The four race teams have been using Audi race cars for years. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT will be contesting its home round with five race cars in total, Audi Sport Team Phoenix will be competing with one Audi R8 LMS. Both squads have previously won the race at Spa. Team I.S.R. Racing from the Czech Republic is fielding two Audi R8 LMS cars and Saintéloc Racing from France is traveling to the Ardennes with three race cars.
While the actual race result after 24 hours is the most prestigious one, there are two important additional classifications. Firstly, for many years the 24 Hours of Spa has been part of the European Blancpain GT Series. At Spa, points are awarded after six, twelve and 24 hours of racing – this results in nearly twice as many points as in the case of the usual race duration. Secondly, for the first time regular entrants can score points for the Intercontinental GT Challenge as well. Currently, Laurens Vanthoor and Markus Winkelhock are ranked in third place of this classification of three major international GT races – the Bathurst 12 Hour (Australia), the 24 Hours of Spa and the Sepang 12 Hours (Malaysia).
On the fringe of the Spa 24 hours, Audi Sport customer racing will be handing over the 200th R8 LMS to a customer as well. Since 2009, GT3 racing has been a mainstay of Audi’s motorsport program. By now, teams in Europe, Asia, Australia, South and North America are using the two generations of the production-based GT sports car with the four rings.
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The Audi teams in the 24 Hours of Spa
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT
#1 Will Stevens/Dries Vanthoor/Frédéric Vervisch (GB/B/B)
#2 Robin Frijns/Stuart Leonard/Michael Meadows (NL/GB/GB)
#3 Filipe Albuquerque/Rodrigo Baptista/Sergio Jimenez (P/BR/BR)
#4 Bertrand Baguette/Pierre Kaffer/Adrien de Leener (B/D/B)
Audi Sport Team Phoenix
#6 Christopher Mies/Frank Stippler/Markus Winkelhock (D/D/D)
Saintéloc Racing
#25 Marco Bonanomi/Fred Bouvy/Christian Kelders/Marc Rostan (I/B/B/F)
#26 Grégory Guilvert/Christopher Haase/Mike Parisy (F/D/F)
#27 Michael Blanchemain/Jean-Paul Buffin/Valentin Hasse-Clot/Gilles Lallement (F/F/F/F)
Audi Sport Team WRT
#28 Nico Müller/René Rast/Laurens Vanthoor (CH/D/B)
I.S.R. Racing
#74 Philippe Giauque/Henry Hassid/Nicolas Lapierre/Franck Perera (F/F/F/F)
#75 Edoardo Mortara/Filip Salaquarda/Marlon Stockinger (I/CZ/RP)