Weekend Round Up - Audi Motorsport Blog (6-7/10/2012)

By Johan Laubscher

1. The Weekend

Focussing this week on the weekend of 6 - 7 October 2012

2. The Events

•           Superstars
•           BTCC
•           Portuguese GT & IST
•           VIR Gold Cup
•           Midas Clubmans
•           Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy
•           Mickhausen Hillclimb
•           Killarney Sports & GT
•           Slovakia Amatér Rallye 

2.1. Superstars

After a long break the Italian Superstars Championship was back in action this weekend. It was round seven of the series, hosted at Vallelunga. All three of the regular Audi RS5 teams were at the event. Coming into the weekend the young Swede Johan Kristoffersson was lying second in the championship points, only trailing by nineteen points. The RS5 cars have been pulled back in recent months due to performance restrictions, but some of the air restrictor restrictions had been lifted before this weekend, allowing the cars more performance. The RS5 teams knew this track would be good for them, and they did not disappoint. Vallelunga is known to be harsh on tires and with quattro the RS5 cars were at the top of all the sessions. 1-2-3 in qualifying with Kristoffersson taking a pole to flag win in race one ahead of Thomas Schöffler for an Audi 1-2 finish. Race two saw the reverse grid which moved the Audis further back. Despite the starting position Johan moved through the competitors to take his second race win on the day which put him back into the championship lead. Thomas Schöffler finsihed in fourth followed by Gianni Morbidelli in fifth, who drove from a lower starting position. 

Audi Sport Italia FB page

Results

2.2. BTCC

Rob Austin Racing arrived at Silverstone with its two Audi A4 cars. Leading up to the event RAR again held the photo on-the-roof campaign to help raise funds for the team. It was the penultimate round of the BTCC season. Small issues held back the Audi A4s and the team qualified outside the top ten. Various drivers received penalties for exceeding track limits during qualifying and this unfortunately affected both Audi drivers, dropping them to lower starting positions. Race one was a superb showing from Rob Austin has he stormed from seventeenth to fifth place. Race two started fast for both Audis, Rob scored another sensational top five finish while Bratt was involved with a crash battling for the top ten. Rob had a blinding start in race three and was up to second place. Contact with the third placed car resulted in Rob dropping to nearly last place. He then began his recovery drive straight back into the top ten with ninth at the checkered flag.

Rob Austin Racing FB page

Results

2.3. Portuguese GT & Iberian Supercar Trophy

The penultimate round of the Portuguese GT Championship was held at Estoril. Cesar Campanico and Carlos Vieira from Team Novadriver arrived at the event with the championship lead, aiming to extend the lead for the title. This Portuguese GT event was also part of the Iberian Supercar Trophy (IST). The team got off to a good start by claiming pole position for race one followed by second position for race two. Race one did not go as planned with various problems, two stop-and-go penalties and another penalty resulted in fourth place for the team. Race two started much better for the team as they held good places until, minutes from the end, another stop-and-go dropped them to third. The team did recover from the penalty to finish the race in second place.  

Team Novadriver FB page

Results

2.4. VIR Gold Cup

The Virginia International Raceway hosted the annual Heacock Classic Gold Cup, also known as the VIR Gold Cup. It is a historics racing event. The Audi R8 (chassis #606) of Travis Engen was at the event. 

SascoSports FB page

Results

2.5. Midas Clubmans

The Midas Clubmans was once again held at its home circuit of Killarney in Cape Town, South Africa. One Audi was entered for this event. After losing an engine at the last meeting, Nieyaaz Modack was back in his ex-Johan Fourie Racing Audi A4. Modack qualified well and finished race one in third but he did not start race two.

BlackTopMedia.co.za website

Results

2.6. Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy

The finale of the Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy was held at the Nürburgring. Two Audi A3s and one TT took part at the event. The #1 Audi A3 of Rene Freisberg took victory in race one of the weekend ans second in race two.

Cup & Tourenwagen Trophy FB page

Results

2.7. Mickhausen Hillclimb

Mickhausen Bergrennen is one of the biggest hillclimb events in Germany. The entry list included various Audi cars, with four Audi 50 racers and the Prospeed Audi Sport quattro S1 replica from Bulgaria. Vláďa Vitver and his ABT-Audi TT-R were entered for Mickhausen but the unfortunate crash during testing two weeks ago sidelined the entry. Vláďa was luckily unharmed in the crash.

