish Iber GT series and the FIA GT3 European Championship, all with great results. The team was able to capture both the Portuguese and Spanish GT titles.

Here is a brilliant video featuring Team Novadriver at Circuit Catalunya. Barcelona hosted the sixth and final round of the Spanish Iber GT. The Spanish series raced alongside the very well known International GT Open during the finale. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra were there in the middle of a great quality field of GTS (GT3) cars. The GT Open competitors were in front, however the Novadriver cars were among the strongest of the Spanish GT regulars. Strong performances for the team and the driver's title in the end for Mikko Eskelinen with his #81 Audi.

More information:
Team Novadriver website
Team Novadriver on Facebook

Audi Sport Italia's R8 LMS ultra wins GT3 Class at Vallelunga 6 Hours

Audi Sport Italia Press Release

Audi Sport Italia's R8 LMS ultra ends up Vallelunga 6 Hours on top of GT3 class

Alex Frassineti, Andrea Sonvico and Filippo Francioni seal brilliant 4th outright and nip BMW Italia's Z4 after nice fight with WRT R8

Emilio Radaelli has a hefty roll of honour at Vallelunga 6 Hours, but funny enough in the past had only posted wins at Touring Cars' Silver Cup. Today Audi Sport Italia celebrated its debut Gold Cup posting a clear success courtesy of regular drivers Alex Frassineti, Andrea Sonvico who were joined at Rome by Filippo Francioni. Frassineti on Saturday posted a nice 4th quickest lap, fastest among GT3 behind a host of Ferraris in the hands of the like of Gimmi Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella. In the early part of the enduro Frassineti earlier and then Sonvico duelled with WRT Audi driver Eduard Sundstrom, managing to swap first place with the Swede a couple of times. The two Audi fighting each other even snapped Ferrari's domination in the outright Top3, a lap or so behind Esta Motorsport Ferrari 458 which wound up as finale winner.

But then AF Corse 458s rallied and the all-Audi duel focused on GT3 bragging rights. Jinx struck the Belgian entry around mid-race when Weerts' car was beached in the sand trap at Semaforo corner dropping out of contention for the lead as Francioni was putting in a smart stint, before leaving the seat back to home-boy Frassineti. The latter did a brilliant job of increasing the edge on the closest foe, Matteo Bobbi's Ferrari 458, and when the time approached to leave Sonvico put in the final shift at the office, N°29 Audi  had nearly a lap over Bobbi. The 6 Hours was none the less set to be a nail-biter till the end, as a safety-car spell, on the eve of the beginning of the final hour, rushed in Frassineti for an early pit-stop. Sonvico resumed the race but as he was warming up the tyres radioed in his engineer that his Audi had a puncture on a rear tyre. Therefore an apparently quiet and sleepy final hour turned out to be a complicated issue, as Mulacchiè, who had taken over Bobbi's Ferrari, was sitting on an over 30-second cushion. Mulacchiè, lacking hte experience and poise of Sonvico, did not rise to the occasion, and after relinquishing the GT3 lead to Sonvico also let go by Edoardo Liberati's BMW. Sonvico picked up a nice 4th overall spot, and edging BMW Italia's Z4 at the checker had a sweet taste for Sonvico and Frassineti, who unlike Francioni had been fighting the whole Italian season ceding the crown to the BMW rivals at the very last round.

XXII^ 6 ORE DI ROMA
Vallelunga (I), 25 novembre  2012

1. A. Skryabin/A. Balzan/A. Pierguidi (Ferrari) 213 giri in 6:00'06"639 media oraria 144.972 Km/h

2. J Gerber/M.Cioci/G. Fisichella (Ferrari) + 1 giro

3. K. Aluko/T. Kemenater/M. Mediani (Ferrari) + 2 giri

4. F.FRANCIONI/A.FRASSINETI/A.SONVICO (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 4 giri
5. S. Colombo/M. Cerruti/E. Liberati (BMW) + 5 giri

../..

