Eastalent Racing and Comtoyou Racing Win Europe-Wide Race Series with Audi Sport

source: Audi Sport

Title successes for Simon Reicher, Christopher Haase and Tom Coronel
Victories for the Audi R8 LMS in South Africa and Japan
Audi RS 3 LMS wins races in Europe and Indonesia

Barcelona was the scene of exciting title decisions in two pan-European racing series, in each of which Audi customer teams and their drivers took the titles. In GT3 racing, this was achieved by Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase in the International GT Open. In touring car racing, Dutch veteran Tom Coronel prevailed in TCR Europe.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Sensation in Spain: With privateer Simon Reicher and Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase, an Audi driver team won the International GT Open for the first time at Barcelona. With a 14-point deficit and fourth place in the standings, the conditions were unfavorable. In Saturday’s race in Barcelona, however, they clinched their first win of the season. Simon Reicher had started the race in eleventh place on the grid. After a chaotic start at the front, the 23-year-old Austrian had already moved up to fourth position on the first lap. After the driver change, Christopher Haase took the lead on lap 26 and won by 0.9 seconds. This put the two Audi drivers at the top of the standings with a one-point advantage. On Sunday, sixth place was enough for them to finish the season level on points with Mercedes-AMG driver Diego Menchaca. The deciding factor was the better individual results of the season – Haase/Reicher had four second places under their belts compared to their rival’s three second places with one win for each team. The Audi customer team Eastalent Racing from Austria also won the team classification. Marcín Jedlinski/Karol Basz finished second in the Pro-Am final classification in an Audi fielded by Olimp Racing.

Season finale in the top three: With 29 drivers and 14 teams in the 2023 season, the DTM once again had a first-class line-up. In this tough environment, the private team ABT Sportsline once again secured results in the top field at the finale at Hockenheim with third place for Ricardo Feller in the Audi R8 LMS in the drivers standings and position three in the team standings. With two victories, five podium positions and two pole positions, the team from Kempten was the most successful of three Audi customer teams in the traditional racing series. Feller is the only driver in the field, apart from the new champion Thomas Preining from Porsche, to have scored points in each of the 16 races. Ricardo Feller had also kept the title decision open until the finale.

Victory in South Africa: Michael Stephen continued his winning streak with the Audi R8 LMS in the South African GT Championship. The privateer clinched his sixth victory of the season on the Zwartkops circuit at the fourth event. After one hour of racing, Stephen won with a one-lap advantage.

Audi R8 LMS GT4

First success of the season in Japan: The Audi R8 LMS GT4 clinched its first victory of the season in the Japanese Super Taikyu Series in the ST-Z class. Team Techno First won this classification at the fifth event of the popular endurance racing series at Okayama. In autumnal and dry weather, tire wear was less than in previous races. The Audi driven by Masaki Kano, Riki Okusa and Hironobu Yasuda had started from pole position in its class for the first time. With the exception of the pit stop phases, the three Japanese drivers led their classification during the three hours of racing and in the end won by eight seconds.

Trophy in the Netherlands: Sophie Hofmann and Erik Bänecke achieved a podium result at the sixth round of the German DMV NES 500 club racing series. They crossed the finish line at Zandvoort in their Audi R8 LMS GT4 in third place in their class after three hours of racing.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

Tom Coronel is TCR Europe champion: In a thrilling TCR Europe finale at Barcelona, Tom Coronel in the Audi RS 3 LMS won the drivers classification ahead of four other Audi privateers. They are all his teammates, but this did not mean that the veteran from the Netherlands was given anything as a gift. On the contrary: Kobe Pauwels overtook Coronel, who had started from pole position, from second place on the grid in the first race and celebrated his sixth victory of the season with a margin of just nine tenths of a second. The Belgian thus moved to within eight points of championship leader Coronel. With Pauwels ahead of Coronel, John Filippi and Nicola Baldan, the Audi customer team Comtoyou Racing even managed a 1-2-3-4 victory in this race. In the second race, John Filippi crossed the finish line as the best Audi driver in second place. Tom Coronel, who started from tenth place on the grid, finished in fourth place to win the title. The Dutchman, who is already contesting his 34th motor racing season and has been a loyal Audi customer for many years, became the third driver of an Audi RS 3 LMS to win the TCR Europe. In 2020, Moroccan Mehdi Bennani had succeeded in doing so, and last year it was Argentinean Franco Girolami. All three drivers competed for Jean-Michel Baert’s Comtoyou Racing team. In addition to the first five positions in the drivers standings this year, the Belgian team also won the first two places in the team standings, the Rookies classification with Kobe Pauwels and the Diamond Trophy with Tom Coronel. The success of Tom Coronel, who is so popular with the fans, is already the 31st TCR title of a driver worldwide with an Audi RS 3 LMS.

Victory at the finale: An Audi RS 3 LMS won the final race of the TCR UK season at the seventh event. Jack Constable prevailed in the second sprint on the Brands Hatch circuit. The Briton from the Rob Boston Racing team was 0.6 seconds ahead after 20 laps.

One victory and three podium places in Indonesia: The Audi RS 3 LMS was again one of the touring cars to beat in the Indonesian Sentul Series of Motorsport. In the sixth round of the Euro Touring Car Championship, two Audi drivers fought a duel in the early stages. Glenn Nirwan from Team BRM Motorsport and Ferrel Fadhil from LFN Sederhana Motorsport overtook each other at Sentul before Nirwan pulled away and built up an eleven-second advantage. This made the first Audi one-two victory perfect. In the separate Indonesia Touring Car Race, Nirwan finished second ahead of Fadhil.