By Johan Laubscher
The Macau Grand Prix is a very special annual race event held on the streets of Macau. The 61st edition of the event is coming up this weekend. The Macau GT Cup will see a total of seven Audi R8 LMS and ultra entries taking part, including Mr Macau Edoardo Mortara, who is aiming for his seventh consecutive victory in Macau.
This year will mark the ninth time that Audi race cars will be taking part in events at the Macau Grand Prix. As a preview to the race coming up this weekend we decided to take a look back at the Audi history at Macau, which began all the way back in 1993 with touring cars, all the way through to 2014 with GT racing.
Audi history at Macau Part 1: Touring car era 1993 - 1999
1993
The famous Macau Guia Race (touring car event) was the scene for the first four Audi appearances at Macau. The first Audi to take to the streets of Macau was an Audi V8 DTM entered by a Belgian team in 1993, driven by Bernard Winderickx.
1996
Following the debut in 1993, there were entries of Audi A4 STW teams at Macau in 1996, 1998 and 1999. 1996 saw Frank Biela taking the overall victory ahead of Brad Jones from Australia, an Audi 1-2 overall finish. It was a terrific battle of Biela vs BMW.
1998
.jpg)
After missing the 1997 event, Audis returned to the streets of Macau in 1998 with the Australian Audi team consisting of Brad Jones and Frank Biela. Jones achieved a third place overall finish.
1999
The 1999 Macau Guia race had a total of four Audis entered by Phoenix Racing and Mayer Motorsport. It was a dominant display by Michael Bartels, who stormed to the second Audi victory at Macau.
1999 was the last time that Audi teams took part in Touring Car racing at Macau and it would be eleven long years before a car bearing the Four Rings would race again at Macau. In 2010 the Audi R8 LMS debuted at Macau and three years of Audi dominance ensued from 2011 onwards.
The Macau GT Cup (2010 - 2014) era of Audi at Macau can be read in Part 2 of our Audi history at Macau HERE.
Photo credit:
Old Michael Bartels website (cover photo)
Screenshots from the included videos
