Rob Austin Racing great BTCC weekend with Audi at Croft

By Tarek Ramchani

The British Touring Car Championship hosted round 4 at Croft this weekend. Rob Austin Racing, the only Audi team in BTCC had a fantastic weekend with their much improving and fast Audi A4 NGTC cars.

Rob Austin Racing fielded a pair of Audis . the #13 car for team owner/driver Rob Austin who qualified in seventh and the sister #14 machine for Will Bratt.

In race 1, both Audis did very well. Rob Austin had a bad start, dropping from seventh to eleventh. After a safety car period Rob Austin started an amazing charge through the field. After overtaking many rivals he finished in a very positive fifth overall. Will Bratt started way behind and just like Rob Austin he had a great pace. The rookie driver finished in ninth, not bad at all after coming from the back of the pack.

Race 2 was even greater for the team. Rob Austin started from fifth and immediately showed that the A4 is among the fastest cars on track. The Audi driver battled hard with two BMW 320Si cars and a privateer Honda Civic. In the end he was finished in a stunning third, right behind the dominant and fully factory backed Hondas of Team Dynamics. His team mate Will Bratt had a very hard race 2. The youngster had two excursions off track. He ended in eighteenth place.

The third and final race of the day was the hardest. The leading cars raced and grouped at the front. Rob Austin with his Audi was able to fight against the BTCC top guns who are all works supported teams and cars. In the end it was a great seventh place finish after a last lap pass on a very narrow chicane over a BMW 320Si. While the second Audi of Will Bratt did not take part of race 3.

Overall it was the best weekend so far for Rob Austin Racing and Audi in the 2012 British Touring Car season. The team is clearly the only truly privately built and managed car in series that is currently running at the front. Fingers crossed for the whole team to have more support and sponsorship for the rest of 2012. The A4 NGTC has proved to be one of the finest of the field. Next stop for the BTCC will be at the very fast Snetterton circuit on August the 12th.

Photo credit: Pete Mainey / www.petemainey.com and www.btcccrazy.co.uk

More information:
Rob Austin Racing official website
BTCC official website

#14 Audi A4 NGTC - Will Bratt

Audi and Phoenix Racing domination at VLN round 4

By Tarek Ramchani

Audi and team Phoenix Racing had a perfect weekend at the Nordschleife. A great win in the fourth round of the VLN Endurance Series. The 43. Adenauer ADAC Rundstrecken-Trophy, a four hour event.

The #15 Bilstein backed Audi R8 LMS ultra dominated the whole event. In the qualifying the car achieved a fine pole position. A 1-2 Audi start as Raeder Motorsport's R8 LMS was second. Moving into the race it was full domination from the pole setting car. The team's regular drivers and recent overall winners of the Nurburgring 24 Hours, Marc Basseng and Frank Stippler were able to control the entire race. The winning car crossed the finish line after 28 laps, some 47 seconds ahead of the second placed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. In a very strong third overall was the sister #5 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by Christopher Haase and Luca Ludwig. Extreme bad luck hit the #44 Audi from Raeder Motorsport. The car shared by Frank Biela, Christian Hohenadel and Thomas Mutsch crashed in traffic and didn't finish the race.

In the SP4T class, it was a 1-2-3-4 win for the Audi TT RS. Raeder Motorsport was unlucky with the R8 LMS ultra but did well with the TT RS. The #269 car come home with the SP4T class victory and sixteenth place overall.

After the historical outright victory at the Nurburgring 24 Hours last month the Audi R8 LMS ultra once again proved to be one of the best GT3 racers around. Phoenix Racing has also proven to be among the strongest teams in endurance and GT racing. The team is now targeting another big classic, the Spa 24 Hours at the end of July. Next round of the VLN Series is two weeks time, on July the 7th.

VLN round 4 full results

Photo credit: Julian Schmidt / JSR Photography

More information:
VLN official website
Phoenix Racing official website

SP4T class winner: #269 Audi TTRS - Raeder Motorsport

Video: Audi R8 LMS ultra warming up engine at the Ring

By Tarek Ramchani:

Phoenix Racing with their #15 Audi R8 LMS ultra has dominated the entire VLN Endurance Series round 4 weekend. Pole position and the race win for Marc Basseng and Frank Stippler. The car sounds great as well, here is a nice video showing the R16 warming up ahead of the 4 hour enduro event. Enjoy the noisy V10 of the winning GT3 racer.

More information:
VLN official website
Phoenix Racing official website

Third place for Team Audi France in race 1 at Val de Vienne

By Tarek Ramchani

Round 3 of the French GT Tour is at Val de Vienne this weekend. Team Audi France got a fine third place finish in race 1 today. The official French dealer team had an amazing three-way battle for almost the whole race.

