Audi R8 wins ahead of Porsche, Dodge, and Aston Martin

Belgian GT Championship:

At the 25-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps Phoenix Racing clinched its third victory of the season with the Audi R8 LMS in the Belgian GT Championship. However, after their narrow exploit on Friday Jean-Francois Hemroulle and Tim Verbergt already retired in the early phase of the second race on Saturday. Their first retirement caused them to drop to second place in the overall standings.
Grand stage for Audi at Donauring race

History:

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Audi brand spectators at the Donauring race next Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm will be able to witness almost all the important rally and race carsfrom the motorsport history of AUDI AG in action – from the 1934 Auto Union Type A all the way to theAudi R15 TDI. Three of the current Audi “factory” drivers – Lucas Luhr, Allan McNish and Marco Werner – will be deployed to the event on the historic circuit in the old center of Ingolstadt as well.

Results and point scores
Spa-Francorchamps (B), July 10, Belgian GT Championship round 7
1 Hemroulle/Verbergt (Audi R8 LMS) 24 laps in 1h 00m 4.700s
2 Verbist/Longin (Porsche) + 0.656s
3 Wauters/Van Hooydonk (Dodge) + 13.924s
4 Renard/Vosse (Aston Martin) + 15.684s
5 Huisman/Kuismanen (Ford) + 17.888s
Spa-Francorchamps (B), Juli 11, Belgian GT Championship round 8
1 Wauters/van Hooydonk (Dodge) 24 laps in 1h 01m 35.152s
2 Verbist/Longin (Porsche) + 1.784s
3 Huisman/Kuismanen (Ford) + 6.040s
4 Bouvy/Coens (Ferrari) + 6.360s
5 Vanhanen/Nurminen (Porsche) + 1m 21.544s

Standings after 8 of 14 rounds: 1 Wouters/van Hooydonk, 126 points; 2 Hemroulle/Verbergt, 115; 3 Huisman/Kuismanen, 97; 4 Verbist/Longin, 93; 5 Bouvy/Coens, 90.
Next race: Zolder (B), August 22

Coming up next week
Mattias Ekström turns 31 (Tuesday) … Donauring race (Saturday) … 6th round of the BFGoodrich Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring (Saturday) … 4th round of the DTM at Zandvoort (Sunday) … 7th and 8th round of the Italian GT Championship at Misano (Sunday).

Source : T.C.Y Motors SDN BHD

What a race! Nissan GTR team Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R won the race from the front grid to the end with 11 second from the nearest rival. Second place are the Keihin NSX Team which won the Best Overtake by J. Sports which started from 11 on the grid to second. Followed by Arta NSX on the third position. We were lucky that there were no rain which it was announced it will be a wet race.

GT500

Nissan GTR Hasemi Tomica Ebbro start to pull away at turn one.

MOTUL Autech Team GTR have to start at the back end of the grid from technical issue, it was amazing to see they pass all the GT300 and some of the GT500 and managed 8th.

Autech Team GTR passing Field BOMEX 320R Team at Turn 5

Again GT500 : GTR Motul Team overtaking GT300 : Weds Sport IS350

GT500 : ENEOS SC430 blasting through the Grand Stand

GT500 : Honda NSX – ARTA NSX TEAM at Turn 15

Nissan GTR team Hasemi Tomica Ebbro GT-R at the finish flag.

Press Conference

Coming soon!!! : GRID Access, Circuit Safari, Pit Walkabout, Full Version of the race coverage, Race Queen, Interviews, Video Clips

Thumbnail

Nismo Team done it again, What a qualifying! The Nismo GT500 team for got the best today’s qualifying and Super Lap and getting the pole position away. The number 22 GT-R finished first in the super lap tailing behind are the two NSXs in second and third.

Press Conference

SuperLap Qualifying Result for GT500 and GT300

GT500 result

1. MOTUL AUTECH #22 GT-R – 1′55.155
2. ARTA #1 NSX – 1′55.356
3. REAL #17 NSX – 1′55.443
4. WOODONE ADVAN Clarion #24 GT-R – 1′55.513
5. TAKATA #18 NSX – 1′55.613
6. EPSON #32 NSX – 1′56.338
7. Calsonic IMPUL #12 GT-R – 1′56.416
8. ECLIPSE ADVAN #25 SC430 – 1′56.458
9. YellowHat YMS TOMICA #3 GT-R – 1′56.545
10. RAYBRIG #100 NSX – 1′56.754

Pole Position

It’s official: F1 is broken. At least, with the FOTA’s announcement it will create a rival championship, it appears that F1 as we have known it is all but broken. Max Mosley and the FIA have gone back and forth with the FOTA for months, with neither side able to agree on a compromise and both sides claiming the other party is being intransigent.

