Audi R8 LMS wins in China and Australia

Audi Sport Asia’s juniors managed a strong start to the season with the GT3 version of the R8 LMS in Chinese endurance racing. The teams also led the GT4 variant and the TCR model Audi RS 3 LMS to race victories.

Audi R8 LMS GT3

Successful weekend in China: Audi Sport Asia experienced an excellent race weekend at the Ningbo race track with three GT3 victories. In the China Endurance Championship, the two up-and-coming drivers Yu Kuai and Cao Zhuo achieved their first success with the Audi R8 LMS. The two Audi Sport Asia Juniors from China crossed the finish line in second place at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour race. A subsequent sporting penalty for the winners meant that the two talents from Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute ultimately won by 15.1 seconds ahead of their Lamborghini pursuers. In the GT Super Sprint Challenge as part of the same event, the privateer driver with the pseudonym Rio remained unbeaten. He won the first race in the Audi R8 LMS by 7.3 seconds. In the second race, his team Uno Racing was even pleased with a gap of 18.3 seconds at the finish. Rio thus leads the GTSSC standings and is also in front in the Audi Sport Asia Trophy’s internal brand classification for privateer drivers.

Intensive training program: Audi Sport Asia’s most ambitious development program to date has started. The 20-year-old junior driver Cao Zhuo and his 21-year-old Chinese compatriot Yu Kuai are completing various stages of professional talent development. The two Audi Sport Asia drivers receive detailed training that includes data analysis with lap times, race performance and tire management as well as video analysis. Individual training sessions to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as the technical set-up of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 evo II round off the training.

Yasser Shahin takes sole lead of the standings: In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia, Audi privateer driver Yasser Shahin has distanced himself by ten points from his closest rival and brand colleague Liam Talbot on the third race weekend. Last year’s champion, who was previously tied at the top with three other Audi drivers in terms of points, recorded two first-class results in Queensland in the Audi R8 LMS. Garth Tander returned as his teammate for the first time this season. The duo secured pole position for The Bend/Valvoline team for both 60-minute races. In the first race, Shahin led from the start, but after the pit stops a Mercedes-AMG took the lead and won ahead of Shahin/Tander. Third place went to Liam Talbot/Fraser Ross in the Team Coin Spot Audi. In the second race, Garth Tander took the lead at the start. When Yasser Shahin took over, he pulled away while behind him a duel broke out between Team Coin Spot’s Audi and the Mercedes-AMG of Prince Jefri Ibrahim/Shane van Gisbergen. In the end, Shahin/Tander won by 9.3 seconds ahead of their Audi brand colleagues Liam Talbot/Fraser Ross. Two one-two-three wins in the Am class and a class victory in the Trophy classification round off the Audi customers’ tally in Australia.

Third place in America: Jason Daskalos entertained the spectators at the fifth round of GT America powered by AWS with exciting fights for position at the city race in Nashville. In the battle for second place, positions kept changing over the course of the 40-minute race. After 25 laps, Daskalos had to admit defeat to his main opponent by 1.4 seconds and took third place.

Silverware in South Africa: At the fifth round of the G&H Transport Extreme Supercars Series, Marius Jackson was delighted with a podium result in the second sprint of the weekend. On the East London circuit, the Audi privateer managed third place in the R8 LMS GT3 of his MJR Motorsport team.