CARS CARS Teams of Audi customers triumph in the GT World Challenge in Asia and Australia -

With the Audi R8 LMS, customer teams in Australia and Asia may reflect on their greatest racing weekends of the season thus far. Three victories at two GT World Challenge events demonstrate the GT3 sports car’s strong form curve, while the Audi RS 3 LMS touring car provided further useful results for Audi Sport customer racing.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

At the third round of the GT World Challenge Australia sponsored by AWS, Audi’s customer teams had their greatest weekend of the season, demonstrating their dominance in the Pacific area. Driving an Audi R8 LMS in Queensland, Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher won their second victory of the season following their initial triumph in April. The Kelso Electrical Team MPC driver team began the first one-hour race in pole position and finished with a 10.5-second lead. The first of two races featured spins and several participants’ multiple penalties. One, two, and three was the Audi R8 LMS’s score in the second race. Alex Peroni/Mark Rosser had a great start and was in the lead from the beginning. The BRM ACM Finance team’s driver pair led Brendon Leitch/Tim Miles of the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi by 0.374 seconds after 43 laps. Third-place finishers Feeney/Schumacher trailed them by 1.1 seconds. At the midway point of the season, they are ranked second in the Pro-Am division. Gary Higgon/Paul Stokell won both events for KFC Team MPC in the Trophy class in another Audi, while Renee Gracie was thrilled with two wins in the Audi R8 LMS of Only Fans Team MPC in the Am class. Audi Sport customer racing achieved another victory in the third round of the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS thanks to a bold move. In Buriram, Thailand, Cheng Congfu/Yu Kuai gave FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom its season-opening victory. In the first of two races, Cheng Congfu was in second position after he touched an opponent while driving the Audi R8 LMS. He was given a five-second penalty for a jump start. The Chinese driver gave his vehicle to his countryman Yu Kuai at the pit stop. He and the leader separated from the pursuing group until a safety car phase allowed the field to close the gap once more. There were then twelve minutes left before the race ended. Yu Kuai passed the leader in the outside lane on the last lap and won by about eight tenths of a second. The Chinese driver has proven his abilities in international racing after graduating from Audi Sport Asia’s junior development program. Jinlong Bao/Markus Winkelhock and Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom finished third in the Pro-Am division of the same event. Cheng Congfu/Yu Kuai, who have increased their lead in the Silver Cup standings to 29 points at the midway stage, lost to the Uno Racing Team with Rio/Shaun Thong in the second race, which saw them win the Silver classification. Sam Fillmore/Jonny Reid won the opening three-hour race of the new season at the North Island Endurance Series in New Zealand. On the Taupo track, the local driver duo in the International Motorsport Audi R8 LMS began fourth. They finished 16 seconds ahead of a Lamborghini after taking the lead in the middle of the race. After leading the race early on, Steve Brooks/Bill Riding in an Audi R8 LMS from Wolfbrook Motorsport finished in third position. In the AWS Endurance Cup-powered GT World Challenge Europe, Tresor Attempto Racing finished on the podium twice. At the season’s second race at Monza, the German team’s Audi R8 LMS, driven by Riccardo Cazzaniga, Leonardo Moncini, and Sebastian Øgaard, finished third in the Gold Cup driver rankings. Third place in the Silver Cup was earned by their colleagues Alex Aka, Alberto di Folco, and Ezequiel Perez Companc, who are currently ranked third in this classification. Christopher Haase/Simon Reicher finished the third race weekend of the International GT Open with two second places, bringing him within two points of Levente Révész, the leader of the Hungarian title. The German-Austrian driver team in the Eastalent Racing Audi R8 LMS produced a stunning return from 13th on the grid in the first race at Hockenheim; the Austrian team began the second race in second place. The weekend was concluded with good class results: Team ISR’s Audi R8 LMS won the Pro-Am class in the second race, driven by Filip Salaquarda and Liber Milota. For the Czech team FullinRace by Interaction in the Audi R8 LMS, Petr Fulín/Jiri Navrátil finished second on Saturday and third on Sunday in the Am classification. After the British GT Cup Championship’s third round, Team PB Racing with JMH brought home four trophies from