Audi S4 quattros ready for Killarney racing action‏

Press Release from Audi South Africa

THE Audi S4 quattros sprang into action this season – which got the 2012 season off to an exciting start at Zwartkops Raceway. Michael Stephen (A1 – Engen Xtreme / Southern Sun) got into the swing of things from the outset by posting the fastest qualifying time for the Bridgestone Production Cars.

In the process Stephen claimed three bonus points – the highest number available for any one qualifying position. This helped put Stephen at the head of the Audi S4 quattro field of three of these thoroughbred race cars in competition in the WesBank Super Series.

With Stephen leading the trio, he is followed by his teammate Tschops Sipuka (A2 – Engen Xtreme / Southern Sun) and the Audi S4 quattro of Melvill Priest (A7 – Mueller Sport Medicine). The three Audi S4 quattros hold positions four, five and six of class A of the Bridgestone Production Car championship.

Priest joined the Audi marque from the start of this season and has some work to do yet to make his brand new Audi S4 quattro perform on par with the rest of the field. The first outing was still good enough to place him in the top two-thirds of the field.

Round two at Killarney will see the return of Johan Fourie (A9 - IndyOil / EPS) to the field. Fourie did not compete at the opening event of the season as he had still not finalised his sponsor for the year. With this resolved, he will make it to round two – and compete in front of his home crowd.

With Fourie's Audi S4 quattro added to the mix, a quartet of thundering thoroughbred power will thrill the Cape Town crowd and the second round of the WesBank Super Series is sure to be a spectacular event.

Audi South Africa

Photos hosted at www.motorpics.co.za

More information:

Audi South Africa

Audi Motorsport in South Africa FB page

Unofficial Audi Sport FB page

Bridgestone Production Cars Website

Bridgestone Production Cars FB page

Michael Stephen - Audi S4 (Terry Moss Racing)

Tschops Sipuka - Audi S4 (Terry Moss Racing)

Melvil Priest - Audi S4 (VMP Motorsport)

Johan Fourie - Audi S4 (Johan Fourie Racing)

  

Nieyaaz Modack - Audi A4 (Private ex-Johan Fourie Racing A4)

"24 Hours of Audi" : Shakedown great coverage to Audi tests at Sebring

By Tarek Ramchani

Audi won the 60th 12 Hours of Sebring, a great 1-2 victory with the "old" Audi R18 TDI. Right after the endurance classic, Audi Sport Team Joest spent some times testing their new weapons. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the Audi R18 ultra. New LMP1 challengers for both Le Mans 24 Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Shakedown was there too, and they did a great coverage for these private Audi tests. including interviews with Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich head of Audi Motorsport. Allan McNish the 2012 Sebring 12 hour overall winner and Ulrich Baretsky  head of engine development at Audi Sport. A brilliant report worth to watch, waiting the two cars debut at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, round 2 of WEC.

Audi R8 LMS ultra All Over the World

By Johan Laubscher

Audi fans are all very excited to see the launch of the latest GT3 specification race car from the four rings. The original Audi GT3 spec car was the Audi R8 LMS which was shown to the public in late 2008 with much anticipation for the car’s debut. The cars debuted in 2009 and did not disappoint by immediately taking race wins and various titles. Since its introduction the R8 LMS has quickly become one of the most successful GT3 cars, if not the most successful.

For 2012 Audi has introduced the Audi R8 LMS ultra. The latest version of the R8 race car model range which is internally known by the “R16” project code. The car is an evolution of the R8 LMS with many new features such as the improved aerodynamics, more carbon parts and a new cooling system layout. Some of the new designs on the car did not make it past the homologation process such as the new rear diffuser and the DTM styled vents on the front bonnet, but these aside the car is fast.

These cars are sold to private customer teams and hence they are available to buy to anyone/team who want to purchase the car. The ultra is even listed on Audi’s German website (www.audi.de) amongst the other available road going R8 models. The car will set you back a cool 392.581 Euros… That is a lot of money but then again it is a lot of car, an exceptional car.

