Hard qualifying for Audi teams at the Nürburgring

By Tarek Ramchani

The German ADAC GT Masters is at the Nürburgring this weekend for the sixth round of the season. The three regular Audi R8 LMS ultra cars are there. Two from Prosperia uhc Speed and the third from Mamerow Racing.

For the Nürburgring there has been another change at Mamerow Racing. René Rast, who is busy in the German Carrera Cup, is replaced by Audi veteran and R8 LMS specialist, Frank Stippler. He will share the #40 Audi R8 LMS ultra with Christian Mamerow. The ADAC GT Masters visits the Eifel for the second time this year, last time out the Mamerow team won race 1 of the weekend. At Prosperia the linups are unchanged, Christopher Mies and Edward Sandström with car #21 and the sister #22 machine for Christian Abt and Carsten Tilke.

Once again, a very penalizing Balance of Performance hit the Audi cars. The R8 LMS ultra is clrearly outpaced in the German GT3 series and not able to match the pace of the rivals even with top quality drivers lineups as Mies/Sandström and Mamerow/Stippler. All free practice and qualifying sessions were very hard for the Audi squad.

In the free practice sessions, the Audi cars struggled little . #21 R8 LMS ultra of Christopher Mies and Edward Sandström finished in 13th in the first session and 12th in the second one. #22 car of Christian Abt and Carsten Tilke was 18th and 23rd. And #40 Audi of Christian Mamerow and Frank Stippler ended in 18th and 23rd.

Later in the afternoon there were two qualifying sessions. And things weren't much diffrent. Mies/Sandström qualified in 14th for race 1 and 21st for race 2. Abt/Tilke were 31st in both sessions. Mamerow/Stippler were 16th in the first session and improved in the second session ending in 10th.

Race 1 is set for Saturday at 12:30 local time, and race 2 for Sunday at 12:00. Both races will have live TV coverage on Kabel 1. We wish the best of luck for both Audi teams and all the drivers.

More information:
Prosperia uhc Speed website
Mamerow Racing website
ADAC GT Masters website

Hard qualifying for Audi teams in GT Masters at the Red Bull Ring

By Tarek Ramchani

The demanding ADAC GT Masters is at the Red Bull Ring this weekend for the fifth meeting of the season. Three Audi R8 LMS ultra are there from Prosperia uhc Speed and Mamerow Racing. It has already been a very hard day 1 in both free practice sessions and qualifying for the Audi squad.

#22 Prosperia uhc Speed - Audi R8 

Prosperia uhc Speed are again with its two cars. The #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra is shared by Christopher Mies and Edward Sandstrom. The sister #22 car is for Christian Abt and Carsten Tilke. The two cars struggled in both free practice sessions and qualifying. Mies and Sandstrom in the #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra were 27th in the first practice session and 9th in the second one. Team mates Abt and Tilke got 36th and 29th in the two practice sessions. Things got worse for the team in the first qualifying session for Saturday race 1. Mies and Sanstrom will start from 33rd on the grid, some two seconds slower than the pole setting car. Abt and Tilke are way back in 37th place. Mies and Sandtrom were able to improve in the second qualifying round taking 15th place. Abt and Tilke finished in 31st.

#40 Mamerow Racing - Audi R8

Mamerow Racing had an amazing Nurburgring round last time out. A win and a fine third place finish for Christian Mamerow and René Rast. The #40 Audi R8 LMS ultra finished 25th in the first free practice session and 27th in the second one. In the first qualifying session Rast and Memrow were able to improve by taking the 11th spot on the grid. In the second qualifying session the two drivers got a 27th place for Sunday's race 2.

Day one on the Austrian track was a very difficult one for Audi teams. The ADAC GT Masters is now the premier national GT series in Europe. The Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will have to fight hard on track to improve against a very large and top quality field from Porsche, Corvette, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Photo credit: ADAC GT Masters

More information:
Prosperia uhc Speed official website
Mamerow Racing official website
ADAC GT Masters official website

Mamerow Racing Audi maiden win in GT Masters race 1 at the Nürburgring

By Tarek Ramchani

Sensational race 1 victory today for Mamerow Racing and Audi at the Nurburgring. This is the first victory for the Audi brand in the 2012 ADAC GT Masters season. The #40 Audi R8 LMS ultra did a great job during the Friday qualifying session with a very strong second place.