After meeting at Renault’s Enstone, France headquarters the eight “rebel” teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota, Renault, BMW, Brawn, Red Bull, Toro Rosso) decided there was no way to proceed with the FIA, so it would proceed without the FIA. The crucial bits of their follow-up press release state:

“The teams cannot continue to compromise on the fundamental values of the sport and have declined to alter their original conditional entries to the 2010 World Championship.
“These teams therefore have no alternative other than to commence the preparation for a new Championship which reflects the values of its participants and partners. This series will have transparent governance, one set of regulations, encourage more entrants and listen to the wishes of the fans, including offering lower prices for spectators worldwide, partners and other important stakeholders.
“The major drivers, stars, brands, sponsors, promoters and companies historically associated with the highest level of motorsport will all feature in this new series.”

The release goes on to address issues the FOTA has with the “commercial rights holder,” by which they mean Bernie Ecclestone. If they mean what they’ve written, a more stable and less expensive F1 would be a victory for teams and fans. Track owners would probably also profit, since they pay Ecclestone more than ten million pounds simply for the right to hold an F1 race — and that’s part of the money the teams want a bigger share of.
Many observers have said the teams won’t set up another championship because they’re too focused on selling cars. But the FOTA has already spoken to Carmelo Ezpeleta, whose Dorna Sports company is in charge of Moto GP, and who has experience in taking control of the series from the FIM. If he can provide a turn-key solution, the teams can stick to doing what they do best.
We suspect the FOTA is correct and that brands, sponsors and promoters will follow the breakaway series rather than hang back with Williams, Force India and eight other teams in the F1 reset series. The question is: if those eight teams follow through, and assuming they take their contracted drivers, which series will get your attention next year?
For now, though, bring on the lawyers.

 
[Source: Autosport]

Source : Autoblog

Audi on the podium again at Le Mans

• Third place for R15 TDI on Le Mans début
• Unexpected difficulties rob Audi of chance of victory
• Clear commitment to 24 Hours of Le Mans

Ingolstadt/Le Mans – Eleven starts, eleven times in succession on the winner’s podium: Audi continued its impressive series of podium results in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . After taking three consecutive victories Audi Sport Team Joest had to settle for third position on this occasion in probably the world’s toughest endurance race.

“If you win the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times in succession and eight times overall this doesn’t happen by chance,” declared Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, after the eventful race. “We know how difficult it is to win Le Mans . Also Peugeot, who we congratulate on this well deserved victory, needed three attempts. I trust our technicians implicitly as well as the entire team and I am convinced that we will strike back next year. We are fully committed to this race. Audi will leave no stone unturned in its quest to reclaim the Le Mans winner’s trophy in 2010.”

The Le Mans début of the technically innovative Audi R15 TDI demonstrated that it has become even more difficult to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans first time out with a completely new sports prototype. After cancellation of the traditional test day, and Wednesday’s wet and rainy free practice session the subsequent four-hour qualifying session on Thursday and the 45-minute warm-up on Saturday morning was insufficient time to set-up the new Audi R15 TDI perfectly for the 13.629 kilometer track around which it is impossible to test.
With considerably higher temperatures on race day than on Thursday evening, and the correspondingly different grip levels caused by this, every Audi driver complained that the cars understeered excessively during the opening stages of the race. This was corrected on Saturday evening by fitting another front bodywork section with a different aerodynamic configuration. “Our car was very good after the changes,” said Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen.

However, another phenomenon occurred early on which had never appeared during the test race atSebring (USA) in March or throughout the subsequent test program: The intercoolers mounted in the sidepods of the three Audi R15 TDI became so dirty that they had to be cleaned repeatedly. Due to the increasing intercooler temperature the engine power had to be reduced occasionally.

Furthermore, two of the three Audi R15 TDI were torn out of the fight for overall victory in the opening hours. The three Germans Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner were forced to retire after six-and-a-half hours due to an accident. Lucas Luhr lost control of his Audi R15 TDI over a bump in the extremely fast “Porsche Curves” and slammed backwards into the barriers. The stewards prohibited the heavily damaged R15 TDI from continuing due to safety reasons.

Timo Bernhard (Germany) and the two Frenchmen Romain Dumas and Alexandre Prémat tumbled down the running order and were left in a hopeless position because the high-pressure injection pump, which normally runs absolutely reliably and which is barely accessible, had to be changed on the
V10 TDI engine in their R15 TDI.