Deliveries of the new R8 LMS ultra car have started with the teams needing the cars first due to season commitments receiving their cars first. As a fan following the development of the project it almost seems like new ultras are appearing all over the world all the time. It is said that Audi Sport Customer Racing will deliver over 20 of these new cars during the start of this year to customer teams all over the world. The first two cars were delivered to two German teams: Mamerow Racing and Prosperia UHC Speed. UHC has since received its second R8 LMS ultra. Two Japanese teams have also acquired R8 LMS ultras in the form of the GAINER and äpr racing (not the same as APR Motorsport in North America).

Other ultras have also been seen testing in both the Blancpain Endurance Series and German VLN Endurance series test days this past week, both times the cars were in a silver livery with quattro GmbH logos. The Belgium W Racing Team have recently launched their 2012 program and tested their two brand new ultra cars at Zolder. See news abut the WRT tests at Zolder here: WRT testing at Zolder

Yet another ultra appeared this weekend in Malaysia, run by Team Hong Kong Racing (Absolute Racing) in the MSS support races for the Malaysian Grand Prix. These are all the ultras that have been seen to date but more will be seen very soon. It is almost like a wait and see game for Audi fans anxiously waiting to see the next ultra appear.

The R8 LMS ultra looks like an extremely potent race car and will defiantly be a force to be reckoned with in GT3 racing across the globe. If it came down to a beauty contest, the R8 LMS ultra would win hands down, one of the best looking race cars out there. It looks fast standing still.

Team Nova Driver perfect start of the season in Portugal with Audi

By Tarek Ramchani

The 2012 Portuguese GT Championship started this weekend at the Braga circuit. Team Nova Driver entered its successful Audi R8 LMS this weekend and achieved great results by winning both races.

The team's star and regular driver César Campaniço shared the #15 Audi R8 LMS with Carlos Vieira. The duo had two really exiting races, battling with other top GT3 rivals from AMG Mercedes-Benz and Lamborghini.

In Race 1 the Audi started last and finished in second overall after many great battles on the track and a great stint from César Campaniço. However the race winning Lamborghini Gallardo received a penalty after the race for pit stop infringements. The penalty dropped the Lamborghini to third place thus making the Audi victorious in race 1.

In Race 2 Team Nova Driver's car again started from the last position. Yet again a fantastic drive from both César Campaniço and Carlos Vieira with great fights against the #1 AMG SLS and the #4 Gallardo. Brilliant driving stints were enough to give the team its second victory of the weekend. It was the perfect start to the season and already the championship points lead as well.

Next round of the Portuguese GT Championship is set for April 14th and 15th at Estoril. Fingers crossed for more strong performances fromTeam Nova Driver.

Race Results

Race 1:

1 César Campaniço/Carlos Vieira - Audi R8 LMS

2 José Pedro Fontes/Miguel Barbosa - Mercedes SLS

3 Patrick Cunha/José Ramos - Lamborghini Gallardo

4 Pépé/Jorge Queiroz - Lamborghini Gallardo 

5 António Nogueira - Porsche GT2

6 António Cabral/José Carbral - Porsche GT3

Race 2:

1  César Campaniço/Carlos Vieira - Audi R8 LMS

2 José Pedro Fontes/Miguel Barbosa - Mercedes SLS

3 Patrick Cunha/José Ramos - Lamborghini Gallardo

4 Miguel Ferreira/Francisco Carvalho - Aston Martin

5 António Cabral/José Carbral - Porsche GT3

6 Paulo Moreno/Paulo Moleiro - Porsche 997 

More Information:

Team Nova Driver official Facebook

Photo Credits : Team Nova Driver 

Best of Berzerkdesign.de about Audi Race Cars

Our friends at Berserkdesign.de have done great art works and 3d style renders about Audi races cars.

