Richard Boake wins Canadian touring car title in the Audi RS 3 LMS
Three victories for the Audi R8 LMS at the ADAC Racing Weekend in Belgium
Two class wins for the Audi R8 LMS GT2 in Spain
Sports Car Championship Canada 2024
September began with a milestone for Audi Sport customer racing: Since the start of the program in 2009, customer teams worldwide have regularly won titles with the Audi R8 LMS in the GT2, GT3 and GT4 variants as well as the Audi RS 3 LMS TCR touring car in overall drivers championships and many other championship classes.
Now the 500th title in total has gone to an Audi customer team: Richard Boake won the Sports Car Championship Canada powered by Michelin. In doing so, he also continued an unusual series for the Audi RS 3 LMS in this country. Race victories with the GT3 version of the Audi R8 LMS at the ADAC Racing Weekend and two class wins for the GT2 version in Spain rounded off a convincing international motorsport weekend for the customers.
Audi RS 3 LMS (TCR)
Series of successes in Canada: The Audi RS 3 LMS remains the benchmark in Canadian touring car racing. Richard Boake is the fifth driver in a row to win a title in this country at the wheel of the touring car with the four rings. The Audi privateer driver came to the finale of the Sports Car Championship Canada powered by Michelin as leader of the standings with a 24-point lead. On the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park race track, Boake overtook his title rival Anthony Martella, who had started from pole position in another Audi RS 3 LMS, on the first lap of the first race. Boake, Martella and Honda driver Ruben Volt were within 1.5 seconds of each other and fought a thrilling battle to the finish.
In the end, Boake celebrated his fourth win of the season with the Blanchet Motorsports team. In the second race, 15-year-old Martella took his third win of the season. Boake followed just 192 thousandths of a second behind in second place, making him the new champion. Eight of the ten victories this season went to the Audi RS 3 LMS. Boake is already the fifth Audi privateer driver in a long series of successes. In 2020, Zachary Vanier was champion of the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC), followed by Travis Hill (2021), Jerimy Daniel (2022) and Dean Baker (2023) winning the Sports Car Championship Canada powered by Michelin in an Audi RS 3 LMS.
Audi was also unbeatable in the TCR China Challenge on the fourth race weekend. On the Daqing circuit, Liu Zichen took victory in the first sprint ahead of Wu Yifan. Both were competing for the 326 Racing Team in an RS 3 LMS each. Third place went to Hu Heng in an Audi from the GYT Racing team. In the second race, Pan Yiming in an Audi from Nkoda HW Racing overtook his rival Richard Li, who run wide in the Lynk & Co. with three laps to go, and ultimately won by three tenths of a second ahead of Audi brand colleague Hu Heng. In the Danish Endurance Championship, Team Storm Development achieved its second win of the season in its class. Stefan Lorenzen and Niels Nyboe shared an Audi RS 3 LMS in Djursland and were more than 26 seconds faster than the Cupra of their pursuers in the second race.
Strong performance at the ADAC Racing Weekend: The Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium was well worth the trip for the Audi customer teams. Stefan Wieninger continued his winning streak in the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy. The entrepreneur from Siegsdorf, who only takes part in this series sporadically, picked up on the fourth race weekend where he left off in the second round in June. Once again, Wieninger remained unbeaten in both races in the Audi R8 LMS from Land-Motorsport. In the first sprint, he opened up a 5.9-second lead over Corvette driver Jürgen Bender. In the second race, he crossed the finish line in the Audi a full 40 seconds ahead of the BMW of Jürgen Alzen/Timo Scheibner, while Berthold Gruhn won Class 2a in another Audi.
Together with an overall victory for équipe vitesse at Hockenheim in August, the Audi R8 LMS has now won five of the eight races in the 2024 STT season so far. Christian and Wolfgang Land’s team had another reason to celebrate in the GTC Race series at the same ADAC Racing Weekend event. The Ukrainian driver pairing of Konstantin Gutsul and Ivan Peklin were delighted with their first win of the season in the GT60 powered by Pirelli race format. There was a lot of variety over the course of the 60 minutes of racing: Luca Arnold and Julian Hanses initially battled for the lead, with Jannes Fittje also playing a leading role later on. However, all three Mercedes-AMG cars retired or dropped back for different reasons. This left the way clear on Saturday for the Audi privateers Gutsul and Peklin, who were exactly one second ahead at the end. There was also a trophy in the GTC Race sprint format: in the second competition on Sunday, Ivan Peklin took second place as a solo driver.
Teammate Konstantin Gutsul leads the Am classification of the sprint series ahead of the finale at the Nürburgring. The ADAC GT Masters also held its fourth event at Spa. For the first time this season, an Audi customer team achieved a podium result. Jonas Karklys from Lithuania and Swiss driver Pablo Schumm drove the Audi R8 LMS of Liqui Moly Team Engstler by NordVPN to third place in the second race.
Audi R8 LMS GT2
Two class victories in Spain: Team CD Dago remained the measure of all things in its class at the fourth event of the Campeonato de España de GT. Pablo Yeregui and Daniel Carretero contested the Monteblanco circuit for the first time with the Audi R8 LMS GT2 and won the GPX classification in both races. The Audi privateers have now won their class five times in six individual races. In the second competition of the sports and touring car series, they also made it onto the podium in the overall standings with third place. Yeregui/Carretero now lead the Copa de España GPX by 40 points.
Audi R8 LMS GT4
Trophy in Belgium: Jürgen Hemker returned from the fourth round of the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy with silverware. The private driver from the Konrad Motorsport team drove his Audi R8 LMS GT4 to third place in his class in the first sprint at Spa.
Audi Sport customer racing
500 titles for Audi in customer racing: Richard Boake’s success in Canada marks Audi Sport customer racing’s 500th worldwide title success since 2009. The title victories of the individual model series at a glance: 119 drivers titles and 185 other class victories went to the GT3 version of the Audi R8 LMS. The GT2 version, the youngest of the three GT variants, contributed eight drivers titles and four further class victories to the tally, while the GT4 version achieved 14 drivers titles and 38 further successes. In touring car racing, drivers and teams have won 34 racing series and 98 other subcategories with the Audi RS 3 LMS to date.
Coming up:
05–08/09 Donington (GB), round 6, British GT Championship
06–08/09 Sepang (MAL), round 4, Thailand Super Series
06–08/09 Sachsenring (D), round 6, DTM
06–08/09 Barber Motorsports Park (USA), round 7, GT America
06–08/09 Imola (I), round 3, Campionato Italiano GT Endurance
06–08/09 Imola (I), round 4, TCR Italy
06–08/09 Ningbo (CHN), round 4, TCR China Championship
06–09/09 Brno (CZ), round 5, TCR Europe
07–08/09 Brno (CZ), round 5, TCR Eastern Europe
07–08/09 Brno (CZ), round 7, Eset Cup Series
07–08/09 Motegi (J), round 4, Super Taikyu Series
07–08/09 Ningbo (CHN), round 3, GT Sprint Challenge