David Hallyday had a great start, moving from third to second with this #32 Audi R8 LMS ultra. Very bad luck hit the #5 Audi of Sainteloc Racing who were immediately out of the race. Hallyday put great pressure on the leading Mercedes-Benz SLS, and for many occasions almost took the race lead. Right behind Hallyday the third placed Porsche was catching fast. Later the three leading cars stopped for the mandatory pit stops. The Audi now in hands of Stephane Ortelli was back on track in second behind the Mercedes. Meanwhile the #38 Audi R8 LMS from JWS Racing stopped and had to retire, the car was running in the Gentlemen's Trophy. Still running in second, Ortelli tried to move to first without success. Minutes later the Porsche who run in third was able to pass the two leading cars and took the race lead. Behind the #4 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Gregaroy Guilvert was flying as the fastest on track. Maybe pushing too far, as the Sainteloc Racing driver had an excursion. However he was able to bring the car home in seventh. The race win went to the #2 Porsche GT3 R, seconds ahead of the #17 SLS AMG and the #32 Audi R8 LMS ultra. Stephane Ortelli and David Hallyday got their first podium finish this season, after frustrating races at Ledenon and Dijon. The #42 Audi R8 LMS from Sainteloc Racing finished in twelfth overall, second in the Gentlemen's Trophy.

Overall it was a good race 1 for Audi. Both Team Audi France and Sainteloc Racing have shown strong pace during race 1. All good for race 2 tomorrow as we are hoping for an Audi victory.

Val de Vienne full race 1 results

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Lassaux / www.autorennsport.ch

More information:
GT Tour official website

Video: Epic 4 hour onboard video with the 2012 Le Mans winners

By Johan Laubscher 

In the past few years the live broadcasting of onboard videos during races has opened a whole new world. Viewers streaming races are now able to constantly watch onboard footage from race cars. At Le Mans viewers can stream live onboard footage from many of the front running cars. Here is an interesting video which has appeared on YouTube. It is 4 hours, yes 4 whole hours of onboard footage in the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, the 2012 Le Mans winning car. The footage is from the early morning hours of Sunday during the race. It is an extremely interesting video and offers much more depth than other one lap videos. A very long video but well worth watching, even for such a segment. Enjoy: 

#1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro on board video at Le Mans

Audi teams aiming high for GT Tour round 3 at Val de Vienne

By Tarek Ramchani

The French GT Tour series is heading to Val de Vienne this weekend for round three. The regular Audi teams will be there aiming to do well after a disappointing weekend at Dijon last time out.

Team Audi France the official dealer team has had an unlucky start to the season so far. Two very frustrating rounds at Ledenon and Dijon. The #32 Audi R8 LMS ultra shared by Stephane Ortelli and David Hallyday has always been fast on track, but has never been able to bring strong results. At Val de Vienne the WRT run car will aim for revenge in the French series. Elsewhere the same team racing as Belgian Audi Club WRT is doing really well in both FIA GT1 World Championship and Blancpain Endurance Series. At Dijon Team Audi France finished in a very disappointing tenth in race 1, while in race 2 they got a fourth place finish. In the overall standing Oretlli and Hallyday are only seventh.

Sainteloc Racing has done better, winning the first race of the season at Ledenon. The privateer Audi team has had a quite positive season so far in the FIA GT3 European Championship. The team has two Audi R8 LMS ultras with strong drivers squad. The #4 car with Grégory Guilvert and Paul Lamic were victorious at Ledenon, both drivers are sixth in the points standings. The sister #5 Audi will have Dino Lunardi and Bruno Hernandez, Lunardi is very fast with the R8 LMS and last year he was the ADAC GT Masters champion.

The three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will have to fight hard against the dominant Porsche 997 GT3 Rs and also the Ferrari 458s. Porsche cars won three races out of four. Audi will try to challenge the sister German brand for race victories and to take vital points for the overall championship standings.

In addition to the three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars, two additional old spec R8 LMS will run the "Coupe de France". The Gentlemen’s trophy which is exclusively open for amateurs drivers and older generation GT3 race cars. Both Sainteloc Racing and JWS Racing will field a single car each.

The Val de Vienne weekend will have two sprint races of one hour each. Race 1 is set for Saturday afternoon, and race 2 for Sunday. The official GT Tour will provide Live Streaming coverage on the internet. We wish the best of luck to all the Audi teams and drivers.

  
Photo credit: GT Tour

More information:
GT Tour official website

Rob Austin Racing with two Audi A4 at Croft

By Tarek Ramchani

Great news is coming from the British Touring Cars. Rob Austin Racing will field two Audi A4 NGTC cars at Croft this weekend, round 5 of the championship. Team owner and driver Rob Austin is back after missing the last round at Oulton Park. The second A4 will again be in hands of rookie Will Bratt.

This is the first time this season that two Audis will be entering a British Touring Car round. Rob Austin had a quite difficult start to the season with ups and downs and a lot of bad luck. However the Audi A4 NGTC is still improving. Last time out at Oulton Park, Will Bratt a rookie in BTCC did very well with the car. Not bad from a fully privateer effort, fighting against fully backed factory teams.

Three races are scheduled for Sunday. Two cars on track will increase Rob Austin Racing chances in fighting for top spots and score strong results. And for that we wish all the best for the team and both Rob Austin and Will Bratt.

Photo credit: Pete Mainey / www.petemainey.com and www.btcccrazy.co.uk

More information:
Rob Austin Racing official website
BTCC official website

#14 Audi A4 NGTC - Will Bratt