Mass assault on season opener

It was a big year for Audi Sport customer racing internationally in 2021 (despite COVID restrictions) and the brand is looking to do even better in 2022. The Australian GT calendar got underway last weekend at Phillip Island, with defending champion Yasser Shahin and co-driver, Christopher Mies opening their account by taking a first and second in the two-race opener. 

In Europe this weekend, the season opener of the SRO (Stéphane Ratel Organisation) racing series will get underway at the Imola circuit, with Audi competing as defending champion in the GT3 race series Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS as well as in the GT2 European Series and the GT4 European Series.

In total, 11 Audi Sport customer racing teams will field 24 cars across the GT3, GT4 and GT2 categories, looking to defend titles won in each of the categories last year.

The impressive line-up of Audi racing machinery will be matched by an equally impressive driver line-up that includes not only 11 of Audi Sport’s champion drivers but also multiple motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi all driving in the GT3 category.

Rossi will join Audi Sport drivers Nico Müller and Frédéric Vervisch in one of the five Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars which will be fielded by Team WRT, the team looking to defend the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe title it won last year – indeed just one of five titles the Belgian squad won in the Europe-wide race series in 2021.

In the GT2 and GT4 categories, purely privateer drivers will contest their respective categories, with five GT2 cars – Audi sport’s most powerful offering – looking to defend the Audi title in the Fanatec GT2 European Series. Based on the Audi R8 Spyder, this 470kW car was only unveiled in 2019 But already the category has enjoyed widespread acceptance, with seven different manufacturers represented in the series.

In the tremendously popular GT4 category, a total of 49 entries will line up to battle for the title, with Audi Sport customer teams competing with a total of seven GT4 cars. Audi is up against eight brands – Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Chevrolet, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and Toyota and will be looking to defend both the Pro-Am championship and the Am category it won last year.