By Tarek Ramchani
The Blancpain Sprint Series is back and will head to the demanding Slovakia Ring this upcoming weekend. A total of six R8 LMS ultra cars will represent Audi Sport customer racing.
The Audis performed well last time out at Zandvoort with a brilliant race victory in the main race with René Rast and Enzo Ide. In Slovakia the Audi teams will try to take additional race wins and strong points in the battle for championship title.
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT who recently won the prestigious Spa 24 Hours will field three cars. The #1 Audi R8 LMS ultra will be shared by recent Spa 24 winner and Blancpain Endurance Series Pro-Cup leader Laurens Vanthoor and Cesar Ramos. The #2 Audi will be driven by René Rast (another Spa 24 winner) and Enzo Ide. The #4 Audi will compete in the Silver Cup with youngsters Vincent Abril and Mateusz Lisowski.
G-Drive Racing will enter a single Audi R8 LMS ultra, the car will be managed once again by Team WRT. Stéphane Ortelli and Roma Rusinov will be the behind the wheels of the Russian Audi.
The remaining two Audis are from Phoenix Racing. The German team had a mixed season in the series so far with some ups and downs. The #5 Audi R8 LMS ultra will have Marc Basseng and Alessandro Latif as drivers, they will compete in the Gentlemen Trophy class. Their team-mates Niki Mayer-Melnhof and Markus Winkelhock will share the sister #6 machine.
Audi R8 LMS ultra cars at Slovakia Ring:
#1 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT - Laurens Vanthoor / Cesar Ramos
#2 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT - René Rast / Enzo Ide
#3 G-Drive Racing - Stéphane Ortelli / Roma Rusinov
#4 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT - Vincent Abril / Mateusz Lisowski (Silver Cup)
#5 Phoenix Racing - Marc Basseng / Alessandro Latif (Gentlemen Trophy)
#6 Phoenix Racing - Niki Mayer-Melnhof / Markus Winkelhock
Photo credit: Blancpain GT Series