Snetterton. In the Audi R8 LMS, Peter Erceg placed third in the first sprint and moved up one spot in the second. He shared the cockpit with Marcus Clutton and finished second in the third race, which lasted 52 minutes. The driver team placed third at the end of the fourth and final race. At the second round of the P9 Challenge in Belgium, Thomas Westarp won the Audi R8 LMS’s maiden race. At the end of the one-hour competition in Spa, the German was ahead of his class by one lap. In a Super Taikyu Series endurance event in Japan, Hitotsuyama Racing’s Audi R8 LMS finished on the podium. In a field of 53 recognized competitors, Kenji Suzuki, Sota Ogawa, James Pull, Anna Inotsume, and Shintaro Kawabata placed third overall in the Fuji 24 Hours, the third round of the series. James Pull drove the Audi to the lead after 50 laps after making a brave tire decision with slicks on a drying circuit. The race rhythm was frequently disrupted by many caution periods, and two racing stoppages were brought on by fog and crashes. Even after a tire failure that required a suspension repair, the Japanese squad maintained their focus and ultimately earned a podium finish. Bradley Liebenberg, Arnold Neveling, and Charl Arangies finished on the podium in the third round of the South African Endurance Championship. After six hours of competition in Killarney, the trio of drivers took the Stradale Motorsport Audi R8 LMS to third position overall. Outstanding results in major racing series: On the third weekend of TCR Europe, the Audi RS 3 LMS was one of the winners. Felice Jelmini burst the champagne corks at Hockenheim after Jimmy Clairet in the season opener and his brother Teddy Clairet in the second weekend. The Italian took an 8.1-second lead to win the second race for PMA Motorsport. Being the only competitor with wet tires, the Italian had begun in ninth place. This was the appropriate decision on a wet track with sporadic rains, as Jelmini claimed the lead for PMA Motorsport on the second lap and never let it go. Consequently, by the midway point of the season, the Frenchman’s lead over his brother Teddy in the standings had grown to 24 points. Five trophies were brought back from the Salzburgring by the Audi customer teams in the TCR Eastern Europe. The first sprint in an Audi RS 3 LMS for Aditis Racing was won by Czech driver Martin Kadlečik, who was 5.9 seconds ahead of his Polish colleague Bartosz Groszek. After two of his competitors were forced to pit due to technical issues, Latvian Ivars Vallers, driving an Audi from LV Racing, trailed by almost seven seconds. Groszek finished second in the second race, ahead of Kadlečik, who had started in seventh and eighth place, respectively. The Czech presently leads the junior division and is ranked second in the rankings, ahead of the Pole. In a third TCR racing series spanning Europe, Audi customer teams also achieved success. At the second round of the TCR European Endurance at the Slovakiaring, Yuri Brigliadori/Giuseppe Cartia of BF Motorsport finished second in the Audi RS 3 LMS. As a result, they were able to win the second-generation racing vehicle class with sequential transmission. Their teammates Berk Kalpak and Onat Telkenar finished third in the DSG classification for racing cars with dual-clutch gearboxes, while Ibrahim Okyay and Sinan Ciftci in the Audi RS 3 LMS of Texaco Team AMS won the comparable class triumph for first-generation racing cars. After winning the Belcar Endurance Championship for the second consecutive year, Team VP Racing celebrated. In the Supersport class at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Nick van Pelt and Olivier Bertels drove their Audi RS 3 LMS to class victory. After two hours or so of racing, the Belgian driver duo was ahead by one lap.

After the Cup- und Tourenwagen-Trophy’s second round, Manfred Lewe came back with two class wins. With a one-minute advantage, the German driver of the Audi RS 3 LMS won the first race at the Assen track in the Netherlands. At the end of the second race, he was 1.32 minutes ahead of his rival’s Seat.

European podium results: At the third round of the Ultimate Cup Series in Portimão, Pierre Arraou placed fourth four times. In the first sprint in the Portuguese Algarve, the Frenchman placed third in his class. The driver for Herrero Racing in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 finished second in the UCS4 class in the three sprints that followed. The third round of the DMV Super Touring GT Cup was also conducted. In the inaugural race at the Nürburgring, Seyffarth Motorsport’s Audi R8 LMS GT4 driver team of Tobias Erdmann and Bernd Schaible placed second in their class. Christoph Malbertz, driving an Audi R8 LMS GT4 for Georg Motorsport, lost the second race against Schaible by a thousandth of a second.