While the GT4 and TCR race cars contested the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge two Audi R8 LMS cars tackled the competition in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, battling for their third victory in the GTD class in the 24-hour race at Daytona. The German Montaplast by Land-Motorsport team repeatedly led this classification in the course of the first nine hours of the race with Kelvin van der Linde/Sheldon van der Linde/Christopher Mies/Jeffrey Schmidt. Then a 5-minute stop-and-go penalty was imposed because the squad was accused of a sporting violation during refueling. The team accepted the penalty. During the night, the mechanics also had to change a defective rear wing. As a result, the number 29 Audi lost four laps in total. Before the finish, the team unlapped itself once and saw the checkered flag in seventh position. The American Magnus Racing team that had won the GTD class with Audi in 2016 achieved position six with Andrew Davis/Andy Lally/John Potter/Markus Winkelhock.
Between now and October, eleven more events are on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar and nine other events will follow in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. Audi Sport customer racing’s GT3, GT4 and TCR race cars are perfectly represented in another major North American series as well: The Pirelli World Challenge includes ten events between March and September. There Audi’s GT3 sports cars will be battling for overall victories and in the class for TCR race cars Audi is the title defender this year.
Audi Sport customer racing has never before been represented with such a large lineup of customers at so many events on the important North American market. Furthermore, on October 28, the Intercontinental GT Challenge in which Audi is the title defender as well will end at Laguna Seca. It will kick off next week in the Bathurst 12 Hour in Australia where eight Audi R8 LMS will be on the grid.
24h Daytona picture gallery