Outstanding result at Daytona

All three Audi Sport race cars - R8 LMS GT3, GT4 and RS 3 LMS – were all on the grid in the US for the first time, but it was the RS 3 LMS in the TCR class that stole the show. In the TCR class of the IMSA Continental Tyre SportsCar Challenge, the RS 3 LMS was completely dominant, taking an historic 1-2-3-4 on the famous oval at Daytona.

Americans Britt Casey Jr./Tom Long in the Audi RS 3 LMS from Compass Racing took the win ahead of their teammates, Rodrigo Sales/Kuno Wittmer, with an advantage of just 1.955 seconds. Matt Fassnacht/Justin Piscitell from Team Murillo Racing were just 0.079 seconds behind in third position, while Lee Carpentier/Kieron O’Rourke rounded out the top four spots for eEuroparts.com Racing.

“Sincere congratulations to our TCR teams on this 1-2-3-4 success,” said Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “This was a strong start to a season in which more Audi Sport customer race cars than ever before will be seen in North America. We look forward to further successes in various classes.”

In the Grand Sport class, four Audi R8 LMS GT4 cars on the grid for the first time. The American-Polish women’s team of Ashley Freiberg/Gosia Rdest with GMG Racing was the best Audi driver team in position 18. 

While the GT4 and TCR race cars contested the IMSA Continental Tyre SportsCar Challenge two Audi R8 LMS cars tackled the competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, battling for their third victory in the GTD class in the 24-hour race at Daytona. The German Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team repeatedly led this classification in the course of the first nine hours of the race with Kelvin van der Linde/Sheldon van der Linde/Christopher Mies/Jeffrey Schmidt. But a 5-minute stop-and-go penalty was imposed for a refuelling infringement, settling their campaign back. Then during the night, the mechanics had to change a defective rear wing, costing the team four laps in total. A valiant fight back saw the team finish in seventh.

The American Magnus Racing team that had won the GTD class with Audi in 2016 achieved position six with Andrew Davis/Andy Lally/John Potter/Markus Winkelhock. 

Between now and October, 11 more events are on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar and nine other events will follow in the IMSA Continental Tyre SportsCar Challenge. Audi Sport customer racing’s GT3, GT4 and TCR race cars will also be racing in the Pirelli World Challenge includes, with a program of 10 events between March and September. There, Audi’s GT3 sports cars will be battling for overall victories and in the class for TCR race cars Audi is the title defender this year. 

On the world stage, the Intercontinental GT Challenge in which Audi is the title defender, will kick off next week in the Bathurst 12 Hour in Australia where eight Audi R8 LMS cars will be on the grid.