Audi R8 LMS GT3
Winning streak continues: As in 2023 and 2024, a driver pairing in an Audi R8 LMS once again won the GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS Silver Cup. The Chinese driver pairing of Congfu Cheng and Yu Kuai secured this title with the FAW Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom at the final in Beijing. They finished third in their class in both races on the new street circuit in the capital. Congfu Cheng, who competed with a different teammate last year, has thus successfully defended his title in his hometown. The best Audi in the first race was the R8 LMS of the Uno Racing Team with Rio and Shaun Thong, who finished second in the Silver classification and repeated this result the following day. This secured them third place in the Silver class standings. In the second race, the best Audi even managed to make it onto the overall podium. Chinese driver Bao Jinlong and his Swedish teammate Joel Eriksson, who shared a cockpit for the first time, were the third-best Pro-Am driver combination for Audi Sport Asia Team Phantom and finished third in the overall results. Eriksson set the fastest lap of the race. In Italy, the Tresor Attempto Racing team celebrated another title success. After Arkin Aka and Ferdinando Geri’s team had already won the overall title in the Endurance series of the Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo in September, the amateur classification of the Sprint series also went to the team from Hanover. At the finale in Monza, Alberto Clementi Pisani/Marco Cassarà finished second in their class in the final race on Sunday in their Audi R8 LMS. After three wins this season, they also achieved three second places in four events. This gave the Italian driver pairing a 14-point lead over the Ferrari of Chinese driver Han Huilin in the final standings. Memo Gidley secured his third win of the season in the GT America powered by AWS finale. Right at the start of the first 40-minute race in Indianapolis, the Ski Autosports driver in the Audi R8 LMS took the lead from Mercedes driver George Kurtz, who had started from pole position. By the halfway point of the race, Memo Gidley’s lead was already 1.3 seconds. By the finish line, the American had increased his lead to 3.3 seconds. This meant that Gidley finished the season in third place in the standings, even though he had not taken part in the first two of eight events. In the New Zealand South Island Endurance Series, Sam Fillmore/Jonny Reid celebrated their first victory of the season in the final race. The driver pairing shared an Audi R8 LMS from the International Motorsport team on the Highlands circuit. Starting from fifth on the grid, the two New Zealanders prevailed thanks to a good tire strategy and their superior driving in traffic. After Fillmore was in the cockpit at the start, Reid managed the tires perfectly in the final stages. His pursuer Andrew Waite, on the other hand, was unable to attack him in his Lamborghini due to deteriorating tires. Steve Brooks, who was competing alongside Australian Brad Schumacher in the Wolfbrook Motorsport Audi R8 LMS, was unlucky this time around. The right rear wheel could not be removed during the first pit stop, meaning that their Audi only finished in eighth place. This meant that Brooks had no chance in the fight for the overall title, but he did win the Michelin Am Cup in the end. In German club racing, Land-Motorsport ended the season with a decent result. Stefan Wieninger secured the runner-up title at the Spezial Tourenwagen Trophy final as part of the ADAC Racing Weekend at the Nürburgring. He started the first race in second place in the Land-Motorsport Audi R8 LMS. He led in the early stages, but then lost a position during the pit stop phase and ultimately finished second. In the second race, the amateur driver from Bavaria started in third place and improved by one position. After the original winners Michael Sander/Jay-Mo Härtling in a Mercedes-AMG received a time penalty for overtaking under full course yellow, Wieninger was declared the winner. It was already his fourth victory of the season. In the International GT Open racing series, Christopher Haase and Simon Reicher maintained their chances of successfully defending their title until the very end. At the final race in Monza, the driver duo initially qualified for pole position, but were relegated to seventh place on the grid following a decision by the race stewards for exceeding track limits. Over the course of the 500-kilometer race, the Audi improved to fourth place, meaning that Haase/Reicher finished the season in third place in the standings. Their Austrian team, Eastalent Racing, also took third place in the team standings. In the Pro-Am classification of the Europe-wide racing series, another driver team, the Czech line-up of Libor Milota/Filip Salaquarda from I.S.R., took third place in the standings with an Audi R8 LMS. In the South African Extreme Supercars Driven by Dunlop racing series, various customers driving the Audi R8 LMS secured a total of six podium finishes in three individual races during the fifth round. On the Zwartkops circuit, Gianni Giannoccaro finished second twice and third once in the GT3 classification for Stradale Motorsport. In Class A, fellow Audi driver Paul Hill finished third three times and is therefore also third in Class A of the championship.
