Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra spotted at the Nürburgring

The brand new Spec Audi R8 LMS ultra raced during the opening round of the German VLN Endurance Series at the Nurburgring. It was run by team Phoenix Racing and it looks great.

Photos by our friend Norbert Kratz, more at his Flickr Channel

Audi unlucky season opener at Nordschleife's VLN

By Tarek Ramchani

The VLN Endurance Series started yesterday at the world famous Nordschleife. Three Audi R8 LMS race cars entered the first round of this unique sportscar championship.

A single brand new Audi R8 LMS ultra was entered by Phoenix Racing the #5 car of Oliver Jarvis and Rene Rast. The other two cars were older Spec R8 LMSs. The sister Phoenix #15 for Frank Stippler, Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock. Team Raeder Motorsport entered the third car with Frank Biela, Thomas Mutsch and Christian Hohenadel. 

Right from the start it was obvious the race would not be easy at all. The Porsche GT3-R cars dominated the early stages of the race battling with each other ahead of the field. The Audi cars had to chase and catch up. The #5 Phoenix was the best from the Audi camp racing in the top 5 overall in the first part of the race. Later the first disaster came, the #15 Phoenix car crashed while it was in the lead overall. A few minutes later and it was the turn of the #44 R8 LMS from Raeder Motorsport to crash. Bad luck didn't stop hitting the Audi squad and the #5 Phoenix Audi crashed as well. In less than 30 minutes all three cars faced crashes in very rainy weather and a very wet race track. The race was later red flagged with heavy fog on the track, making it impossible to continue. Victory went to the #19 BMW Z4 GT3 from BMW Team Schubert.

Audi was unlucky in the top SP9 class, but did dominate the SP4T class. A 1-2 victory for Raeder Motorsport with their Audi TT-RS. The #272 TT-RS finished as the best Audi car in an amazing 8th overall, ahead of many top GT3 cars.

The season opener wasn't easy for Audi overall. We all hope that the other nine rounds will be better for the Audi R8 LMS. Team Phoenix Racing and Raeder Motorsport will do the full season in VLN. Mamerow Racing and the Audi race experience will join for a part time effort and selected events.

Photo Credits: Norbert Kratz and Julian Schmidt

Audi Privateer Monsters at the Nordschleife

By Tarek Ramchani :

The VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring or simply VLN, is the German Endurance Series racing exclusively on the legendary Nordschleife. Big entry lists at each round and a great mix between super fast GTs and Touring Cars. Various Audis are there as well, both factory supported teams running the works Audi R8 LMS and the Audi TT RS (quattro GmbH) and also true independents ones who built their own racing cars. Here is a quick look at the different privateer exotic Audi machines from the Green Hell.

Audi RS4 - Goetz Motorsport (SP8T class) :

Audi TTS - Raeder Motorsport (SP3T class) :

Audi TTS - Scuderia Colonia e.V. I ADAC (SP3T class) :

Audi S3 - MSC Adenau e.V.I. (SP3T class) :

Audi TT RS - Brandl Motorsport (SP4T class) :

Audi TT - Team Haakon Schjaerin (SP3T class) :

Audi A4 quattro - Tuning Akademie (AT class) :

Audi TTS - Pro Handycap e.V. Wolfgang Muller (SP4T class) :

Link for live streaming Nurburgring 24

http://adac.24h-rennen.de/Live-Streaming-2011.4101.0.html

Live coverage of the Nurburgring 24 at this link... hopefully not blacked out for non-German markets.

Tic Tac anyone?

Toyota test driver dies in accident in LFA on Autobahn

Numerous reports have mentioned that Toyota’s chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, died in a head-on collision on Wednesday in Germany. Video shows the accident scene reportedly near Toyota's shop near the Nurburgring.

Video is in German but you get the gist of it.