By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 15 - 16 December 2012
2. The Events
- ROC Nations Cup
- ROC Champion of Champions
- Gulf 12 Hours
- Brazilian GT
2.1. ROC Nations Cup
The 2012 Race of Champions (ROC) took place in Bangkok this weekend. Once again Audi R8 LMS cars were amongst the machines used at the event. Four R8 LMS vehicles were made available and prepared by Absolute Racing. Along with the Audi R8 LMS the KTM X-Bow, which uses an Audi engine, was also used at the event. Tom Kristensen was the only Audi driver at the event this year. The Nations Cup was held on the Saturday evening and Tom was partnered with Jorge Lorenzo as part of “Team All Stars”. They progressed until the Semi-Finals of the competitions. Ultimately Team Germany won the ROC Nations Cup again.
2.2. ROC Champion of Champions
The ROC event concluded on Sunday with the Champion of Champions, where the drivers competed head to head. Tom Kristensen was the pick of the bunch for Audi fans. The event saw many upsets throughout. Tom did very well as he progressed all the way to the finals. This was the second year in a row that TK made it to the final, but as was the case last year he was beaten into second place. Romain Grosjean took the overall victory just ahead of TK.
2.3. Gulf 12 Hours
The second running of the Gulf 12 Hours took place in Abu Dhabi this weekend, hosted at the Yas Marina circuit. It is a unique event which is split into two six hour races with a ninety minute interval in-between the two races. As was the case in January United Autosports was the only Audi team in the event. They entered their Audi R8 LMS ultra. The team did very well in qualifying by achieving seventh place. As the race got underway the team maintained a position in the top ten. They developed a gearbox problem which saw them loose first and second gear, and ultimately the gearbox seized towards the end of the first six hours. They worked hard to repair the car in time for the second race. The car was finished in time for the start, but they suffered with other mechanical issues for the remainder of the second race, which dropped them well down the order. The United Autosports team soldiered on and made it to the finish.
2.4. Brazilian GT
The Brazilian GT season came to a close this weekend at Interlagos, São Paulo. The Ebrahim Motors team were ready to put their bad luck behind them. They qualified well and achieved a front row start for race two. They finished seventh in race one. A touch at the beginning of race two dropped them from second to ninth place. They did well to recover all the way to fourth, narrowly missing a podium finish.
2.5. Other Audi News
Stig Blomqvist was at the Race of Champions and he entertained the crowds with a driving display with the Audi Sport quattro S1 E2.
Team Speed Car announced their plans for the 2013 season this week. They are one of the latest teams to acquire an Audi R8 LMS ultra and they will compete in the 2013 French GT-Tour season. They have all ready received and tested the car.
LMS Engineering have also announced their 2013 plans. They will compete in the 2013 VLN with an Audi R8 LMS ultra and Audi TT RS (SP3T) cars.
An Audi R18 TDI arrived at the Audi USA headquarters this week. The car will act as a show car. It replaces the Audi R10 TDI which had been on display at Audi USA in recent years. The car is wearing the 2011 Audi R18 TDI bodywork (early Sebring test specification), but it is in the livery of the #3 Audi R18 ultra which raced at Le Mans this year.
Dragon Speed Racing was the first team to receive an Audi R8 LMS ultra in North America. They will debut the car at the 2013 Dubai 24 Hours and they relieved their livery this week.
3. Next Weekend’s events
The 2012 motorsport season has come to an end this weekend. As we head deeper into December and the festive season, we eagerly await the new 2013 motorsport year to get underway. This also marks the last Audi Motorsport Blog Weekend Round Up for 2012. This weekly newsletter has been running for the past 36 weeks, providing a weekly summary of all the Audi racing news, covering both the factory and privateer/customer Audi racing. The Weekend Round Up will be reevaluated during the off-season and may be back for 2013.
Enjoy the festive season
Regards
The Audi Motorsport Blog Team
All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
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