Dream season for Audi customer teams in GT World Challenge Europe

“Customers all over the world have been winning titles for Audi for many years,” says Chris Reinke, Head of Audi Sport customer racing. “In the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, we have particularly successful teams, but also many and tough opponents. Thank you to the Audi teams and their drivers for an exceptionally good season.” At the Endurance finale in Barcelona, however, it was not only the many season successes that shaped the good atmosphere. After 13 years, Team WRT celebrated its farewell to Audi Sport customer racing. “A big thank you goes to Vincent Vosse and Yves Weerts for the trusting and extremely successful collaboration and good luck for the future,” summed up Reinke.

Fast sprinters five times victorious

The two Audi Sport drivers Dries Vanthoor/Charles Weerts won five of the ten races in the Sprint Cup, including the spectacular finale at Valencia. This makes them the deserving champions for the third time in a row. As in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021, their team WRT from Belgium also prevailed in the team classification. Team Tresor by Car Collection from Germany followed in third place. Its line-up, consisting of Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase and privateer Simon Gachet, also finished the season in third place in the drivers’ standings. With Saintéloc Racing in fifth place in the standings and Attempto Racing in sixth, two more privateer teams achieved remarkable team results in a field of 14 racing teams.

Strong endurance athletes on the long distance

Three young drivers impressed in the 2022 Endurance season with the Audi R8 LMS in the Silver Cup. Benjamin Goethe from Denmark and the two Frenchmen Thomas Neubauer and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer from Team WRT clinched the Silver Cup title before the finale after two class victories and two third-place finishes, after which they managed a third class victory at Barcelona. Their toughest opponents, also on an Audi R8 LMS GT3: Germans Alex Aka and Marius Zug as well as Austrian Nicolas Schöll from Attempto Racing, who took the runner-up title after three second places. In the Silver Team classification, Team WRT prevailed. Third place went to Attempto Racing, followed by Saintéloc Racing in fifth place. In the Gold team classification, Boutsen Racing, a new Audi customer, finished eleventh out of 17 contenders, whose drivers Adam Eteki, Benjamin Lessennes and Karim Ojjeh were twelfth in the drivers’ classification. The Belgian GT racing team relied on the R8 LMS for the first time in the past season. In the endurance team classification, Team WRT ended up in third position. In the individual race results, the sports cars with the four rings were among the favorites as well: The three Audi Sport drivers Kelvin van der Linde/Dries Vanthoor/Charles Weerts won the season opener at Imola for Team WRT. Saintéloc Racing managed a nice triumph at Hockenheim with privateer Lucas Légeret and the Audi Sport drivers Christopher Mies and Patric Niederhauser.

Powerful combiners in the overall standings

Once again, the Sprint and Endurance Championships enticed competitors with different distances and two race calendars. In addition to the individual classifications for both categories, promoter SRO also publishes an overall classification as a combination of both series in 2022. There, too, the Audi teams were among the front runners. Thomas Neubauer and Benjamin Goethe won the Silver Cup category early with Team WRT ahead of Alex Aka/Nicolas Schöll from Attempto Racing. Their teams correspondingly achieved first and second place in the team standings. A key element of the success came at WRT’s home race. The champions Goethe/Neubauer, together with their teammate Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, were unbeatable in the Silver Cup classification of the Spa 24 Hours. With 19 starters, it was the class with the second highest number of participants. WRT also recorded second places: Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts are the runners-up in the overall standings. With second place in the standings for Team WRT ahead of Saintéloc Racing and Tresor by Car Collection, and sixth place for Attempto Racing, as many as four of the five customer teams finished the season’s team standings in the leading group.