By Johan Laubscher
1. The Weekend
Focussing this week on the weekend of 6 - 7 April 2013
2. The Events
- SA Production Cars
- Superstars
- Superstars GT Sprint
- Super GT
- BRCC Test
- Hungary 12 Hours
- Midas Clubmans
- Killarney Regionals
- Grand-Am
- Belgian Historics
2.1. SA Production Cars
The third South African Bridgestone Production Cars round took place at Aldo Scribante. The track traditionally favours quattro cars and that was definitely the case this weekend. The Audis topped all of the sessions. Terry Moss Racing made it a clean sweep as they won all three races, Michael Stephen winning race one and three and teammate Tschops Sipuka taking race two. Melvil Priest also showed very good form in his VMP S4 with consistent results securing him second overall for the day. The Ferodo S4 of Bonafede also showed very good pace on the day and lead race two. The highlight was an Audi S4 1-2-3-4 finish in race three.
2.2. Superstars
Monza hosted the opening round of the Superstars championship. Audi Sport Italia entered two RS 5 race cars. Monza is traditionally a difficult track for the Audis, due to the very high end top speeds, however the team worked well this weekend. A top four qualifying position and finish was achieved by Gianni Morbidelli in both races. His teammate, Ferdinando Geri, finished in the lower half of the field at Monza, and retired from race two.
2.3. Superstars GT Sprint
Monza also hosted the first GT Sprint round this weekend. One Audi R8 LMS was entered by MTM and driven by Oliver Mayer and Thomas Schöffler. They had good pace all weekend and placed within the top eight for most of the proceedings.
2.4. Super GT
The Japanese Super GT got underway at Okayama. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars were entered. A 2013 spec car from Hitotsuyama Racing and a 2012 spec car for äpr racing. The organisers added a 40kg penalty to the 2013 car during the week leading up to the event. It proved to be a difficult weekend as the cars qualified in the lower half of the field and finished fourteenth (äpr) and sixteenth (Hitotsuyama).
2.5. BRCC Test
The Belgian BRCC held an official test day at Zolder on Friday. Two Audi R8 LMS cars took part. The PK Carsport R8 LMS is a full season BRCC competitor, whereas the Belgian Racing Team (MOMO-Megatron-dF1) R8 LMS used the test day to prepare for the upcoming ELMS season. More can be read HERE. http://audicarsblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/two-audi-r8-lms-at-brcc-zolder-test-day.html
2.6. Hungary 12 Hours
One Audi R8 was entered for the 12 Hours of Hungary at the Hungaroring. This was the third 24H Series event of the year. The Audi was entered by the Red Camel Racing Team. It is one of the R8 V8 race cars which was privately built by Creventic, called the “C-R8”. The team performed well within the field and qualified in the top three. Problems dropped the team back during the race and they ultimately finished in fourteenth.
2.7. Midas Clubmans
Round two of the Midas Clubmans was held at Killarney in South Africa. One Audi A4 took part, the ex-Tschops Sipuka car now driven by Andre Johnson. He finished within the top ten overall for the day.
2.8. Killarney Regionals
A number of other regional races also took place at Killarney. The Audi R8 spaceframe racer of Paul Beachyhead took part in the Sports and GT races, as well as a few classic Audis in the historic car classes on the day.
2.9. Grand Am
The third Grand Am round was held at Barber Motorsports Park. Unfortunately no Audis took part this weekend. Four Audis took part at Daytona followed by one Audi at round two. Hopefully more Audis will be seen at the subsequent Grand Am races this season.
2.10. Belgian Historics
Belgian Historic Racing took place at Spa this weekend. The yellow/red/orange Kamei Audi Coupe was entered in the event. Two-time Le Mans winner, André Lotterer, was one of the drivers in the Audi. Lotterer also raced this Audi Coupe at a number of Belgian Historic meetings last year.
Audi Sport Media
2.11. Other Audi News
MS Racing took delivery of their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars this week. The delivery also marked the 100th Audi Sport customer racing race car being delivered.
The ADAC GT Masters entry list was revealed this week. Five Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will be fielded by three teams. MS Racing and Prosperia C.ABT Racing will each field two cars. The fifth entry is from YACO Racing.
Christpher Mies and Rene Rast will be sharing one of the Prosperia C.ABT Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra cars this year. They will form a very strong driving combination in the ADAC GT Masters.
Møller Bil Motorsport published a dyno testing video this week. The video featured their SP3T (four cylinder turbo) engine Audi TT RS race car. The video allowed the first opportunity to hear the new engine, which is very different from the SP4T (five cylinder turbo) engine that is normally fitted to these cars.
The Czech SVC Vitver Racing team have revealed their 2013 plans and updated race car at the 2013 Motorsport Expo in Brno. The team displayed their newly rebuilt and updated car which now includes a very aggressive aerodynamic package. Their 2013 plans are to continue competing in the FIA Hillclimb Championship, and to prepare for a possible 2014 Pikes Peak entry. More can be read HERE.
Two new drivers have been confirmed for the Audi R8 LMS Cup. Rahel Frey will be taking part in the Chinese series this year, adding to her other already confirmed Audi GT duties. The second driver is Franky Cheng, who comes to Audi from Mercedes-Benz. He will compete in the Audi R8 LMS Cup and in GT Asia.
The Prosperia C.ABT Racing livery was also revealed this weekend. The team will field two of these Audi R8 LMS ultra cars in the ADAC GT Masters this year.
Christopher Mies FB page
3. Next Weekend’s events (13-14/04/2013)
- FIA WEC
- ELMS
- Blancpain Endurance
- Brazil GT
- VLN
- Britcar
All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up
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