Round seven of the Brazilian GT Championship (South American GT Championship) concluded with the second race in Argentina today. It was a victorious end to the event for Ebrahim Motors and their Audi R8 LMS ultra.
Ebrahim Motors entered their #20 Audi R8 LMS ultra for the seventh round hosted at Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez in Argentina. The car was driven by Wagner Ebrahim and Felipe Tozzo. They showed good pace all weekend and achieved two front row starting positions. Ebrahim took second on the grid for race one and Tozzo took pole position for race two.
The first race late on Saturday saw the Audi from Ebrahim Motors crossing the finish line in second place. Race two was held on Sunday and the Audi R8 LMS ultra lined up in pole position. They led the race from the drop of the flag and maintained the lead after the pitstop phase. The championship’s visit to Argentina concluded with a well deserved victory for Wagner Ebrahim and Felipe Tozzo in the second race. It was a dominant victory for the team.
The Brazilian GT Championship will now be heading to the season finale, which will be hosted at Mogi Guaçu in São Paulo: 5-6 December 2013.
The Engen Racing Team finished the 2013 season by claiming their second national title of the season at Kyalami on Saturday. Michael Stephen (A1 – Engen Xtreme) claimed the Bridgestone Production Car Championship title at the final round, making it his third consecutive title in this series.
With three races on the day, Stephen claimed the victory in the second race – but not without his share of drama on the day.
“We had good pace from the practice, qualifying left me with a freak experience where the brake pressure switch disintegrated and lost brakes in qualifying so had to start from the back. In race one I touched the back of Hennie and put a hole in my radiator. I circulated and finished to get some points,” says Stephen. “For race two I must thank Tschops who chose to swop cars with me, wrapped up the championship there.”
“In that third race I dropped back a bit as Tschops' car is set up a bit differently to mine, but I managed to work my way through to finish in second – and that second place felt like a win.”
The gesture from Tschops allowed his teammate, Stephen, to win the title for a third time while effectively taking him out of contention for the final event. Sipuka still kept the team's second Audi S4 Quattro circulating to finish both the second and third races of the event.
For Kosie Weyers (5 – Engen Primax) the final event of the season was a low-pressure affair as he had already claimed the title in the Engen Volkswagen Cup series. This victory took place at the penultimate round of the series, at his home circuit in Cape Town.
The final round saw the Engen Volkswagen Cup champion race to second overall on the day.
“I had a good outing today, starting with qualifying on pole this morning. Flat-spotting my left-front tyre during race one cost me time, but I managed to close on Mark towards the end, and take second place,” says Weyers. “Engen prepared a phenomenal car for me this year. We won nine races of the 18 total and the weakest finish this whole year was a fifth place which is very good.”
The victory marks Weyers' first national circuit-racing championship title, also providing the Engen Racing Team with two victories for the year – one for each of the national motorsport series in which they compete.
For Mandla Mdakane (18) the final round of the season proved a bit of a mixed event. Good pace in the early sessions didn't see a good performance during qualifying, but he did improve on his position during the racing, finishing the day in eighth position overall for the day.
“Today went quite well,” says Mdakane. “Things were good in the practise but there was a problem in qualifying and I couldn't put in a good lap with a red flag coming out. I got up to twelfth in the first race and got up to 10thfor race two. In all it was a pretty good day, even though the new brake discs took some getting used too, they are very sensitive and it was easy to lock up the wheels – I even flat-spotted a tyre in the first race.”
Hitotsuyama Racing performed very well yesterday in Motegi qualifying. The only Audi team of the field was aiming high for this season finale. However the 250 km race today turned out to be a frustrating event.
Today's race at Twin Ring Motegi ended a very frustrating season for the team in Super GT. Bad luck but also a bad and penalizing Balance of Performance for the Audi R8 LMS ultra. Hitotsuyama Racing drivers are among the best of the field. Richard Lyons himself is clearly one the stars of Super GT combing both GT500 and GT300 classes. Yet the Japanese Audi Sport customer racing team suffred all season long and only in few times was able to fight fairly. That was the case in 2012 and nothing changed during the 2013 season. Hitotsuyama Racing finished in eighteenth place in the teams' standing. Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons finished twenty-sixth overall in the drivers' standing.
Race victory in the GT300 class went to #11 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG from GAINER DIXCEL. Second the #16 Honda CR-Z from Mugen. Third the #61 Subaru BRZ from Subaru R&D Sport. The race results can be seen here.
It is unclear if the team will return to Super GT next year and if it will again be with an Audi or not, however we at the Audi Motorsport Blog want to congratulate Hitotsuyama Racing for their fighting spirit as they never gave up during 2013.
The seventh round of the Brazilian GT Championship (South American GT Championship) is being held at Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez in Argentina this weekend. Ebrahim Motors have qualified well and achieved another podium result in race one.
The #20 Ebrahim Motors Audi R8 LMS ultra is being driven by Wagner Ebrahim and Felipe Tozzo this weekend. Ebrahim scored a second place in the first qualifying session, followed by Tozzo taking pole for the second race.
The first race got underway late on Saturday afternoon. Ebrahim and Tozzo finished the first race by placing second, finishing nineteen seconds behind the pole sitting and eventual race winning Blau Lamborghini Gallardo.
The second race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon. We wish the best of luck to Ebrahim Motors who will be starting from pole position.
Phoenix Racing hosted a “Champion’s Party” on Saturday evening, which celebrated the many successes enjoyed by Phoenix Racing during 2013.
Many guests were present to celebrate this tremendous year with Phoenix Racing. A number of race cars were also on display at the event, including the RS 5 DTM of Mike Rockenfeller and a number of Phoenix’s Audi R8 LMS ultra cars.
It has certainly been a terrific year for Phoenix Racing. The drivers’ and teams’ titles in the DTM and multiple wins and podiums with the Audi R8 LMS ultra.