More Information:

Berzerkdesign.de official website

Berzerkdesign.de official Facebook

2012 Audi R18 e-tron quattro - Audi Sport Team Joest

2012 Audi R8 LMS - #2 Phoenix Racing "Spider" - Bathurst 12 Hours

2012 Audi R8 LMS - #1 Phoenix Racing "Kangaroo" - Bathurst 12 Hours

2012 Audi R8 LMS - #98 JB Motorsport - Blancpain Endurance Series

2011 Audi A4 DTM - #14 Audi Sport Team Phoenix - Martin Tomczyk

2011 Audi A4 DTM - #15 Audi Sport Team Phoenix - Rahel Frey

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #27 Phoenix Racing - VLN Endurance Series 

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #28 Phoenix Racing - VLN Endurance Series

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #99 Audi Sport Team Phoenix - Spa 24 Hours

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #98 Audi Sport Team Phoenix - Spa 24 Hours

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #8 Phoenix Racing - ADAC GT Masters

2011 Audi R8 LMS - #7 Phoenix Racing - ADAC GT Masters

2010 Audi R8 LMS - #99 Phoenix Racing - VLN Endurance Series

2010 Audi R8 LMS - #117 Phoenix Racing - Spa 24 Hours

2009 Audi R8 LMS - #27 Phoenix Racing - FIA GT3 European Championship

2009 Audi R8 LMS - #26 Phoenix Racing - FIA GT3 European Championship

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich talks to AudiWorld.com about Audi new R18 e-tron quattro an R18 Ultra

AudiWorld.com interviewd Dr. Worlfgang Ullrich at Sebring. The head of Audi Motorsport talking about new technologies and the brand new challengers for Le Mans and FIA World Endurance Championship, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the Audi R18 ultra. Have a look.

Hitotsuyama Racing Ready for 2012 Super GT with Audi

By Tarek Ramchani

The Japanese Super GT series 2012 season will start next weekend at Okayama. Audi is joining the series for the first time with no less than four Audi R8 LMS. Two cars will be fielded by the Hitotsuyama Racing team.

Hitotsuyama Racing is no stranger to the Audi R8 LMS. In 2011 the team competed in both the GT Asia series and the Japanese based Super Taikyu endurance Series. They took a win at Suzuka in GT Asia. For 2012 the team is moving from a one car effort to two cars, and moving to the world famous and demanding Japanese Super GT series.

The team's two cars will have a four driver line-up :

#20 RacerBook Audi R8 LMS shared by Michael Kim and Hideki Noda

#21 ZENT Audi R8 LMS shared by Swiss female Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki

Super GT is divided into two classes, GT500 and GT300. The Audi cars will enter the GT300 class. since last year the GT300 class has been open to FIA based GT3 Spec cars. Audi and team Hitotsuyama joining the series is a great addition to an already world class field. A mix between Japanese exotic cars from Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and European GTs from BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Audi. At last week’s official Super GT Test days at Okayama the Audi cars were immediately fast. Hitotsuyama's #21 ZENT R8 LMS of Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki took a great fifth overall in the class. A stunning performance for the debut, with three Audi cars in the top 10. We all hope that will be the case for the race weekends, looking forward to the R8 LMS’s first ever win in the very fought GT300 class.

Hitotsuyama Racing took part earlier this week at the Audi Japan press conference. The two cars showed up with their brand new liveries. Two other teams racing the R8 LMS in 2012 are äpr racing and GAINER. The äpr racing team (not APR Motorsport from America) was also present at the press conference along with a brand new white Audi R8 GT Spyder.

More information:

Hitotsuyama Racing official website

Hitotsuyama Racing official Facebook

Photos hosted at official Facebook page of Hitotsuyama Racing 

#21 ZENT Audi R8 LMS of Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki

#20 Racerbook Audi R8 LMS of Michael Kim and Hideki Noda