Blancpain GT: Belgian Audi Club Team WRT testing at Zolder

By Johan Laubscher

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was out testing at Zolder on Thursday.

The Belgian Audi Sport customer racing team entered multiple Audi R8 LMS ultra cars at the general Thursday Zolder test day.

They are currently preparing for a multi-car assault on the 2014 Blancpain GT Series, with up to four cars planned to be entered. Three cars will be entered in the Blancpain Endurance Series, with a fourth car planned for the 24 Hours of Spa. Four WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will be seen in the Blancpain Sprint Series. 

Photo credit: 
Laurens Vanthoor
Cesar Ramos

BRCC: Audi R8 LMS teams testing at Zolder

By Johan Laubscher

Two Audi R8 LMS cars were seen taking part in testing at Zolder on Thursday. The cars from PK Carsport and MOMO Megatron DF1 were both used at the test.

Anthony Kumpen was one of the drivers on hand at Zolder this week. Neither teams have announced their 2014 plans as of yet, but it is very exciting to see both of these cars taking part in testing.

The Belgian Racing Car Championship, wherein PK Carsport won the 2013 Endurance title with Anthony Kumpen, Bert Longin and Maarten Makelberge, will be hosting its official Zolder test day on 20 March.

Thanks to BelgiumCarChannel for the information and the cover image.

Photo credit: 
BelgiumCarChannel
Anthony Kumpen
PK Carsport

FIA GT: Belgian Audi Club Team WRT testing at Zolder ended with a crash for Demoustier

By Johan Laubscher

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT are busy preparing for their last events of the season and they were seen testing at Zolder yesterday.

The Belgian team is currently preparing for the finale of the FIA GT Series, where they will be fielding four cars. Their regular three car team will be joined by a fourth car, which will be driven by Filipe Albuquerque and Grégoire Demoustier. WRT will also be taking part in the International GT Open finale at Barcelona, where they will be entering one Audi R8 LMS ultra for Filipe Albuquerque and Yves Weerts.

The Zolder test day on 31 October saw the participation of WRT and one of their Audi R8 LMS ultra cars, which was driven by Grégoire Demoustier. The day ended prematurely for WRT, as Demoustier suffered a crash with the car due to an issue with the brakes. He is luckily unharmed, but the car did sustain frontal damage.

More information about the test day and photos of the damaged WRT Audi can be seen at autosport.be HERE. 

We have included an embedded YouTube video featuring the WRT Audi at the test day - from ThomasCarracing.

Photo credit: Screenshots from ThomasCarracing on Youtube

Historic Racing: André Lotterer races Audi Coupe at Zolder

By Johan Laubscher 

Two-time Le Mans winner,  André Lotterer, was again seen in the Belgian Historic Cup this weekend. Just one weekend after Le Mans he swapped his Audi R18 e-tron quattro for a classic Audi Coupe.

The "Zolder Grand Prix 50 Years" event was held this weekend, with a number of categories taking part. The Belgian Historic Cup was one of the categories, featuring a very special Audi entry. The orange/red/yellow Nothelle / Kamei Audi Coupe was entered in the event, a car which has become famous in recent times as Andre Lotterer's father was involved in the original building of the car many years ago, and Andre himself has driven this car at some of the Belgian Historic events. 

André Lotterer was on hand again this weekend to pilot the Audi. The car had originally been entered with Johan Aerts as the driver of the #81 Audi Coupe. Andre had a lot of fun and also took a class victory.

André Lotterer on twitter: "Class win and young timer fun today in #Zolder! I like to have some good old school cars to play with… http://instagram.com/p/bJbXcDrRca/ "

It is great to see these classic Audi race cars still competing in historic events, and even better when current Audi factory drivers, like Lotterer, get involved adding even more excitement. 

Photo credit and more information: 
Circuit Zolder on Facebook

Video: Audi vs Lamborghini titanic battle for the lead at Zolder

By Tarek Ramchani

Circuit Zolder in Belgium hosted the second round of the FIA GT Series last weekend. The main Championship Race on sunday saw an epic battle for the lead, which whent to the checkered flag. The battle was between the Audi R8 LMS ultra (Belgian Audi Club Team WRT) of local hero, Laurens Vanthoor, and the Lamborghini Gallardo (Reiter Engineering) of Slovakian driver Stephan Rozina. Audi didn't win in the end, but here is an extraordinary and very fair fight to the finish line, one of the most exciting GT battles in recent years.

Photo credit: SRO / FIA GT Series

5 Cylinder Glory: Audi Coupe at Zolder

By Tarek Ramchani

Audi and Belgium is such a great story. The brand of the Four Rings has a great racing heritage in the country with multiple wins in national Belgian motorsport series. Here is an iconic and legendary car. It is an Audi Coupe from Nothelle-Kamei. This car has a very special connection to the modern Audi Sport family. Henri Lotterer, father of Andre Lotterer the two times Le Mans 24 Hours overall winner with Audi, was part of the team behind this car. Mr Lotterer was heavily involved with the assembly of the car’s engine, which ensured that the car was amazingly quick and loud. It is a 2.0L engine producing around 240 bhp. Here are two nice videos made by Belgian-Motorsport.com about this great looking car. The first video is from last April with Lotterer himself driving the car, the second is from the end of August. Enjoy the 5 Cylinders symphony.

More information:
Photo gallery of the Audi Coupe Kamei

WRT and Audi on pole at Zolder 24 Hours

By Tarek Ramchani 

The Zolder 24 Hours is this weekend, the 34th edition of this Belgian endurance event. A single Audi R8 LMS ultra is entering the race from Belgian Audi Club Team WRT.

Team WRT Audi achieved a well deserved pole position for the race tomorrow after a very fraught qualifying session. The Belgian team had a fantastic three-way battle with the BMW Z4 GT3 of Marc VDS and the Porsche 997 GT3 R from ProSpeed Competition. The defending champions in this event are entering the #32 R8 LMS ultra which is shared by four strong drivers: Laurens Vanthoor and Anthony Kumpen both from Belgium, accompanied by Edward Sandström from Sweden and Audi factory driver Marco Bonanomi from Italy.

Only three GT3 cars are on the entry list. The three cars are from the top three Belgian GT teams. They will be the big favorites for the overall win. The other competitors are mainly smaller prototypes called CN, the best of these are three seconds down on the pole setting Audi.

The race start is set for tomorrow at 4:00 PM local time. Good luck to WRT.

Qualifying session times

Photo credit: Fabrice Bergenhuizen / Endurance-Info.com

Audi 50 at Zolder Race Festival

By Tarek Ramchani

Circuit Zolder in Belgium hosted the Youngtimer Trophy a week ago. The event was part of the Zolder Race Festival. Very beautiful and glorious Audi 50 cars were at the event. Here are some nice photos from our friends at Speed-O-Graphica.

More information:
Speed-O-Graphica official website
Speed-O-Graphica official Facebook
Circuit Zolder official website