Portuguese GT: Victory for Team Novadriver at Boavista

By Johan Laubscher 

The Supercars Portugal Series (Portuguese GT Championship) held round three at Boavista this weekend. Team Novadriver was present with their two-car Audi R8 LMS ultra team. 

Round three of the Portuguese series was held alongside round two of the Supercars International Series. The two cars from Team Novadriver have performed well so far in 2013. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra was driven by Cesar Campanico, Carlos Vieira and Mikko Eskelinen. The second car was the #10 driven by João Figueiredo, João Ramos and Manuel Gião.

They performed well during the practice sessions, consistently placing within the front runners. During qualifying the top placed Audi was on the front row, with the #1 achieving second place, just 0.024 seconds behind the pole sitting Porsche. Their teammates in the #10 placed fourth.

The race itself saw another great performance from Team Novadriver as they moved forward during the race. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra squad bettered their second place starting position by coming home to win yet another event. Their teammates maintained their positions and finished in fourth.

It was indeed another successful weekend for Team Novadriver in Portugal. The next round of the Supercars Portugal Series will take place at Portimao in August.   

The results from the Portuguese GT weekend can be seen HERE.

Update: Following the race a number of time penalties were given to various competitors. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra received a thirty second penalty due to an irregularity regarding the pit-stop window. The penalty has luckily not affected the outcome, as the #1 had more than a ninety second gap at the finish, thus they are still classified as the race victors. A thirty second penalty was also given to the third placed finisher, thus promoting the second Novadriver Audi into third position, after they had originally finished in fourth.

Photo credit: Team Novadriver

BES: A weekend to forget for Audi teams at Paul Ricard

By Tarek Ramchani

The third round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Paul Ricard today was a very hard event for the Audi Sport customer racing teams. Nine Audi R8 LMS ultra cars from four different teams entered the race with very disappointing performances and results.

At Paul Ricard no less than seven Audi R8 LMS ultra cars had been entered in the upper Pro-Cup class. However right from the start of the race it was obvious that the Audis will not fight for top positions, and started to struggle a lot with a very obvious lack of top speed compared to the other cars and brands. After three hours of racing a single Audi R8 LMS ultra was within the top 10. The best ranked car was the #1 R8 LMS ultra in ninth overall. The car was from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and shared by drivers René Rast, Laurens Vanthoor and Stéphane Ortelli. The #16 Audi from Phoenix Racing finished in twelfth overall with drivers Anthony Kumpen, Enzo Ide and Markus Winkelhock. The second car from Phoenix Racing was classified in seventeenth place, the #6 Audi in the hands of Harold Primat, Christopher Haase and Oliver Jarvis.

It was a much harder race for the remaining Audi R8 LMS ultra cars. The #2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (Pro-Cup) was twenty-first. #36 Team Speed Car (Pro-Cup) was twenty-sixth. #13  Belgian Audi Club Team WRT (Pro-Cup) was twenty-seventh. #40 Sainteloc Racing (Pro-Cup) was forty-first. #41 Sainteloc Racing (Gentlemen Trophy) was forty-seventh and #42 Sainteloc Racing (Pro-Am) was forty-eighth.

Race victory went to the #3 BMW Z4 GT3 from Marc VDS Racing. Second was the #7 McLaren MP4-12C from Hexis Racing and third was the #23 Nissan GT-R from JRM Racing. The Pro-Cup cars locked out the whole top 10.

At Paul Ricard today Audi faced their hardest race ever in the history of the Blancpain Endurance Series. The next round will be the prestigious and stellar event of the series, the Total Spa 24 Hours race. Before that the teams are invited to attend the annual Test Day at Spa on Wednesday. 40 cars are expected to take part, including some Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.

Photo credit: Blancpain Endurance Series

Historic Racing: André Lotterer races Audi Coupe at Zolder

By Johan Laubscher 

Two-time Le Mans winner,  André Lotterer, was again seen in the Belgian Historic Cup this weekend. Just one weekend after Le Mans he swapped his Audi R18 e-tron quattro for a classic Audi Coupe.

