Audi Customers Win Titles in Asia and Eastern Europe

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Silver Cup title in Asia: Phantom Pro Racing already had reason to celebrate at the penultimate round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS. The Chinese Audi customer team with Ling Kang and Audi Sport Asia junior Cao Qi not only won the Silver Cup class in both races on the Okayama circuit in Japan, but also the title in this classification before the finale. In total, the Chinese driver pairing in the Audi R8 LMS was unbeatable in their class five times over the course of ten races, in addition to four second places. In the Audi Sport Asia Trophy for privateer drivers, Andrew Haryanto from Indonesia further extended his lead, with Sun Jingzu from China as the new runner-up.

Title success in the Eset Cup: Filip Salaquarda won the Eastern European Eset Cup race series early with the Audi R8 LMS on the fifth of six race weekends. Second place in the GT3 classification in the first race at the Slovakiaring was enough for the Czech to decide the championship in his favor. Over the course of the season, the 39-year-old racer had clinched seven victories and two second places for the longstanding Audi customer team I.S.R. Racing from Prague. The Eset Cup sports and touring car series is international in scope with races in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. Audi customer teams have already won this most important Central and Eastern European race series with the Audi R8 LMS in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Two podium results in the DTM: Team ABT Sportsline impressed with strong performances in two races at a hot Lausitzring weekend. In the first race, Kelvin van der Linde in the Audi R8 LMS clinched his first podium result of the season in third place. In the second race, Ricardo Feller, who started in second place, also finished second. The Swiss put pressure on eventual winner Mirko Bortolotti until the very end, but in the end he was 0.353 seconds short of victory. After five of eight events, Feller and Team ABT Sportsline have each improved by one position to third in the overall driver and team standings.

Three successes in the Baltic area: At the Pärnu Summer Race in Estonia, the Audi R8 LMS was the measure of all things. The first sprint of the BaTCC race series was won by Lithuanian Jonas Karklys for Juta Racing, third place went to his compatriot and teammate Aurimas Jablonskis in another Audi R8 LMS. In the second sprint, Karklys finished half a second ahead of Jablonskis. In the four-hour endurance race, Juta Racing clinched its third victory of the weekend. The cockpit was shared by Jonas Gelzinis/Andrius Jasionauskas/Karolis Jovaiša/Arminas Kundrotavičius.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Third victory of the season in Denmark: For the third time, a driver of an Audi RS 3 LMS prevailed in TCR Denmark this season. In the fifth event, Mike Halder won the second race at the Jyllandsringen after starting from second place. In the course of 14 race laps, he built up an advantage of almost six seconds. With two events still to go, Halder remains third in the standings. He is six points behind the runner-up. The Audi privateer trails leader of the standings Jan Magnussen by only seven points.

Trophy in Danish endurance racing: Stefan Lorenzen and Christian Hansen enjoyed a good second race on the third race weekend of the Danish Endurance Championship. They clinched second place in their class in the Audi RS 3 LMS fielded by the Dan Agro Racing team in the second 50-minute race.

Podium in Uruguay: At the first start of the TCR World Tour in South America, Audi Sport driver Frédéric Vervisch recorded a podium finish. The Belgian from Audi Sport Team Comtoyou had started the first race on the El Pinar circuit in fifth place. Already at the beginning, the 37-year-old professional made up two positions. In the course of the 20 race laps, Vervisch defended third place in the Audi RS 3 LMS against Nestor Girolami. In the end, the Audi driver crossed the finish line in third place with a four-tenths of a second advantage over his pursuer.

Podium result in Great Britain: The Rob Boston Racing team returned from the fifth round of the TCR UK with a trophy. At the Silverstone circuit, Joe Marshall finished third in the Audi RS 3 LMS in the first sprint.

Class victory in endurance race: Artur Rowinski won the TC-3500 category in the fifth round of the Eset Endurance Cup at the Slovakiaring. The Pole drove the Audi RS 3 LMS to an advantage of more than two minutes over the course of 26 race laps.

Podium results in the Baltic States: Tomas Urbonavičius was on the podium twice at the fourth round of the Baltic Touring Car Championship. The Lithuanian scored second place in the TCR category in both sprints at Pärnu in his Audi RS 3 LMS. In the endurance race, the LV Racing team with Ivars Vallers/Martins Lapins finished second in its class in the Audi RS 3 LMS ahead of the acitool.com by DMK Racing team with Marius Kemešys/Tomas Urbanavičius.

Masanobu Kato again best Audi driver: Japanese Audi driver Masanobu Kato was again the best of three drivers of an RS 3 LMS at the third round of the TCR Japan. In the first sprint race at Motegi, he finished in third place. In the second race, he was pleased with second position for Audi Team Mars after a duel with a Honda driver. In the two separate standings for the races on Saturday and Sunday, Kato is now second in each classification.

Coming up next week

25–27/08 Sepang (MAL), round 3, Thailand Super Series
25–27/08 Virginia (USA), round 9, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge
25–27/08 Aragón (E), round 4, Le Mans Cup
26–27/08 San Luis (RA), round 6, TCR World Tour
26–27/08 San Luis (RA), round 7, TCR South America
26–27/08 Suzuka (J), round 5, Super GT
26–27/08 Zolder (B), round 3, Belcar Endurance Championship