By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 26 - 27 January 2013
2. The Events
- Daytona 24 Hours GT
- Daytona 24 Hours DP
2.1. Daytona 24 Hours GT class
The 2013 Grand-Am season got under way this weekend with the Daytona 24 Hours. Four Audi R8 GRAND-AM cars were entered by three teams, APR Motorsport, Alex Job Racing and Rum Bum Racing. The teams showed good pace at the Daytona tests days and continued that form during the practice and qualifying sessions. The top Audi qualifier was the #24 AJR entry which originally qualified in sixth and was then upped to fifth place after another competitor was disqualified. The teams were ready for the race which started at 15:30 local time. The race got under way with the Audi teams maintaining their front running pace. All three teams ran at the front end during the afternoon and during the night. Audi held a 1-2-3 during the early evening until various problems, including penalties, dropped them back slightly, but all three remained in the top ten. As the race pasted half way the AJR Audi remained the highest placed Audi followed by the Rum Bum entry. The #52 APR suffered a crippling time penalty during the night. As the sun rose over Daytona both the AJR and Rum Bum cars were penalized and they dropped back. The #52 completed a tremendous comeback and was running in the leading group as the race headed into the afternoon followed by both the AJR and Rum Bum cars who were also completing great recovery drives. The race developed into a huge fight in the last thirty minutes as multiple cars stood a chance of winning. AJR managed to hold the lead after a splash and dash and lead a Audi 1-2-3 on the final lap. Tragedy struck as the Rum Bum car ran out of fuel on the last lap leaving the other two Audis to complete an Audi 1-2 with the #24 AJR winning ahead of the #52 APR. More details regarding the race can be read HERE.
2.2.
Two Audi Sport works drivers took part at the Daytona 24 Hours competing in the Daytona Prototype class, however they were driving non-Audi vehicles. Both Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller, as they have done in the past, were allowed by Audi Sport to compete with other teams. McNish was running again with the Starworks team sharing a Ford Riley with
2.3.
Audi Sport has official announced that they will compete at the Sebring 12 Hours and will do so with no less than two Audi R18 e-tron cars. They will be fielding one 2012 car and one 2013 car driven by Marcel Fässler/Oliver Jarvis/Benoît Tréluyer and Lucas di Grassi/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish.
At the end of 2012 United Autosports started a livery design competition. Fans were allowed to enter designs for the team’s Audi R8 LMS ultra. The winning design would then be used on the car during 2013. The winning entry was announced this week.
The first DTM group test was held this week. Two cars from each manufacturer took part. For Audi Jamie Green and Mattias Ekström were on hand to drive the Audi A5 DTM cars.
Melbourne Peformance Centre were at Winton this week to test their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars ahead of the Bathurst 12 Hour. The race liveries of the cars were revealed at the test along with a sensational lap time done by Warren Luff.
The updated Bathurst 12 Hour entry list has been released and includes the driver line-ups. The seven Audi cars will be driven by a stellar set of drivers which includes many international additions to the Australian drivers. Notable additions to the list this week includes Darryl O’Young and Rob Huff joining the Audi teams. The full entry list can be seen HERE.
LMS Engineering have already announced that they will enter two Audis in the VLN this year, a R8 LMS ultra and a TT RS. The team took delivery of their TT RS this week.
During 2012 the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Teamannounced that they were considering an Audi S3 for the German Rallycross Championship. The team have officially begun work on building their S3 for the 2013 season.
It has been announced by kfzteile24 that MS Racing will be entering with an Audi car/s (number of cars unconfirmed) in the 2013 ADAC GT Master series in Germany.
kfzteile24 FB page
3. Next Weekend’s events (2-3/02/2013)
- TBA
All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
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