Prospeed Motorsport FB page

Results

2.8. Killarney Sports & GT

The Sports & GT category also took part at Killarney this weekend, alongside the Midas Clubmans. A white Audi R8 spaceframe race car has been developed privately for this championship. The development of the car continues but they had a good weekend. Paul Beachyhead completed the car’s first race finishes this weekend.

EManoek blog

Results

2.9. Slovakia Amatér Rallye

The Amatér Rallye Košický Klečenovwas held in Slovakia this weekend. The event was won by Jozefa Béreša in his Audi Sport quattro S1 replica.

AutoSportFoto.sk website

2.10. Other Audi News

An Audi R8 LMS ultra from Audi Sport customer racing was on display at the Sportlergala 2012 in Kulmbach. Christopher Hasse was one of the drivers who were also at the event.

Christopher Haase FB page

INR8 is a new sister website to Fourtitude, which covers all of the latest Audi R8 news. The crew from INR8 produced some interesting renders this week using press photos of the Audi R8 LMS ultra. The renders show the Audi R8 LMS ultra with the new facelifted Audi R8 parts. It allows us a glimpse of what a facelifted Audi R8 LMS ultra could look like. If we will ever see the facelift on the race cars remains to be seen. Our take on the story can be read HERE.

INR8 Audi R8 LMS ultra Facelift article

Exciting news emerged this week from the Arc Audi Racing Program (Istook’s Motorsport). With the racing season nearing its end the white Audi TT RS of Don Istook has another event on the calendar. They have been invited by Pirelli to participate in the grand opening of the new Circuit of the Americas Formula One track in Austin, to be held on 21 October 2012. It will be very exciting to see the TT RS putting down a few laps at this new race circuit.

Istook TT RS FB page

3. Next Weekend’s events (13-14/10/2012)

•           FIA WEC
•           Blancpain Endurance
•           Czech MMCR
•           DMV TCC
•           Spanish GT
•           Dutch Supercar
•           Kerrick Sports Sedans
•           Brazil GT

All photos are hosted at their respective website which are listed within the Weekend Round Up

Audi RS5 complete domination with double victories at Vallelunga

By Tarek Ramchani

This was a great weekend for Audi at Vallelunga. The German brand totally dominated the entire weekend. Pole position and double race wins.

Johan Kristoffersson was the true hero at the seventh round of the International Superstars Series. A great pole positon yesterday and two outstanding and undisputed race wins today. Most importantly Kristoffersson took the lead of the series point standings from rival Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Mercedes-Benz with two round to go.

Thomas Schöffler - Audi Sport MTM

Kristoffersson may have dominated the weekend but young Thomas Schöffler from Germany also did well today. A strong second place finish in race 1 and a fine fourth in race for the MTM driver. It was an unlucky weekend for Gianni Morbidelli as the double Superstars Series champion had a DNF in the first race. In race two the Audi Sport Italia came home in sixth place, not bad starting from far behind in a very competitive field.

Overall it was another dream weekend for the Audi squad. After the domination of Spa-Francorchamps, at Vallelunga the Audi RS5 quattro again proved to be one of the best in the field, if not the best.

More information:
Superstars Series website

Gianni Morbidelli - Audi Sport Italia

Artwork: Audi A8 in V8 Supercars

By Tarek Ramchani

With the 2012 Bathurst 1000 having finished today in spectacular style, one does begin to imagine a car wearing the four rings taking part in Australian V8 Supercars. The series down under is spectacular and with the introduction of new rules for 2014 and the addition of Nissan and Mercedez-Benz cars, we can certainly dream of maybe one day seeing Audis competing in the series.

To help that dream, here are outstanding artwork renders from the famous Armageddon Designs. The renders feature a side profile of the Audi A8 D4 in true V8 Supercars style. The first render shows the the famous Triple Eight Engineering livery of TeamVodafone. The driver is none other than Aussie legend, Craig Lowndes, a name not strange to Audi. Lowndes has competed several times with the R8 LMS in Australia. The second render shows us the Audi A8 front lights, giving some clear identity to the Audi design in the render.

These renders give us a glimpse of the dream. The dream of what an Audi V8 Supercar could look like.

More Information:
Armageddons Design website
Armageddons Design on Facebook

Gallery: 90 quattro IMSA GTO at Donington Park's Tourist Trophy 1997

By Tarek Ramchani

The legendary Audi 90 quattro IMSA GTO was a victorious machine in North America. It raced a single year in the IMSA series during the 1989 season. However it was enough to promote it as one of the most popular Audi factory built racers ever. Back in 1997 the car had a guest appearance in Britain for a very special event, the Tourist Trophy at the Donington Park circuit. Here are some beautiful and very rare images from that meeting. The images are from our friends at the British based audifans.net website.

