Title hunt

Although race fans have already had a taste of the GT action with the running of the Bathurst 12 Hour race last month, the 2017 season kicks off in earnest this weekend in Adelaide and there will be Audi customer teams competing in no less than three national GT categories this year.

Up to seven teams competing throughout the year will be looking to add more championships to the Audi R8 LMS already impressive international haul, Audis accounting for the Australian GT Championship in both 2011 and 2015.

With five rounds to be held around the country in the GT Championship, including round two which is held as part of the Australian Grand Prix weekend in Melbourne, there will be plenty of close racing and opportunity for the teams to leave their mark on their respective series.

The Australian Endurance Championship will see a total of four races held between May and November, with two held ‘across the ditch’ in New Zealand. Currently, four customer racing teams are planning to compete in the Audi R8 LMS. 

The GT Trophy is the third Australian racing series with entry opportunities available to privateer teams. The regulations exclusively permit older-specification racing cars such as the first generation of the Audi R8 LMS. Up to eight Audi drivers will be on the grid this season, battling for the fourth consecutive title for an Audi driver in this classification. In 2014, Rod Salmon won the classification, followed by Greg Taylor in 2015 and Rob Smith in 2016. These three Australian title winners have remained loyal to Audi this year.
They are not the only title winners sporting the banner of the four rings. The South African Kelvin van der Linde in 2014 won the ADAC GT Masters in Germany in an Audi and is now looking forward to his first season in Australia. Steven McLaughlan is another Audi driver with a championship title under his belt. Last year, he won a regional Australian racing series in Victoria in an Audi R8 LMS. 

Most of the Audi campaigners in the three Australian GT racing series are relying on the Melbourne Performance Centre (MPC) as their race team again this year. MPC is the official contractual partner of Audi Sport’s customer racing program in the Pacific region. “We are delighted to see Australia continuing to be one of our strongest markets this year,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “We wish our drivers, teams and customers a lot of success in this fierce competition.”