Victories and Title Successes for the Audi R8 LMS in Asia

8 Nov 2021

source: Audi AG

Audi customer team Hitotsuyama celebrates class victory in Super GT
Successful weekend for Audi Sport customer racing: In addition to Ricardo Feller and Christopher Mies winning the International German GT Championship in the ADAC GT Masters, Audi customer teams also celebrated further victories and titles in various race series in Asia.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Victory in Super GT: The long-time Audi customer team Hitotsuyama Racing celebrated the first victory of the year for the Audi R8 LMS in the GT300 category with the driver pairing of Shintaro Kawabata and Takuro Shinohara at the seventh and penultimate round of Super GT season at Motegi. In the almost two-hour race, the team’s tactic of only swapping the rear wheels at the mandatory pit stop saved time, which proved to be the decisive factor for the race in the end. With 28 GT sports cars from twelve manufacturers, the GT300 class of the Super GT is the most fiercely contested series in Asia, in which the Audi R8 LMS is competing. Shintaro Kawabata had already scored a season victory for Hitotsuyama last year. His teammate Takuro Shinohara, last year’s TCR Japan champion with Audi, celebrated his first success in Super GT.

Title in China: Chen Weian won the drivers’ title in the China Endurance Championship. Together with his teammate Cheng Congfu, he started from pole position in the #10 Audi R8 LMS from the Audi Sport Asia Absolute team at the season finale in Shanghai. After 53 race laps, the duo had to admit defeat in the battle for victory by just 2.019 seconds. However, the points for the podium finish were enough for Chen Weian to win the China Endurance Championship drivers’ title.

Podium finish and Am title: Riokonig drove Team X Works’ Audi R8 LMS to third overall in the first race of the GT Super Sprint Challenge in Shanghai. In the second heat, he scored his second podium success of the race weekend by finishing runner-up. The Audi customer team Absolute Racing also had reason to celebrate: After a successful season, Jiang Jiawei won the title in the Am classification of the GT Super Sprint Challenge with the Audi R8 LMS. Third place in the Am classification went to Cao Qi, who drove an Audi R8 LMS for the Project Racing by Champ Motorsport team.

Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)

1-2-3-4-5 success and title at Shanghai: The season’s finale of the China Endurance Championship was extremely successful for Audi Sport’s customer teams in the TCE class. At the fourth and final round of the season in Shanghai, three different Audi customer teams finished in the top five positions in the TCE class with their Audi RS 3 LMS. The MKK Racing Team celebrated a one-two after two and a half hours with drivers Jason Lin/Zheng Wancheng/Lin Zhijie/Allen Lo ahead of their teammates Mi Qi/Zheng Wancheng/Chang Chienshang, who secured the drivers’ title in the TCE class. The third and fourth places went to the 326 Racing Team, the squad ending the season with the title in the TCE teams’ championship. Anstone Racing rounded off the success of the Audi customer teams with fifth place in the race.

Title win in New Zealand: At the fourth round of the South Island Endurance Series, the Track Tec Racing team secured a podium result. Gentleman driver Dennis Chapman finished second in the Audi RS 3 LMS in the one-hour race at Ruapuna and ended the season by winning the title in the A&B class of the South Island Endurance Series one-hour classification.

Podium finishes in Italy: At the penultimate race weekend of the WTCR – FIA Touring Car World Cup at Adria Raceway, Tom Coronel secured his second podium finish of the current season in the Audi RS 3 LMS fielded by Audi customer team Comtoyou DHL Audi Sport. The Dutchman started the race from the second row of the reversed grid after having qualified in eighth. In the race, he moved up to second place with four laps to go. In the second race, Audi Sport driver Frédéric Vervisch finished second in the Comtoyou Audi RS 3 LMS and thus moved up to second place in the standings. At the same time, Vervisch won the TAG Heuer Best Lap Trophy for the fastest lap time of the weekend. Before the season finale in Russia with two more races, 36 points separate Vervisch from the championship lead. Gilles Magnus also has good prospects of winning a title: The Belgian junior driver finished third overall in the second race, celebrated two more victories in the Junior classification in Italy and travels to the finale with an 18-point lead in the standings. At the same time, Magnus is in first place in the Trophy for privateer drivers ahead of his teammate Tom Coronel.

Audi R8 LMS GT4

Title in China: Hu Bo ended his first season in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 by winning the GT Super Sprint Challenge’s GT4 category. At the fifth and final race weekend of the series in Shanghai, Bo drove from second on the grid to finish runner-up in the GT4 category in the first race in the sports car fielded by Audi customer team Absolute Racing. In the final standings, Hu Bo, who had scored four individual class victories in the current season, secured the GT4 drivers’ title with a lead of 36 points. He also leads the Audi Sport Asia Trophy with a total of 3,458 points.

Class victory and title in the USA: The Audi R8 LMS GT4 scored a class victory in the Trans Am Series in the USA. At the season finale at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Natalie Decker finished first in the SGT class for the N29 Technologies team. Decker also won the SGT ProAm Challenge title.