Super GT: Oliver Jarvis joined Hitotsuyama Racing at the Motegi test days

By Johan Laubscher

The Japanese Super GT held official test sessions at Twin Ring Motegi this week. Hitotsuyama Racing and their 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra were joined by Oliver Jarvis.

Hitotsuyama Racing has been competing with a brand new 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra in the Japanese Super GT this season. Their #21 entry has been driven by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons. It has proven to be a difficult season so far for the team.

The Super GT hosted four official sets of test days during the season. The fourth and final test was held at Twin Ring Motegi this week, held on Monday and Tuesday (16-17 September). Hitotsuyama Racing was joined by Audi Sport factory driver, Oliver Jarvis.

Jarvis, who has competed in Japan in the past, was included in the test to assist Hitotsuyama Racing. Audi Japan and Audi Sport customer racing made the decision to add Jarvis to the test day line-up, however it has been mentioned that Jarvis will not be competing in any of the Super GT races.

The first day of the test was cancelled due to severe weather conditions. The #21 Hitotsuyama Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra placed seventh in GT300 during the morning session on Tuesday and eleventh during the afternoon.

The next round of the Super GT will be held at Autopolis (Round 7) in October.

Photo credit: Audi Sport Communication / Media

Super GT: Hitotsuyama Racing Audi narrowly misses top ten at Fuji

By Johan Laubscher

The Japanese Super GT hosted round six at Fuji Speedway this weekend. A difficult weekend turned into a very good race for Hitotsuyama Racing and their Audi R8 LMS ultra, but lady luck was not on their side.

The single 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra from Hitotsuyama Racing was on the grid at Fuji. Their regular drivers were back in the car this weekend: Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons.

It has proven to be a difficult 2013 season for the team and this continued in qualifying, as they qualified in twenty-fourth place within the GT300 class.

Despite coming from twenty-fourth on the grid, the team was able to move up through the field. They stormed into the top ten and got as high as eighth. Unfortunately lady luck did not smile upon the team, as a gearbox issue lost them time with only four laps to go. They ultimately finished thirteenth in GT300. The race was won by the #4 GSR BMW Z4 ahead of the #31 äpr Toyota Prius and the #86 Crystal Croco Lamborghini.

Round seven of the Super GT will be held at Autopolis in October.

Photo credit: Hitotsuyama Racing / RacerLink

Super GT: Hitotsuyama Racing Audi qualified 12th at Suzuka

By Tarek Ramchani

The Super GT is at Suzuka this weekend for the famous 1000 Km race, the longest and most prestigious event of the series. A single Audi R8 LMS ultra has been entered in the event from Hitotsuyama Racing.

The only Audi in the field is competing in the GT300 class. It has been a very hard season so far for the R8 LMS ultra in the Japanese series, with some mixed performances and results. At Suzuka the #21 ZENT Audi is shared by the team's two regular drivers Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons. Unlike most of the other teams in GT300, who have opted for three-driver line-ups for this demanding event, Hitotsuyama Racing preferred to stay with only two drivers.

Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons qualified the car in an improving twelfth place within GT300, out of twenty-three cars listed in the class. Race victory is clearly out of reach, but we hope that the Hitotsuyama Racing entry will be able to improve on track. With the race being a true endurance event and the Audi R8 LMS ultra being very reliable, the team's hopes for a good result are legitimate.

Pole position in the GT300 class went to the factory #61 Subaru BRZ. The #3 Nissan GT-R was second and the #50 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 was third. The qualifying results can be seen here.

Photo credit: Hitotsuyama Racing

Super GT: Hitotsuyama Racing finishes Top 10 at Sugo

By Johan Laubscher

The Japanese Super GT headed to the Sugo 300 in Japan for round four. Only one Audi R8 LMS ultra was entered, the car from Hitotsuyama Racing, and achieved the best result of the season so far.

2013 Super GT has proven to be very difficult for the Audi teams. Originally two Audi teams started the season: Hitotsuyama Racing with a brand new 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra, and äpr racing with a 2012 R8 LMS ultra. This was the first Super GT race weekend this year where only one Audi R8 LMS ultra has been entered. This is due to äpr racing having switched to a Nissan GTR GT3 race car.

The Hitotsuyama Racing squad arrived at Sugo and hoped to improve on the difficult season so far. Their #21 Audi R8 LMS ultra is driven by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons. Things looked to be continuing in the season-long pattern as they struggled for pace, and only qualified in nineteenth place. The race itself saw the team progressing steadily. A good call on strategy, which saw them running on slicks in difficult weather, netted them a good top ten result by finishing in eighth (within the GT300 class). A very positive result for the team in a very testing season. The race was won by the Honda CRZ GT from ARTA Project.

The Super GT Sugo results can be seen HERE.

The Super GT will now head to Suzuka for round five of the season. Suzuka will be an annual highlight, as it is the Suzuka Pokka 1000 km race, which will take place in mid-August.

Photo credit: Hitotsuyama Racing

GT Asia: Strong Audi R8 LMS ultra results at Okayama

By Johan Laubscher

Round two of the GT Asia Series headed to Japan this weekend, hosted at the Okayama circuit. Four Audi cars were entered by two teams, achieving positive results.

