Team WRT and Land Motorsport will be representing Audi Sport in this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge finale at Laguna Seca, with three R8 LMS’ entered across the two teams.
WRT will compete with two cars, one for Dutch Audi factory DTM driver Robin Frijns, IGTC title defender Markus Winkelhock and fellow Audi Sport driver Dries Vanthoor. The second will be shared by the former Blancpain Sprint champion Stuart Leonard, South African driver Sheldon van der Linde and the Spaniard Alex Riberas.
The Audi R8 LMS of Audi Sport Team Land meanwhile, will be driven by three German Audi Sport drivers, Christopher Haase Christopher Mies and Kelvin van der Linde, who won last year’s California 8 Hours.
As it stands, Audi, which won the IGTC Manufacturers and Drivers’ titles the past two years, will be gunning for three in a row at the event.
Markus Winkelhock and Christopher Haase, are 18 points off the Drivers’ title lead, while Robin Frijns and Dries Vanthoor need 21 points to close the gap to the leaders. 25 points are awarded for a victory. Interestingly Winkelhock and Haase will not be sharing the same car in the event, so that Audi can increase its chances of the title.
In the Manufacturers’ standings, Audi sits second, nine points off Mercedes which leads the way. A brand scoring a one-two result can score a maximum of 43 points.
“Five prestigious manufacturers have submitted entries for the series. Our aim is to defend the title in the manufacturers’ classification”, says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “The situation in the drivers’ classification is particularly challenging, but we’re going to leave no stone unturned there either.”
The 2018 California 8 Hours is set to run from October 26-28.
