Victories for Tresor Audi Sport Italia and Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute
CSA Racing maintains big lead in the GT4 France standings
Three victories for the Audi RS 3 LMS in European club racing
Audi’s customer teams collected trophies worldwide on the penultimate weekend in August and maintained excellent positions in the standings in numerous racing series. In Italy, Team Tresor Audi Sport Italia took the overall lead following its first victory of the season with the Audi R8 LMS GT3.
In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, the GT3 sports car recorded its third victory of the season. Further trophies in Australia and Europe rounded off the good results of the race weekend. European driver teams also returned with trophies in the GT2 and GT4 versions of the sports car. The Audi RS 3 LMS contributed to a convincing weekend for Audi Sport customer racing with a total of seven podium results.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Strong performance for the Audi R8 LMS: Team Tresor Audi Sport Italia realized its best race weekend of the season so far in the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo Sprint with two Audi R8 LMS cars. After a race to catch up in the first contest at Mugello, the private Audi team scored its first win of the season in the second sprint.
Andrea Cola/Leonardo Moncini improved from seventh on the grid to second position in the first race. Rocco Mazzola/Pietro Delli Guanti in another Audi R8 LMS overtook as many as seven opponents from tenth on the grid and celebrated in third place on the podium together with their teammates. In Sunday’s race, Pietro Delli Guanti was in second place behind BMW driver Max Hesse until the driver change.
After the driver change, Rocco Mazzola took the lead and was able to fend off all attacks from Hesse’s teammate Jens Klingmann. This gave Tresor Audi Sport Italia its first win of the season by 0.353 seconds. Delli Guanti/Mazzola lead the standings by one point ahead of the finale.
In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, the Audi R8 LMS prevailed for the third time this season. On the Okayama circuit in Japan, Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute celebrated overall victory and a class win in the first race.
James Yu Kuai from China had started from pole position and successfully defended first place. His teammate Akash Nandy from Malaysia, who took over the car after the pit stop, built up a lead of four tenths of a second over his Porsche rivals by the finish. It was the first victory for this driver combination.
Chinese driver Huang Ruohan and teammate Markus Winkelhock crossed the finish line in third place overall as the best Pro-Am team. The German showed strong fights in the second half of the race and was only 0.275 seconds behind the Porsche at the end. In the second race on a wet track, Cheng Congfu and Adderly Fong won the Silver classification in the Audi of the FAW Audi Sport Asia Racing Team.
As a result, they took the lead in the Silver Cup standings with a ten-point advantage and also lead the China Cup standings by four points. In the Audi Sport Asia Trophy for private drivers, Huang Ruohan leads by a large margin. The drivers of several Audi customer teams also finished on the podium in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS. At the fourth round of the Sprint Cup at Magny-Cours, the Audi R8 LMS took the first four places in the Gold Cup in the first race and recorded a one-two-three in this class in the second race.
On Saturday, Lorenzo Ferrari/Lorenzo Patrese from Tresor Attempto Racing came out on top by three tenths ahead of Simon Gachet/Lucas Légeret from CSA Racing, followed by Luca Engstler/Max Hofer from Liqui Moly Team Engstler by OneGroup and Paul Evrard/Gilles Magnus from Saintéloc Racing. On Sunday, the Gold Cup victory went to Patrese/Ferrari ahead of Légeret/Gachet and Evrard/Magnus.
Ahead of the finale in Barcelona in October, Engstler/Hofer lead the Gold Cup sprint table by 3.5 points ahead of Evrard/Magnus, with Gachet/Légeret 1.5 points behind and Ferrari/Patrese in fourth place. The BRM/ACM Finance team was the best private Audi team at the fifth round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS.
The Pro-Am driver pairing of Alex Peroni/Mark Rosser secured second place in the Audi R8 LMS in the first race in Phillip Island. The amateur classification also went to an Audi customer team: Valmont Racing/Tigani Motorsport won the class with Marcel Zalloua/Sergio Pires. The best Audi privateers in the Pro-Am standings remain Will Brown/Brad Schumacher from Team Shaw&Partners/Kelso Electrical in second place.
In the Central European Eset Cup Series, an Audi privateer achieved a podium result at the Slovakiaring. The Czech Martin Hudec from Team Duck Racing was the third-best participant in the GT3 category in the Audi R8 LMS ultra in the first race.
Audi R8 LMS GT2
Podium result in Zolder: Team PK Carsport finished on the podium at the fourth round of the Belcar Endurance Championship. The Belgian team had started the 24-hour race from pole position with the Audi R8 LMS GT2, but had bad luck with the strategy at the beginning with various safety car phases.
They dropped back to eleventh place after the first hour. With the weather changing, the team did not always make the right tire choice. Nevertheless, the team led by Anthony Kumpen was never discouraged and improved to third place with the driver quintet of Sam Dejonghe/Peter Guelinckx/Bert Longin/Stienes Longin/Arnold Neveling.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
Podium result and championship lead in France: Audi customer team CSA Racing returned from the fourth GT4 France race weekend with a trophy. After Gaël Castelli/Rodolphe Wallgren saw the checkered flag first in the second race at Magny-Cours, they subsequently received a five-second penalty for exceeding the track limits and dropped back to third place. However, the two Frenchmen in their Audi R8 LMS GT4 continue to lead the Pro-Am drivers standings by a large margin. With two events still to go, they are 44 points ahead of Alpine drivers Gaspard Simon/Pascal Huteau.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Podium results in European club racing: Team Clairet Sport celebrated two victories in the French TC France racing series. On the fourth race weekend in Magny-Cours, Sébastien Thome won the TCR classification in the Audi RS 3 LMS in the first and third races with a lead of 1.7 seconds in each case. Third place in the second and fourth sprint meant two more trophies for team and driver.
An Audi RS 3 LMS also prevailed in the DMV SuperTouring & GT Cup on the fourth race weekend. Dario Stanco won his class at the Lausitzring in the second sprint after finishing second the day before. Team VP-Racing continued its series of good results at the fourth round of the Belcar Endurance Championship. After a second place and two victories
in its class at the first three events, the Audi private team now finished the Zolder 24 Hours as the second-best touring car team. Olivier Bertels/Maxim Van Den Hove/Nick van Pelt/Alec Verbergt/Nygel Verhaeren took turns at the wheel of the Audi RS 3 LMS.
Coming up next week
30/08–01/09 Spa (B), round 4, ADAC GT Masters
30/08–01/09 Spa (B), round 4, GTC Race
30/08–01/09 Spa (B), round 4, Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy
30–31/08 Monteblanco (E), round 4, Campeonato de España GT
01–02/09 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CDN), round 5, Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin
