By Tarek Ramchani
The Japanese Super GT series 2012 season will start next weekend at Okayama. Audi is joining the series for the first time with no less than four Audi R8 LMS. Two cars will be fielded by the Hitotsuyama Racing team.
Hitotsuyama Racing is no stranger to the Audi R8 LMS. In 2011 the team competed in both the GT Asia series and the Japanese based Super Taikyu endurance Series. They took a win at Suzuka in GT Asia. For 2012 the team is moving from a one car effort to two cars, and moving to the world famous and demanding Japanese Super GT series.
The team's two cars will have a four driver line-up :
#20 RacerBook Audi R8 LMS shared by Michael Kim and Hideki Noda
#21 ZENT Audi R8 LMS shared by Swiss female Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki
Super GT is divided into two classes, GT500 and GT300. The Audi cars will enter the GT300 class. since last year the GT300 class has been open to FIA based GT3 Spec cars. Audi and team Hitotsuyama joining the series is a great addition to an already world class field. A mix between Japanese exotic cars from Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and European GTs from BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Audi. At last week’s official Super GT Test days at Okayama the Audi cars were immediately fast. Hitotsuyama's #21 ZENT R8 LMS of Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki took a great fifth overall in the class. A stunning performance for the debut, with three Audi cars in the top 10. We all hope that will be the case for the race weekends, looking forward to the R8 LMS’s first ever win in the very fought GT300 class.
Hitotsuyama Racing took part earlier this week at the Audi Japan press conference. The two cars showed up with their brand new liveries. Two other teams racing the R8 LMS in 2012 are äpr racing and GAINER. The äpr racing team (not APR Motorsport from America) was also present at the press conference along with a brand new white Audi R8 GT Spyder.
More information:
Photos hosted at official Facebook page of Hitotsuyama Racing
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| #21 ZENT Audi R8 LMS of Cyndie Allemann and Akihiro Tsuzuki |
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| #20 Racerbook Audi R8 LMS of Michael Kim and Hideki Noda |
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