- Overall successes for the Audi R8 LMS in France and the USA
- 1-2 class triumph in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS
- Audi RS 3 LMS with race wins in Canada and Spain
[source: Audi AG]
The third weekend of July saw Audi customers celebrating trophies on either side of the Atlantic. The highlights of the success for the Audi R8 LMS in GT3 racing include overall victories and drivers leading their respective championships following races in France and the USA, as well as a strong 1-2 class result in Germany. In the TCR category, the Audi RS 3 LMS was again on top in Canada and took an additional win in TCR Spain.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Another victory and the championship lead: Having already scored two race wins in the International GT Open this year, the Eastalent Racing team again had reason to celebrate in Le Castellet. At the fifth race weekend of the season, Simon Reicher started the first heat from tenth on the grid in sunny conditions on Saturday afternoon. Reicher pitted from ninth place and handed over to teammate Christopher Haase, who proceeded to put in a hard charge. Haase moved up to fourth by the time that the front-runners had completed their pit stops, less than 10 seconds behind the leader. From here, Haase passed the competitors ahead of him and took the lead on the penultimate lap to clinch victory for the team in France. One day later, Haase and Reicher were back on the podium after finishing runner-up in a wet race. These strong results saw the Austrian-German duo taking the lead in the drivers’ standings. In neighboring Germany, Audi customers celebrated a 1-2 Gold class victory in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS at Hockenheim, the third round of the Sprint Cup season. In the second race, Tresor Attempto Racing won the Gold Cup class with an Audi R8 LMS driven by Lorenzo Ferrari and Lorenzo Patrese, who finished ahead of Simon Gachet and Lucas Légeret from CSA Racing. In the overall standings, combining the sprint and endurance races, Audi customer team Saintéloc Racing continues to lead the teams’ standings of the Gold Cup, while its driver duo of Gilles Magnus and Paul Evrard also remain in front of the drivers’ classification in the class. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the GT3 model from Audi Sport customer racing added more silverware to the tally of the SKI Autosports team and its driver Johnny O’Connell. The American ace finished third in the opening race of the GT America Powered by AWS weekend at the Virginia International Raceway. In the second heat, O’Connell started from pole position and defended well to take his second victory of the year and now leads the SRO3 class drivers’ standings after 10 of 16 races. Rounding off the GT3 success this weekend was a podium result for Juta Racing in the team’s home country of Lithuania. At the annual Aurum 1006 km race in Palanga, the outfit finished runner-up overall after eight hours of racing on the fast and tight street circuit. The Juta Racing driver trio of Justas Jonušis, Simas Juodviršis and Eimantas Navikauskas competed under the banner of the Circle K miles Plus Racing Team.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Two class wins on the streets of Toronto: Audi customers celebrated two convincing TCR class victories with the Audi RS 3LMS during the third outing of the Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin (SCCC) racing series. In the first heat, Richard Boake from Blanchet Motorsports led an Audi 1-2 result by taking his third TCR class win of the season, finishing ahead of Martella Motorsport’s Anthony Martella. One day later, 15-year-old Martella clinched his first class win of the year, leading an Audi-TCR-class-podium clean sweep. Boake took the runner-up spot and Ron Tomlinson from Tomlinson Motorsports finished third. The Audi RS 3 LMS has scored 14 of the available 18 podium results in the SCCC so far this year and Boake has retaken the lead in the TCR drivers’ standings with two race weekends remaining. In Europe, the second round of TCR Spain took place at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, where Filippo Barberi from Aikoa Racing was triumphant with an Audi RS 3 LMS in the second heat on Sunday. After 15 laps of racing, the Italian won with an advantage of over 3 seconds. In the Aurum 1006 km race in Lithuania, the DMK Racing Team by Eurolint took third place in their class with an Audi RS 3 LMS driven by Gediminas Bilinskas, Antti Jartsev, Marius Kemešys and Nerijus Malaševičius.
Coming up next week
26–27/07 East London (ZA), round 6, Extreme Supercars Driven by Dunlop
26–28/07 Nürburgring (D), round 3, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup
27–28/07 Autopolis (J), round 3, Super Taikyu Series