9. J.L. BLANCHEMAIN/V. VOSSE/R. BERVILLE (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 6 giri

../..

21. E. SANDSTROM/Y WEERTS/F. VERBIST (AUDI R8 LMS ULTRA) + 49 giri

Audi Sport Italia wins GT3 class at the 6 Hours of Rome

By Tarek Ramchani

The Vallelunga circuit hosted the 6 Hours of Rome today. It was the season finale of the Italian based Dunlop Endurance Champions Cup. Audi Sport Italia did very well by taking a convincing class victory.

Audi Sport Italia took a great GT3 class win today against a very strong field from Ferrari, Porsche and BMW. The #29 Audi R8 LMS ultra finished fourth overall and was battling for the outright win for the majority of the race. The car was shared by the team's regular drivers Andrea Sonvico and Alex Frassineti. They were joined by Filippo Francioni at this event competing the three driver lineup. The trio were four laps down on the overall winners, a 1-2-3 finish for the Ferrari 458 GTE cars.

The other Audi team in the race also did well. The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars finished in ninth with the #22 R8 LMS ultra and twenty first with the sister #21 Audi. Bad luck for the #21 WRT machine as Edward Sandström was able to fight for the top spots in the early stages of the race.

Rome gives Audi and the R8 LMS ultra another great win. Audi Sport Italia who are regulars in national Italian GT Championship have proven once again to be one of the finest GT teams in Europe.

Photo credit: Audi Sport Italia

More information:
Gruppo Peroni Race website
Audi Sport Italia on Facebook

Weekend Round Up - Audi Motorsport Blog (24-25/11/2012)

By Johan Laubscher

1. The Weekend

Focussing this week on the weekend of 24 - 25 November 2012

2. The Events

•           Rome 6 Hours
•           VdeV
•           Michelin Test
•           Zwartkops

2.1. Rome 6 Hours

  

The Rome 6 Hours was the final event of the newly named 2012 Endurance Champions Cup in Italy. The event drew a quality firled this year with team from all over Europe taking part. Two Audi teams entered the event. WRT entered two Audi R8 LMS ultras and Audi Sport Italia entered one car. The cars did well in qualifying and in the race. WRT and Audi Sport Italia showed great pace during the six hours. In the end Audi Sport Italia came home to finish first in the GT3 class and fourth overall. 

Audi Sport Italia FB page

Results

2.2. VdeV

The finale of the French VdeV championship took place at Estoril. Once again one Audi R8 LMS cars from AB Sport Auto was entered. The team received technical support from Team Novadriver this weekend. They claimed pole position in qualifying, however the race did not go to plan. Various incidents dropped the team down the grid during the very wet race. They finished third in class and ninth overall.   

Team Novadriver FB page
Results

2.3. Michelin Tire Test

A Michelin Tire test was held this week at Motorland Aragon in Spain. Amoung the teams taking part was Audi Sport Team Joest who were testing new tire developments for 2013. It was reported that three Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars with the hybrid technology were at the test. The drivers included Loïc Duval, Benoît Tréluyer, Oliver Jarvis, Allan McNish, and Tom Kristensen.

Official Audi Sport FB page

2.4. Zwartkops Extreme Festival

Zwartkops in South Africa hosts many festival race days during the year, which included the Extreme Festival this weekend. Jonathan Du Toit debuted in an Audi A4 B7 this weekend and did very well. He competed in the Extreme Super Car category. The car is the second ex-Terry Moss Racing Class A Audi A4 which was driven by Michael Stephen in the national championship up until 2011.

RacePics.co.za website

Results

2.5. Other Audi News

United Autosports will race at the next Gulf 12 Hours held at the Yas Marina circuit. After competing at the first running of this event in January of 2012 the team also committed to returning  The event will be held on Friday fourteen December. United Autosports will enter one Audi R8 LMS ultra which will be driven by Mark Patterson and Jody Firth.