As a result, Audi Sport Team Joest were left with the single Audi R15 TDI of Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish, who put the two leading Peugeots under constant pressure up until Sunday afternoon by setting fast lap times, before changing the right-rear suspension cost them four laps. At the end last year’s winners restricted themselves to defending their third position from the fourth placed Aston Martin.

“There is absolutely no doubt that race did not run as we had imagined,” pronounced Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “We have once again seen why the 24 Hours of Le Mans is justifiably regarded as the world’s toughest car race and why absolutely everything must be correct if you want to win. This was definitely not the case with us this time. We had unexpected problems with our new R15 TDI, which we will now analyze in peace and must solve. However, especially in the second half of the race we saw just how much potential the car has. We will build on this before making a new attempt next year.”

Source : www.audi-motorsport.info

Mikko and Ford rejuvenated by Acropolis win

15/6/09

Mikko Hirvonen says his win on the Acropolis Rally of Greece today has rejuvenated his challenge for the 2009 drivers’ title.

Hirvonen’s victory was Ford’s 70th at WRC level and puts him seven points behind his title rival Sebastien Loeb in the Drivers’ Championship with five rounds remaining.
“We’re back in the championship fight and the final five rallies of the year will be exciting,” said Hirvonen. “The next two events, in Poland and Finland, are on fast gravel roads which should suit me.”

“It’s good to be only seven points behind after what happened in Argentina. The rest of the season will be exciting and maybe we can put some more pressure on Sebastien. It’s really good. It brings everything back alive again,” he added.

Today’s result was great news for Ford in the manufacturers’ contest too. It was the team’s second consecutive victory following Latvala’s success in Italy last month and means Ford is now just 15 points from leaders Citroen in the manufacturers’ standings.

BP Ford Abu Dhabi team director Malcolm Wilson said: “It was a masterful drive from Mikko. Although he led after the first day, we were worried about the effect his start position would have on Saturday, but he knew exactly what to do and did it to perfection.”

“Jari-Matti did a great job after his error and capitalised on the mistakes of others. Our championship hopes were written off before Sardinia but we didn’t give up and we’re back in the fight,” he added.

Source : Wrc.com

What a week-end this has been! Two days of non-stop drifting as the D1 Street Legal guys battled it out at Ebisu circuit. I am beyond sleep deprived, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for a proper post on this action-packed event. For now, I’ve selected some teaser shots to keep you happy, but I’ll be posting a lot more in the coming days, so make sure you check back!

It has been a few years since I covered a Street Legal event and  I was stunned at how both the cars and drivers have evolved!

Due to the less high-profile nature of the event the whole atmosphere is far more relaxed, but the action is simply as awesome as in the top level Grand Prix rounds.

I finally got to see the Blitz 180SX in action, a car I had seen at Ebisu before parked up in the paddock.  Hagisako was driving great all week-end and coped very well with the rain.

Yes, rain, and lots of it! As the first group went out for the morning qualifying the sky turned a menacing shade of gray, as what can only be described as torrential rain, began to lash down. Within a matter of minutes the track was soaked and the session was suspended.

This is what the drop into the main straight looked like after ten minutes!

…which made for some excellent action. Most drivers let a lot of air out of their tires to cope with the slippery surface.

Kazama Auto and Moty’s were out in full force this weekend with a total of five cars, including the JZX110 and the S15 Silvia.

As ever the tire changing machine at Minami was under constant use!

Here is Tezuka with his Kids Heard RB26-powered ER34 Skyline. He is one of only a couple D1-GP drivers still participating in Street Legal. Rie Shinmi was out on Saturday with the Kids Heard ER34 4-door, the same car we saw in April at Nikko for the Queen Battle.

Kitaoka behind the wheel of the red MarkII was driving like a bat out of hell all week-end long, making it into the Best 16.

The final battle was between a pair of S15 Silvias driven by Jikuya, in the red GP Sports machine and Nakamura, who will probably look familiar to those who followed JR’s Japan tour!

Both drivers put on a stunning display of perfect drifting but it was Nakamura in the end who managed to grab first place. I guess all the street-drift practice has paid off! There is much more action to check out from this week-end, including some night drifting! Don’t miss the next installment from Ebisu!

- Dino Dalle Carbonare

Source : Speedhunter.com

Good morning everybody. Here’s the rundown for you in Brunei based readers on where and when to find Le Mans coverage today. There are 13 hours left and  Peugeot Sport Total is leading and follow by Audi Sport Team Joest. You can watch it live at astro channel at 814 Eurosport LIVE today.

13 hours left standing