Barcelona was the scene of exciting title decisions in two pan-European racing series, in each of which Audi customer teams and their drivers took the titles. In GT3 racing, this was achieved by Simon Reicher and Christopher Haase in the International GT Open. In touring car racing, Dutch veteran Tom Coronel prevailed in TCR Europe.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Sensation in Spain: With privateer Simon Reicher and Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase, an Audi driver team won the International GT Open for the first time at Barcelona. With a 14-point deficit and fourth place in the standings, the conditions were unfavourable. In Saturday’s race in Barcelona, however, they clinched their first win of the season. Simon Reicher had started the race in eleventh place on the grid. After a chaotic start at the front, the 23-year-old Austrian had already moved up to fourth position on the first lap. After the driver change, Christopher Haase took the lead on lap 26 and won by 0.9 seconds. This put the two Audi drivers at the top of the standings with a one-point advantage.
On Sunday, sixth place was enough for them to finish the season level on points with Mercedes-AMG driver Diego Menchaca. The deciding factor was the better individual results of the season – Haase/Reicher had four-second places under their belts compared to their rival’s three-second places with one win for each team. The Audi customer team Eastalent Racing from Austria also won the team classification. Marcín Jedlinski/Karol Basz finished second in the Pro-Am final classification in an Audi fielded by Olimp Racing.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
First success of the season in Japan: The Audi R8 LMS GT4 clinched its first victory of the season in the Japanese Super Taikyu Series in the ST-Z class. Team Techno First won this classification at the fifth event of the popular endurance racing series at Okayama. In autumnal and dry weather, tire wear was less than in previous races. The Audi driven by Masaki Kano, Riki Okusa and Hironobu Yasuda had started from pole position in its class for the first time. With the exception of the pit stop phases, the three Japanese drivers led their classification during the three hours of racing and in the end won by eight seconds.
Trophy in the Netherlands: Sophie Hofmann and Erik Bänecke achieved a podium result at the sixth round of the German DMV NES 500 club racing series. They crossed the finish line at Zandvoort in their Audi R8 LMS GT4 in third place in their class after three hours of racing.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Tom Coronel is TCR Europe champion: In a thrilling TCR Europe finale at Barcelona, Tom Coronel in the Audi RS 3 LMS won the drivers classification ahead of four other Audi privateers. They are all his teammates, but this did not mean that the veteran from the Netherlands was given anything as a gift. On the contrary: Kobe Pauwels overtook Coronel, who had started from pole position, from second place on the grid in the first race and celebrated his sixth victory of the season with a margin of just nine tenths of a second. The Belgian thus moved to within eight points of championship leader Coronel. With Pauwels ahead of Coronel, John Filippi and Nicola Baldan, the Audi customer team Comtoyou Racing even managed a 1-2-3-4 victory in this race.