Moving into race 1 the Mamerow R8 LMS ultra shared by Christian Mamerow and Rene Rast fought hard against a full top quality field of GT3 cars. Despite wet weather and hard conditions on track, Rene Rast was able to take the race lead from a SLS AMG. Rast was the quickest on track and started building a big gap over the chasing group. At the half way point, Christian Mamerow took over after the mandatory pit stops. Conditions changed as the track started to dry with big battles for the top spots. Chrisitna Mamerow was able to keep his race lead to the finish line ahead of the works BMW Alpina and a Porsche GT3 R.

Mamerow Racing was victorious but bad luck hit the other Audi team of Prosperia uhc Speed. After a disappointing qualifying session, the two cars were only able to finish in positions 29 with Chrisitan Abt and Luca Ludwig in the #22 Audi R8 LMS ultra. The sister #21 of Christopher Mies and Edward Sandstrom was further back in position 38.

Race 2 is set for tomorrow, Mamerow Racing proved again the Audi R8 LMS ultra is one of the strongest cars in the field. The car will start from position twelve while Prosperia cars will start from seventh with car #21 and 27th with car #22. We wish the best of luck for both teams and for an additional Audi race win.

Full Nurburgring Race 1 results

Photo credit: ADAC GT Masters

More information:
Mamerow Racing official website
Prosperia uhc Speed official website
ADAC GT Masters official website

Video: 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours - Audi R8 LMS ultra victory

By Johan Laubscher

The 2012 Nürburgring 24 Hours was a masterpiece for Audi Sport. It was an emotional rollercoaster of a race for everyone involved. In the end two Audis came home to finish 1-2 for the four rings. Audi Sport Team Phoenix and Mamerow Racing fielded the top two cars respectively. This was the Audi R8 LMS R16’s fourth attempt at the Green Hell endurance classic and it was finally a victorious one.

Here is the first official Audi highlights video from the event. Both English and German versions of the video are included below. The short video encompasses the race very well from the Audi perspective, showing the gruelling battle towards victory, enjoy:

24 hours at the Nürburgring – 24 hours of tension at the Nürburgring

24 Stunden am Nürburgring – 24 Stunden Hochspannung am Nürburgring

Audi teams eager to fight at Zandvoort's GT Masters round 2

By Tarek Ramchani

The ADAC GT Masters is heading to Zandvoort (Holland) for round 2. Last time out at Oschersleben the Audi teams were extremely unlucky. Team Prosperia uhc Speed and Mamerow Racing will represent the Audi squad in what is seen as the premium national GT3 series in Europe.

Prosperia uhc Speed:

Theatrically Prosperia uhc Speed could be seen as the top Audi team in the ADAC GT Masters. At Oschersleben the #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra was able to take pole position for Race 1. However bad luck hit both cars and prevented them from achieving strong results. The two team cars in Holland will be in hands of very strong driver lineups. Christopher Mies and Christer Jons will share the #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra, both are Audi regulars and together won earlier this season in the Bathurst 12 Hours race with and R8 LMS. The sister #22 cars will have the 2009 champion Christian Abt joined by Carsten Tilke.

Mamerow Racing:

Mamerow Racing is a new team to Audi this year. The start of the season was incredibly unlucky for the team in both the ADAC GT Masters and the VLN Endurance Series. In Holland Mamerow Racing is seeking to take revenge from lady luck. The #40 Audi R8 LMS ultra will be shared by the team's star driver Christian Mamerow and the youngster Bernd Herndlhofer from Austria.

The ADAC GT Masters is visiting Circuit Zandvoort for the first time. The Dutch track could suit the Audi R8 LMS which was proven by last year’s victory for WRT in FIA GT3. Again the three Audi cars will have to fight against a very large and top quality field, the best in Europe for GT3 sprint racing.


More Informations:
Prosperia uhc Speed official website
Prosperia uhc Speed official Facebook
Mamerow Racing official website
Mamerow Racing official Facebook
ADAC GT Masters official website