The "Zolder Grand Prix 50 Years" event was held this weekend, with a number of categories taking part. The Belgian Historic Cup was one of the categories, featuring a very special Audi entry. The orange/red/yellow Nothelle / Kamei Audi Coupe was entered in the event, a car which has become famous in recent times as Andre Lotterer's father was involved in the original building of the car many years ago, and Andre himself has driven this car at some of the Belgian Historic events. 

André Lotterer was on hand again this weekend to pilot the Audi. The car had originally been entered with Johan Aerts as the driver of the #81 Audi Coupe. Andre had a lot of fun and also took a class victory.

André Lotterer on twitter: "Class win and young timer fun today in #Zolder! I like to have some good old school cars to play with… http://instagram.com/p/bJbXcDrRca/ "

It is great to see these classic Audi race cars still competing in historic events, and even better when current Audi factory drivers, like Lotterer, get involved adding even more excitement. 

Photo credit and more information: 
Circuit Zolder on Facebook

Video: Mattias Ekström at X-Games Munich

By Johan Laubscher

Mattias Ekström, the factory Audi DTM driver, has always been a keen rally enthusiast, and has competed in many rally events. This weekend the Swedish Audi ace competed in the X-Games Munich.

His weapon was a Volkswagen Polo Rallycross car prepared by Marklund Motorsports from Sweden. Ekström performed very well in his Redbull Polo and finished fifth in a very wet race one final heat on Saturday. He continued to impress in his first Rallycross weekend, when he followed up his race one success by finishing fourth in the final heat of race two on Sunday. 

We have embedded the YouTube video footage of both final heats from X-Games Munich, and photos from the official Anton Marklund / Marklund Motorsports Facebook page.

Photo credit and more information: 
Anton Marklund / Marklund Motorsports Facebook page

GT Asia: Strong Audi R8 LMS ultra results at Okayama

By Johan Laubscher

Round two of the GT Asia Series headed to Japan this weekend, hosted at the Okayama circuit. Four Audi cars were entered by two teams, achieving positive results.

Three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars (2013 spec) were entered by Absolute Racing, on behalf of their customers. The first Absolute Racing car was the #7 J-Fly Racing R8 LMS ultra driven by Jeffrey Lee and Marchy Lee. The second car was the #98 Team Hong Kong Racing entry driven by Philip Ma and Cong Fu Cheng. The third and final R8 LMS ultra from Absolute Racing was the #888 Tunewear Racing car driven by Francis Hideki Onda and Alex Yoong. The fourth Audi on the grid was an older spec Hitotsuyama Racing Audi R8 LMS which was driven by Billy Fung and Akihiro Asai. Absolute Racing competed in the top class and the Hitotsuyama entry was in the GTM gentlemen class.  

The Audi teams showed well during the sessions and Absolute Racing finished qualifying with all their cars within the top ten for both races. Race one saw #888 starting in third, #7 in fourth and #98 in sixth. Hitotsuyama placed eighth overall and first in class. The grid for race two had #7 in fourth, #98 in fifth and #888 in tenth. Hitotsuyama was fifteenth overall and eighth in class.

Race one got underway in sunny conditions, with the pole sitting Aston Martin leading the way in front. It was a very good race for the #888 Tunewear R8 LMS ultra as they maintained their third position to the finish, Francis Hideki Onda and Alex Yoong finishing on the podium. All of the Absolute Racing car finished in the top ten as #7 finished fifth followed by #98 in seventh. Hitotsuyama Racing dropped back and finished fourteenth overall and seventh in class.

The second race was held on Sunday and saw all three Absolute car finishing in the top six. The leading Audi was the #7 J-Fly R8 LMS ultra which finished fourth. The first Audi was followed by its two sisters cars, as #98 finished in fifth and the #888 in sixth.

The weekend was dominated by the Craft Racing Aston Martin Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which was driven by Frank Yu and Stefan Mücke. 

The Okayama GT Asia weekend results can be seen HERE.

Round three of the GT Asia series will take place at the Fuji International Speedway in July.

Photo credit: Absolute Racing