Audi Reveals Three-Car Factory Lineup for California 8H

Photo: Audi

Three factory-supported Audi R8 LMS GT3s will take part in next month’s California 8 Hours, with the German manufacturer revealing its driver lineups on Tuesday.

WRT will field a pair of cars for the fourth and final Intercontinental GT Challenge round while Land Motorsport will have a single entry.

Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Kelvin van der Linde will share the Audi Sport Team Land car.

WRT’s first entry is set to be piloted by Robin Frijns, Dries Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock while its other car will be shared by Stuart Leonard, Sheldon van der Linde and Alex Riberas.

Haase, Winkelhock, Frijns and Vanthoor are all in championship contention with each driver scoring maximum IGTC points at one of the season’s three races so far.

Winkelhock and Haase are the best-placed Audi drivers on 40 points after finishing the Total 24 Hours of Spa as the highest IGTC entry.

They are trailing championship leaders Raffaele Marciello and Tristan Vautier by 58 points.

“Five prestigious manufacturers have submitted entries for the series. Our aim is to defend the title in the manufacturers’ classification,” said 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 two Audi drivers with the best championship positions won’t be driving together for the first time this season.

The manufacturer has elected to split its talents this way to “divide opportunities and risks between two cars”.

In last year’s race, Land, WRT and Magnus Racing each entered one Audi, with the Magnus car of Kelvin van der Linde, Winkelhock and Pierre Kaffer taking victory.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.