United Autosports website

Another Audi R8 LMS has arrived at GMG Racing in North America. This is the fourth car to arrive during 2012 and will be prepared for the 2013 SCCA World Challenge. The fourth car is an ex-Team Audi France R8 LMS which competed in the 2011 French GT Tour championship.

GMG Racing FB page

3. Next Weekend’s events (1-2/12/2012)

•           Australian GT
•           Midas Clubmans
•           Brazil GT

All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up

Video: Audi R8 LMS sound VLN Nürburgring 2012

By Tarek Ramchani

The Audi R8 LMS ultra was introduced with immediate success in various GT and endurance championship around the world this year. The car was one of the stars of the German based VLN Endurance Series at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. The R16 was able to score three overall victories in the hands of Phoenix Racing and Raeder Motorsport, and a fantastic 1-2 victory in the Nürburgring 24 Hours as well.

Here is a nice video from nordschleife-video.de featuring a mixture of Audi R8 LMS and ultra cars from Audi Sport Team Phoenix, Audi race experience and Raeder Motorsport at the Green Hell. Turn up your speakers for the great sound from the 5.2 V10s.

Audi R8 LMS R16 on Facebook

Gallery: Best of Pirelli World Challenge 2012, R8 LMS and TT RS

By Tarek Ramchani

The 2012 Pirelli World Challenge season saw the comeback of the Audi brand. The North American series is a successful mix between fast high-end GT cars and smaller production touring cars.

For 2012 two Audi teams raced the series. GMG Racing was a regular team in the SCCA sanctioned series and entered the Audi R8 LMS for the first time at the Long Beach round. On many occasions the car as fast as the front runners from Cadillac, Volvo and Porsche. The Other Audi effort was from Don Istook. Unlike GMG who run a factory built racer, Istook entered a privately built Audi TT RS in the GTS class with some mixed results.

As we wait for 2013 where both GMG Racing and Don Istook are set to comeback with extended efforts, here are some photos featuring the best of from the Pirelli World Challenge 2012.

Photo credit: Mark Weber/Pirelli World Challenge.

More information: 
Pirelli World Challenge website
GMG Racing website
Don Istook Audi TT RS on Facebook

Auto Union Silver Arrow at Classic Car Show 2012

By Tarek Ramchani

Last weekend Birmingham hosted the 2012 Classic Car Show. A fantastic selection of historical and legendary cars were on display. Among the stars there was an iconic car from Auto Union, a Silver Arrow Grand Prix machine. These cars were a dominant force in World Grand Prix racing in the 1930s. This specific car was a Auto Union Type D. 

Here some nice photos from our friend Phil Laughton.

More information:
Classic Car Show website
Phil Laughton Photography website
Phil Laughton Photography on Facebook

Positive qualifying session for Audi teams in Rome

By Tarek Ramchani

The 6 Hours of Rome is set for tomorrow at the Vallelunga race track. Three Audi R8 LMS ultras have been entered in the Italian endurance race from Audi Sport Italia and Belgian Audi Club WRT.

Audi Sport Italia has already had a very positive free practice session this morning. The official Italian Audi dealer team was able to do well again in the qualifying session. The #29 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by Andrea Sonvico, Alex Frassineti and Filippo Francioni ended in fourth place overall with a time of 1'33.355. Most importantly they were the best GT3 car and less than a second behind the semi-works AF Corse Ferrari 458 GTE cars.

The best of the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars finished in seventh place overall, the #21 R8 of Edward Sandström and Yves Weerts. Not bad for the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Series champion’s first attempt at Vallelunga. The sister #22 Audi of Vincent Vosse and Jean Luc Blanchemain ended in twelfth place outright.

The race will start at 9:30 local time tomorrow. We wish the best of luck for both Audi teams. Live timing will be available here

Photo credit: Audi Sport Italia

More information:
Gruppo Peroni Race website
Vallelunga Circuit website
Audi Sport Italia on Facebook