Seventh GT sprint title in Australia for Audi

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Second title in a row for Yasser Shahin: Audi privateer Yasser Shahin has won the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS as the best Pro-Am driver for the second time in a row. In the street race at Adelaide, the Australian decided the first sprint in the Audi R8 LMS together with Audi Sport driver Christopher Mies in his favor.

Tony Bates and Audi Sport driver Kelvin van der Linde followed in second place with a gap of just 0.333 seconds. Liam Talbot and Fraser Ross completed an Audi one-two-three.

Talbot/Ross in the Team Shannons Insurance Audi then won the second race by three seconds after Bates/van der Linde, the original winners, had received a five-second penalty and hence dropped to second. In race three, Shahin/Mies managed their second weekend win while second place went to Talbot/Ross.

This marks the seventh time that Audi Sport customer racing has won the title in Australian GT sprint racing after 2011, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. For Shahin, it was not only the second consecutive Australian title but the third overall at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS. He has historically been the last winner of the Audi Sport R8 LMS Cup in Asia in 2019.

Troy Russell and Lee Burley’s Melbourne Performance Centre, as Audi Sport customer racing’s long-time contractual partner in Australia and as an entry team, won seven of eleven sprint races with the Audi R8 LMS in the past season. Behind Shahin, Liam Talbot finished second in the Pro-Am standings, while Gary Higgon/Paul Stokell won the Amateur Drivers Championship.

An Audi customer also prevailed in the GT Trophy standings: Michael Kokkinos from Team Launch Racing clinched the classification for older cars in an Audi R8 LMS ultra ahead of brand colleague Brad Schumacher. In addition to six titles in the European GT World Challenge, Audi Sport customer racing has thus clinched three further titles in the Australian equivalent of the popular GT racing series.

Another title on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife: Audi left its mark on the endurance competitions at the Nürburgring in 2022 like no other manufacturer. With four overall victories by Scherer Sport Team Phoenix, the Audi R8 LMS was more successful than any other sports car in the Nürburgring-Langstrecken-Serie (NLS). Added to this is Audi Sport Team Phoenix’s overall victory in the 24-hour race.

From the results of all NLS races, the 24h Qualifiers and the 24-hour race, the organizers of the Nürburgring-Langstrecken-Serie and the 24h Nürburgring calculate a joint manufacturers classification. Audi won this classification in the SP9/SPX/SP-Pro category ahead of nine other brands. Porsche follows in second place, 39 points behind, with BMW in third place ahead of Mercedes-AMG.

The four rings at the Essen Motor Show: Visitors to the Essen Motor Show were able to experience many race cars from Audi Sport customer racing up close. The R8 LMS GT3 evo II, with which the brand celebrated its sixth victory in the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May, was on display at the ADAC stand.

An Audi R8 LMS GT2 and the two Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars of the Attempto Racing team from the DTM and of Aust Motorsport from the GTC Race also attracted a lot of attention from the visitors. The race car from Attempto Racing was in the same football livery in which Marius Zug finished fourth in the season finale.

Class victory at Thunderhill: At the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, the Audi customer team Three Thieves Racing managed a class victory with the Audi R8 LMS. The squad finished the endurance race in California with the driver combination Tom Burt/Phil Fogg/Kevin Roggenbuck/Rick Wright in seventh place overall and thus won the ES class.

Second place at the 24H finale: The Wolf-Power Racing team ended the 24H Series endurance season with a second place in its class. At the 12 Hours of Kuwait, Jasmin Preisig, Ivars Vallers and Mohammad Al Sabah shared the cockpit of the Audi RS 3 LMS. Despite various body parts damaged in the race, the Swiss team never gave up and finished in second place.

The Swiss Jasmin Preisig thus also won the Ladies Cup of the 24H Series Championship of the Continents in the Audi RS 3 LMS, having already won this class in the European category. In addition, the 30-year-old racer secured second place in the TCR division of the 24H Series Championship of the Continents at the end of the season.

Coming up next week

07–08/12 Shanghai (CN), round 6, TCR Asia
07–11/12 Pingtan (CN), round 4, China GT Championship
08–11/12 Buriram (THA), round 5, Thailand Super Series
09–10/12 Killarney (ZA), round 6, South African Endurance Series 
09–10/12 Killarney (ZA), round 5, South African GT Series
09–11/12 Abu Dhabi (UAE), round 4, Intercontinental GT Challenge