OTOMOTIVE: Audi R8 LMS racing in the land of the rising sun

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Audi R8 LMS racing in the land of the rising sun

By Johan Laubscher

The four rings racing in Japan has quite a lot of excitement in store for Audi fans in 2012. No less than four Audi R8 LMS cars will be fielded in the Japanese Super GT Championship this year. It is however not the first time that the Audi brand has been associated with the land of the rising sun.

Sports car fans will affectionately remember Team Goh which competed with the legendary Audi R8 Le Mans prototype cars from 2002 to 2004. Audi Sport Team Goh, as they were formally known had their crowning moment in 2004 when the team took victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

2011 saw the return of the Audi brand to Japanese Motorsport with an Audi R8 LMS from Hitotsuyama Racing competing in the Japanese Super Taikyu Endurance Series and in GT Asia.

For 2012 the Audi presence has quadrupled. Four Audis have been confirmed for the 2012 Super GT championship from three different teams. Hitotsuyama Racing will field two Audi R8 LMS cars in the series. The driver parings for the team are lead by car #21 being driven by Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki and car #20 with Michael Kim and Hideki Noda. The #20 is still in the 2011 livery with which it competed at Macau but the #20 Audi R8 LMS is already in its new 2012 ZENT livery, and what a livery. The car looks absolutely stunning in its shiny silver and blue appearance.

The other two cars in the 2012 Super GT are both brand new Audi R8 LMS ultra cars, two of only a handful of ultras that have been completed and delivered worldwide. The two teams running these cars are GAINER and äpr racing (Not to be confused with APR Motorsport from North America). The #11 GAINER car is also an example of a great livery with a beautiful shiny silver livery and is to be driven by Tetsuya Tanaka and Katsuyuki Hiranaka. The äpr racing #30 R8 LMS ultra is still in its plain silver colour as it was delivered and will be driven by Yuki Iwasaki and Yuya Sakamoto.

The Audi R8 LMS cars have been setting very fast times during the official pre-season tests at Okayama and the scene is set for Audis debut in the Super GT series. With four cars, eight fast drivers and three top teams, the four rings are well represented in the land of the rising sun.