Grégory Guilvert/Christophe Hamon in the Audi R8 LMS GT4 Pro-Am winners of the GT4 European Series
Dean Baker conquers the Canadian SCCC in the Audi RS 3 LMS
Victory for Ricardo Feller/Mattia Drudi in GT World Challenge Europe
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Three privateer drivers celebrated international title successes with Audi Sport customer racing products on the first weekend in September. A one-two and two further podium finishes in the GT World Challenge Europe rounded off an impressive race weekend.
Audi R8 LMS GT4 Early title decision: After 2018 and 2021, an Audi Sport customer racing team won the Pro-Am title in the GT4 European Series powered by Rafa Racing Club for the third time. Grégory Guilvert/Christophe Hamon clinched second place in their class in the first race at Hockenheim in the Audi R8 LMS GT4. In the second race they finished in third place. Thus, the two Frenchmen collected enough points to win the classification of professionals and amateurs before the finale at Barcelona after a total of five season victories and three further podium finishes. Guilvert and the Saintéloc Junior Team are thus continuing a great streak: they had already won the French GT4 racing series together in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and also the GT4 European Series in 2021. Christophe Hamon, for his part, has managed a successful career with Audi after winning the amateur classification in France and at European level in 2021 and the amateur class of the French series again last year. Now he was also successful in the first year of his driver partnership with Grégory Guilvert. In the second race at Hockenheim, Team Speedcar with Robert Consani/Benjamin Lariche also recorded second place overall in another Audi R8 LMS GT4. Two second places in the Netherlands: Jürgen Hemker took two second places in the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy on the fifth race weekend. The German achieved both results at the wheel of his Audi R8 LMS GT4 from Team Konrad Motorsport on the Assen circuit in two races lasting 40 minutes each. |
| Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Fourth title in a row in Canada: The Audi RS 3 LMS remains the benchmark in Canadian touring car racing. For the fourth time in a row, a privateer driver with the four rings has celebrated an official TCR title in the country. After Zachary Vanier in 2020 in the Canadian Touring Car Championship and Travis Hill in 2021 and Jerimy Daniel in 2022, both in the Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin, Dean Baker was now the most successful participant in this championship. On his way to the title, the Canadian celebrated four victories this year with the Baker Racing team, including two at the season finale in Mosport. In the first race at the finale, Richard Boake of Blanchet Motorsports prevailed over Dean Baker and Ron Tomlinson of TWOth Autosport in the TCR classification. All three relied on an Audi RS 3 LMS. The second race was won by Baker ahead of Justin Di Benedetto of Di Benedetto Racing, while third place went to Richard Boake. Once again, there were thus three Audi drivers on the TCR podium. Baker eventually also won the third race, which ended under Full Course Yellow after several accidents. Boake finished second in this event ahead of Audi brand colleague Ron Tomlinson. Three Audi drivers also dominated the championship in the end: Baker won the title with a 61-point advantage over Boake, with Justin Di Benedetto following another 67 points behind. For the Audi RS 3 LMS, it was already the 30th drivers title worldwide since the 2017 season. Two podium results in Assen: Max Gruhn returns from the fifth round of the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy with two trophies. The privateer won his classification in the Audi RS 3 LMS in the first race at Assen ahead of Desiree Müller and Victoria Froß. In the second race, he finished in third place. Success in Indonesia: At the Sentul Indonesia Autosport Festival, a private Audi driver clinched overall victory. Glenn Nirwan prevailed against 26 other contenders with the BRM Motorsport team in the Audi RS 3 LMS. His advantage on the Sentul circuit was 10.8 seconds after twelve laps. Audi R8 LMS GT3 Exciting situation in the standings after second victory of the season: The two Audi Sport drivers Mattia Drudi and Ricardo Feller experienced a strong third race weekend in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup. Feller had started the first race at Hockenheim in the Tresor Orange1 Audi R8 LMS from second place. One lap before his pit stop, the Swiss overtook the Lamborghini of Jordan Pepper and handed his Audi over to teammate Mattia Drudi. However, after a very quick pit stop by the Comtoyou Racing team, another Audi was in the lead after the stops – the number 12 of Nicolas Baert, who shares the cockpit with Audi Sport driver Frédéric Vervisch. Drudi quickly closed in on the leading Audi and took the lead with fifteen minutes to go. As a result, Drudi/Feller ultimately won by 6.6 seconds ahead of Baert/Vervisch. For the Italian-Swiss driver duo, it was already the second victory after the opening win at Brands Hatch. Drudi then secured pole position for the second sprint with an 87-thousandths of a second advantage over Audi Sport driver colleague Patric Niederhauser, who was driving an Audi R8 LMS fielded by the Saintéloc Junior Team. However, after a five-second penalty for a jump start, Drudi/Feller dropped back to fourth place in the race. Comtoyou Racing, meanwhile, acted tactically smart with an early pit stop. That’s why Lucas Légeret in the Audi R8 LMS with Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase, who started from sixth place, and improved to second place in the end. One position behind followed Patric Niederhauser with privateer Erwan Bastard who clinched his first podium result. Drudi/Feller are now second in the Sprint Cup standings after three of five rounds of the season, 9.5 points behind the Mercedes driver duo Timur Boguslavskiy/Raffaele Marciello. Coming up next week 08–09/09 Ruapuna (NZ), round 3, New Zealand Endurance Championship |
