Race Incident » Audi

Mattias Ekström Junior Team continues in the JTCC

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:11:26 +0000

Last year DTM driver Mattias Ekström founded a junior team in the Swedish JTCC championship. The then 16-year-old Simon Reinberth drove a newly developed Audi A3 to sixth in the championship. With Simon moving on to the German Volkswagen Polo championship this year the Audi A3 seat is available and Ekström is looking for someone to fill it.

“I’m looking for a Swedish talent that is extraordinary. It’s not good enough to just have a winning mentality, I want more talent.”, Mattias says.

The Audi A3 will be updated this season with a face lift to make it look like the new A3 version Audi has launched.

“I know how Audi works in the DTM and my goals are to include these routines and my own experiences into the Mattias Ekström Junior Team. This shall be the best training ground a junior driver can get to succeed in racing.”

The financial crisis made the financing a bit harder this year for the team, but Red Bull and S-Line continues on as main sponsors and the Swedish Audi Dealer joins as a new sponsor.

Audi confirms 2009 DTM line-up

admin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:03:23 +0000

Audi has now confirmed its line-up for the 2009 DTM season. Not surprisingly they will keep the same drivers as last year.

The four 2009 spec Audi A4 cars will be run by Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline and will be driven by 2008 champion Timo Scheider, 2004 and 2007 champion Mattias Ekström, multiple Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen and by Martin Tomczyk. Abt Sportsline will also be running a 2008 spec Audi A4 for Katherine Legge, who will now be entering her second season in the series and her first season in a one-year-old car as she drove a 2006 spec Audi for Futurecom TME last year.

Oliver Jarvis and Alexandre Premat will be running one-year-old cars for the Audi Sport Team Phoenix team. Both will be entering their second season of DTM racing after both having successful single seater careers behind them.

The two 2008 cars of Audi Sport Team Rosberg will be driven by Mike Rockenfeller and Markus Winkelhock.

Mercedes are yet to announce their complete 2009 line-up.

Photos of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 car

admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:37:44 +0000

While Audi may be ditching out of the American Le Mans Series after the opening rounds and only concentrate on the European Le Mans Series everything is not all doom from the German manufacturer. For the first time Audi has now created a customer racing car for the GT3 class. The car, the Audi R8 LMS, will cost €262 000 plus VAT and comes with a >500 hp V10 engine. The car will be available for customer teams in the autumn of 2009.

Up to eight customer cars will during 2009 compete in different championship around Europe and in the legendary 24 Hours race at Nürburgring.

Here are a few photos of the new beast:

Audi aims for third consecutive DTM title

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:37:17 +0000

Audi has presented its 2009 DTM programme. The German manufacturer will continue its development of the new A4 with the goal of winning their third DTM title in succession. The Audi A4 will see developments and optimizations in every area and carries the internal project name “R14 Plus”.

In 2009 Audi will bring four new cars and up to five 2008 spec to the grid. The cars will be run by Abt Sportsline, Phoenix and Rosberg. Every driver from the 2008 season will be kept:

Timo Scheider, Germany
Mattias Ekström, Sweden
Martin Tomczyk, Germany
Tom Kristensen, Denmark
Alexandre Premat, France
Mike Rockenfeller, Germany
Markus Winkelhock, Germany
Oliver Jarvis, Great Britain
Christijan Albers, Netherlands
Katherine Legge, Great Britian