Motorsport Newsletter 10/2011: Audi A4 DTM drives through Graz

Ingolstadt, Germany – The most popular international touring car series appears in Graz one week before the DTM stages its great Austria comeback at the new Red Bull Ring at Spielberg between 3 and 5 June. Spectators can also see the Audi A4 DTM in action.

On Saturday May 28 Audi drivers Rahel Frey, Miguel Molina and Martin Tomczyk are guests at a DTM PR event in the Graz city center. A demonstration run from Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Kai via the Andreas-Hofer-Platz to the Hauptplatz with the Audi A4 DTM is also included in the varied program. The interest for the DTM comeback in Austria is enormous: there are only a few tickets still available for the race at the Red Bull Ring.

Audi completes a test race this coming weekend for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring: the Audi Sport teams Abt Sportsline and Phoenix both compete with a pair of Audi R8 LMS sportscars in the VLN endurance championship. At the wheel sit the drivers who will also compete for Audi on 25 and 26 June.

Sport and safety: the Audi R8 LMS campaigned for Road Safety Day 2011 in the center of Munich. To this end the successful GT3 customer sportscar on the Odeonsplatz attracted many admiring glances, because the V10 Coupé shone in the colors of Audi Sport performance cars for the first time. The car will race in this livery at the 24 hours Nürburgring. Audi is committed alongside the ADAC, Deutschen Verkehrssicherheitsrat, the Police and many other partners to the Road Safety Day 2011.

Markus Winkelhock also travelled to the event in Munich for an autograph session. The Swabian and fans darling is a member of the 14-strong Audi factory squad at the 24 hours Nürburgring on June 25 and 26.

The weekend for Rahel Frey, Edoardo Mortara and Martin Tomczyk was also dominated by a 24-hour race. In this case “race” was to be understood quite literally for the three Audi factory drivers from the DTM: At the “24 hours of Audi” the three ran around the factory premises in Ingolstadt yesterday and today. The racing drivers ran for a charitable cause together with 2,000 other employees.

An appearance of a completely different nature is on the agenda for Rahel Frey this coming Thursday: the Swiss becomes the “Glamour Girl” for the sponsor of her Audi A4 DTM. The Condé Nast Verlag publication celebrates its tenth anniversary next week with a big party in Berlin.

Victory in Australia: in the second Australian GT Championship round at Winton Mark Eddy won Saturday’s 30 minute sprint race in the Penford Audi Sport team’s Audi R8 LMS. In Sunday’s one hour main race he narrowly missed the podium after finishing fourth.

In the second Blancpain Endurance Series race of the season at the Spanish track Navarra Filipe Albuquerque, Bert Longin and Stéphane Ortelli finished the race in second place in the Audi R8 LMS. The Belgian W Racing team trio started from the pole position.

A word from… Romolo Liebchen

You are Head of Customer Sport for quattro GmbH. The Audi R8 LMS has made a dream start to May. Did you expect this?
With 74 victories and seven championship titles the Audi R8 LMS had already demonstrated long before last weekend that it is an excellent GT3 race car. However, that we would celebrate five victories divided among four championships on one weekend is really something quite special. It speaks volumes for our car, but also for our customers.