More information:
Audifans.net website
Audifans.net on Facebook

1-2-3 Audi RS5 quattro in Superstars Series qualifying at Vallelunga

By Tarek Ramchani

The International Superstars Series is at Vallelunga this weekend and it has already started very well for the Audi squad.

Audi cars dominated the two free practice sessions earlier this morning. It was the same story later in the afternoon during qualifying. A 1-2-3 clean sweep where the RS5 quattro cars were able to rule over the entire field again. Johan Kristoffersson, the newly crowned Scandinavian Touring Car champion with Volkswagen, took a maiden pole position with his #46 Audi of Team KMS, a lap time of 1:40.039. Right behind him in second is Gianni Morbidelli driving the #45 car of Audi Sport Italia. In third came the young and fast German, Thomas Schöffler in the #47 of Team MTM, his best qualifying result so far this season.

The Audi cars were the fastest in all the free practice and official sessions. However the three RS5 drivers will have to fight hard in the two races against a top quality field, mainly from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The Vallelunga track, located near Rome, also welcomed a very well known name, Giancarlo Fischella, a former Grand Prix winner who driving a Maserati this weekend.

Both races are set for tomorrow. We wish the best of luck to the three Audi teams and drivers.

More information:
Superstars Series website

Audi R8 LMS ultra FACELIFT - Photoshop

By Johan Laubscher 

The Audi R8 LMS ultra has been a formidable force in the world of GT3 racing. The race version of the R8 has always resembled the road going version very closely, along with the various modification to produce a FIA GT3 specification racer. Both the original road-going Audi R8 and Audi R8 LMS race cars will always be beautiful.

During 2012 Audi unveiled the new facelifted version of the Audi R8 and immediately speculation arose surrounding the race car. Would we see an updated version of the Audi R8 LMS ultra? Would there be a visual upgrade package for the existing cars? These were just some of the questions that arose, and it is not difficult to see why. The original Audi R8 was breathtaking, and the facelift has not been revolutionary, as it only introduced subtle, yet tasteful styling changes. The visual differences include new front and rear lights and a revised shape to the grill and intakes. The rest of the car’s basic shape and layout has remained unchanged. 

This opens the possibility of easily changing the appearance of exiting and subsequent Audi R8 LMS and Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. The only difference would be to replace the front and rear lights and the front nose section. The rest of the car remains intact, and the end result would be a facelifted Audi R8 LMS ultra race car.

Will we see optional styling upgrade packages for the existing cars? Or will the Audi R8 LMS ultra cars delivered in 2013 all be wearing the new Audi R8 face? Only time will tell.

The crew over at INR8.com (The new Audi R8 focused website) and its sister website Fourtitude, have created a few very interesting photoshop renders. They have taken five of the original Audi R8 LMS ultra press photos and converted them to the new facelift. The original posting of the INR8 facelifted images can be seen HERE. The results look amazing, and allow us a glimpse of what a facelifted Audi R8 LMS ultra could look like.

Will we ever see this beautiful new face representing Audi Sport customer racing on track in the future? We certainly hope so. 

More information:

INR8 website

INR8 Facebook page

Original INR8 facelift article

INR8 gallery

Fourtitude website

Special thanks to INR8 and Fourtitude for allowing us to use these images. 

Editors note: All images are photoshops 

Spectacular flames and action from Rob Austin Racing Audi A4

By Tarek Ramchani

Rob Austin Racing is the only Audi team in the British Touring Car Championship. A fully privateer effort with a pair of Audi A4 NGTC cars. While not being able to fight for race wins against works teams from Honda and MG, Rob Austin Racing is clearly showing us that the A4 is among the best in the field and his team is one of the strongest in the independents division. One thing that is always for sure from Rob in his Audi, is sideways action and spectacular flames.

Here some impressive photos taken at Thruxton during the 2011 season. Despite the cause of these specific flames at this round not being positive, the photos are spectacular. The photos show Rob in action attacking the curbs with his beautiful Audi. Action that can be expected from Rob Austin Racing at all the BTCC events.

Photo credit: trumpit Bourne Photography

More information:
Rob Austin Racing website
Rob Austin Racing on Facebook