Moorespeed Switches to Audi, Expands to Full-Season Effort

Photo: John Dagys

Moorespeed has made a late switch from Porsche to Audi machinery, which will see the team now take on the full IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

The Texas-based operation, which initially announced a WeatherTech Sprint Cup-only program with a new Porsche 911 GT3 R, will instead field an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo for Alex Riberas and Will Hardeman beginning with January’s season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Andrew Davis is understood to be the third driver for the Michelin Endurance Cup races with Markus Winkelhock set for Daytona.

Hardeman, Riberas and Davis are all on-site at Daytona this week for Michelin’s final ‘On Track Opportunity’ in preparation of the 2019 WeatherTech Championship season.

“Moorespeed announced our IMSA GTD plans with Will Hardeman and the Continental Automotive Group (CAG) back in September, and that path ultimately led us to Audi Sport customer racing,” said team president David Moore.

“Audi’s on-track program with the Audi R8 LMS speaks for itself with success around the world, and everyone at Audi Sport customer racing has been a pleasure to deal with in what has been a tight timeframe the last few weeks.

“We are looking forward to a long and successful relationship.”

The team took delivery of the brand-new car last week and is using the single-day track outing as its first proper running. 

Moorespeed joins Starworks Motorsport as a full-season Audi GTD entry, with Montaplast by Land Motorsport and Team WRT likely to complete the German manufacturer’s lineup for the Florida endurance classic.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John