By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 19 - 20 January 2013
2. The Events
After seeing Audis at motorsport events on the first two weekends of 2013 the third weekend is very quiet. No major events took place this weekend as the winter period is still in effect. However this will luckily not last long, many of the championships kick off in February/March and of course next weekend is the big one for January, the Daytona 24 Hours.
With the lack of Audi motorsport participation this weekend let's have a look at one other motorsport event wherein a lot of Volkswagen Group interest was present. Audi's sister company Volkswagen have entered the World Rally Championship this year. This weekend was the traditional opening round at Monaco.
2.1. WRC (Volkswagen Motorsport)
Volkswagen Motorsport entered their first World Rally Championship event with the new Volkswagen Polo R WRC. It was the season opener held in Monaco. The entry of VW Motorsport in the 2013 WRC season is the Volkswagen Groups's first major factory effort in the sport since the Skoda and Audi efforts in decades past. Two cars were entered crewed by Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia and Jari Matti Latvala / Miikka Antilla. Ogier drove very well and achieved a well received second place behind reigning world champion Loeb. Latvala was running well until his rally ended with a crash. The new VW WRC project completes a very impressive line-up for the Volkswagen Group in factory backed worldwide motorsport with VW in WRC and Audi in the FIA WEC / Le Mans and DTM.
Volkswagen Motorsport FB page
With the lack of Audi motorsport participation this weekend let's have a look at one other motorsport event wherein a lot of Volkswagen Group interest was present. Audi's sister company Volkswagen have entered the World Rally Championship this year. This weekend was the traditional opening round at Monaco.
2.1. WRC (Volkswagen Motorsport)
Volkswagen Motorsport entered their first World Rally Championship event with the new Volkswagen Polo R WRC. It was the season opener held in Monaco. The entry of VW Motorsport in the 2013 WRC season is the Volkswagen Groups's first major factory effort in the sport since the Skoda and Audi efforts in decades past. Two cars were entered crewed by Sebastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia and Jari Matti Latvala / Miikka Antilla. Ogier drove very well and achieved a well received second place behind reigning world champion Loeb. Latvala was running well until his rally ended with a crash. The new VW WRC project completes a very impressive line-up for the Volkswagen Group in factory backed worldwide motorsport with VW in WRC and Audi in the FIA WEC / Le Mans and DTM.
Volkswagen Motorsport FB page
2.2. Other Audi News
During the week Rum Bum Racing was the second R8 GRAND-AM team to reveal their race livery ahead of the Daytona 24 Hours. The car’s livery is similar to the team’s usual very bright coloured liveries.
APR Motorsport was the last of the three R8 GRAND-AM teams to reveal their Daytona liveries. Late in the week they revealed the liveries for both the #51 and #52 cars.
Doug Gore arrived in Germany this week. He and some of his team members from Jamaica are at the ABT Sportsline headquarters were their ABT-Audi TT-R has been repaired. Doug will also soon test his car at Hockenheim before it returns to Jamaica. It was also revealed this week that the TT-R will receive new Mk2 TT resembling bodywork similar to that used and developed by Vláďa Vitver from the Czech Republic.
Audi Sport released a collection of renders showing the details of the 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra and R8 GRAND-AM. The renders included side-by-side renders of the cars which allow a great opportunity to see the differences between the two vehicles.
The first real world photo of the new updated 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra appeared this week. Audi Sport Media have released the 2013 Audi Sport customer racing booklet. This pdf document includes a variety of information and photos. Among the photos in the booklet there was one small photo of the new Audi R8 LMS ultra, the first real world photo that has been released.
The Peter Corny Motorsport Audi R8 LMS was on display at the Bathurst 12 Hours promotion event this week. The event was held on Thursday morning as the sun rose over Sydney harbour.
An Audi R8 LMS ultra from Belgian Audi Team WRT was on display at the European Motorshow in Brussels, Belgium. The car was wearing the #1 livery similar to the car which won the 2012 Blancpain Endurance Championship.
During 2012 it was announced that the RaceAlliance team, linked to American actress Pamela Anderson, would be running with Audi R8 LMS cars during 2013. More information regarding the entry has emerged this weekend. The team will be called MOMO Megatron df1, also known as Downforce1, and will use two Audi cars. At this stage they are mentioned to be entered in the ELMS with the possibility of entries in the ADAC GT Masters, Blancpain Endurance Series, FIA GT Series and the International GT Open.
Downforce1 website
3. Next Weekend’s events (26-27/01/2013)
- Daytona 24 Hours
All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
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