TT Cup on the starting grid

Two giants of international motorsport will join the action this weekend when the second season of the Audi Sport TT Cup gets underway. 

Once again, each TT round will see guest drivers join the regular squad of talented drivers from around the world, with rally ace Andreas Mikkelsen from Norway and former F1 driver, American Scott Speed slipping behind the wheel for the opening salvo.

Forming part of the support card as part of the DTM (German Touring Car) season, the one-make formula proved to be a runaway success last year, with close, exciting racing across all six rounds and as a result the season has been extended in 2016.

This year an extra round will be added to the series, making it seven separate race weekends with two races per weekend. The driver line-up of 16 come from 11 different countries and is a mix of relatively inexperienced drivers and those with plenty of racing under their belt. Hence this year also sees the introduction of the Rookie classification as well as the overall title, which will see the newcomers battle for the title of best emerging talent as well as trying to win the TT Cup championship outright.

“We have a very good mix of rookies and seasoned campaigners who competed in the Audi Sport TT Cup last year,” says TT Cup Project Leader Philipp Mondelaers.

The permanent driver line-up have already had several months of intensive on and off track training and are very keen to take to the track in full race conditions this weekend. 

“Following the impressions from the tests, I’m expecting to see very close races and a lot of variety on the podiums,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing.
In case any of them are under any illusion that this will be anything but ‘the real thing’, the presence of Mikkelsen and Speed will quickly dispel that notion, as these tremendously competitive drivers will not be taking things easy. 

Mikkelsen is a Volkswagen factory driver in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), who won Rally Spain last year and has finished third outright for the past two seasons. American Scott Speed raced in Formula One (2006 and 2007) and won the Global Rallycross Championship (GRC) title in a Volkswagen Beetle last year.

In addition to the the changing celebrities and journalists taking part in each round, Audi Sport dealerships from around the globe will also have the chance to put forward drivers with racing experience to add even more international flavour to this year’s Audi Sport TT Cup series.