Three Audi R8 LMS ultra cars (2013 spec) were entered by Absolute Racing, on behalf of their customers. The first Absolute Racing car was the #7 J-Fly Racing R8 LMS ultra driven by Jeffrey Lee and Marchy Lee. The second car was the #98 Team Hong Kong Racing entry driven by Philip Ma and Cong Fu Cheng. The third and final R8 LMS ultra from Absolute Racing was the #888 Tunewear Racing car driven by Francis Hideki Onda and Alex Yoong. The fourth Audi on the grid was an older spec Hitotsuyama Racing Audi R8 LMS which was driven by Billy Fung and Akihiro Asai. Absolute Racing competed in the top class and the Hitotsuyama entry was in the GTM gentlemen class.  

The Audi teams showed well during the sessions and Absolute Racing finished qualifying with all their cars within the top ten for both races. Race one saw #888 starting in third, #7 in fourth and #98 in sixth. Hitotsuyama placed eighth overall and first in class. The grid for race two had #7 in fourth, #98 in fifth and #888 in tenth. Hitotsuyama was fifteenth overall and eighth in class.

Race one got underway in sunny conditions, with the pole sitting Aston Martin leading the way in front. It was a very good race for the #888 Tunewear R8 LMS ultra as they maintained their third position to the finish, Francis Hideki Onda and Alex Yoong finishing on the podium. All of the Absolute Racing car finished in the top ten as #7 finished fifth followed by #98 in seventh. Hitotsuyama Racing dropped back and finished fourteenth overall and seventh in class.

The second race was held on Sunday and saw all three Absolute car finishing in the top six. The leading Audi was the #7 J-Fly R8 LMS ultra which finished fourth. The first Audi was followed by its two sisters cars, as #98 finished in fifth and the #888 in sixth.

The weekend was dominated by the Craft Racing Aston Martin Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which was driven by Frank Yu and Stefan Mücke. 

The Okayama GT Asia weekend results can be seen HERE.

Round three of the GT Asia series will take place at the Fuji International Speedway in July.

Photo credit: Absolute Racing

Super GT: Hard weekend for Audi teams at Sepang

By Tarek Ramchani

The Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia hosted the third round of the Super GT last weekend. The only venue outside of Japan turned out to be a very difficult meeting for the Audi teams.

Two R8 LMS ultra cars were entered at Sepang, from Hitotsuyama Racing and äpr racing. The qualifying session was very difficult for both teams. The #30 Audi of äpr racing, with drivers Yuki Iwasaki and Igor Sushko, qualified in twenty-second place. The #21 ZENT backed Audi of Hitotsuyama Racing did not post a time after facing clutch problems, the car shared by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons.

On race day the two cars only improved slightly. The Hitotsuyama Racing entry started from the back of the pack and ended in fourteenth place within the GT300 class. Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons were a lap down. It was a much harder race for the äpr racing car. Iwasaki and Igor Sushko only managed to finish seventeenth in class, two laps down to the winning car.

It was a case of full Honda domination in the GT300 class. A 1-2 victory with the #55 CR-Z ahead of the #16 CR-Z in second. Third was the GAINER DIXCEL Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3, first of the FIA GT3 spec cars. The race results can be seen here.

Since the start of the season the Audi R8 LMS ultra has really suffered in Super GT. We hope that this will improve at the next round .

Photo credit: Hitotsuyama Racing

Super GT: Two Audi R8 LMS ultra at Sepang round 3

By Tarek Ramchani

The Japanese Super GT is moving to south east Asia this weekend. Round three of the season in Malaysia, the annual meeting at the Sepang International Circuit in extremely hot conditions. Two Audi R8 LMS ultra cars will be there. The two cars are from two different teams and will be entered in the GT300 class.

The first car is from Hitotsuyama Racing. Their #21 R8 LMS ultra will be shared by Akihiro Tsuzuki and British driver, Richard Lyons. In the first two rounds the the ZENT backed Audi finished sixteenth in the GT300 class at Okayama and failed to finish at Fuji.

The second Audi entry is from äpr racing (not related to APR Motorsport in America). Their #30 R8 LMS ultra will shared by drivers Yuki Iwasaki and the new comer to the team, Igor Sushko. At Okayama the äpr car finished in fourteenth place and fifteenth at Fuji, within the GT300 class. Igor Sushko is no stranger to the Audi R8 LMS ultra, as he raced with a R8 LMS for Hitotsuyama in Super GT last year.

Since the start of the season the two Audi teams have really struggled. The two cars have so far never battled for top positions and were always forced to fight in the middle of the pack, or even lower. The GT300 class is very demanding with a very strong and top quality field. However it is really clear that the R8 LMS ultra is somewhat penalized with an unfair Balance of Performance. We hope that both Hitotsuyama Racing and äpr racing will be able to bounce back at Sepang.

Photo credit: Super GT

The story of the 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra

By Johan Laubscher

The Audi R8 LMS was introduced in 2009 and almost instantly showed its potential. The cars then went on to claim multiple championships and victories during the next three seasons, until a newly updated version was introduced in 2012, the Audi R8 LMS ultra. This car also claimed much success during the 2012 season, after which further updates were announced for 2013, but the story turned out not to be so simple.

Original CAD image released by Audi Sport customer racing. Photo from Audi Media

At the end of 2012 Audi Sport announced that an upgraded Audi R8 LMS ultra would be available for the 2013 season, with the option for existing teams to purchase upgrade kits for their current R8 LMS / ultra cars. The differences between the original Audi R8 LMS ultra (2012) and the original 2013 version can be seen HERE. 

Team Novadriver testing their newly updated Audi R8 LMS ultra (2013). Photo from Team Novadriver

The new 2013 upgrades were initially shown in CAD designs released as press photos, but the actual new parts were yet to pass final homologation. Much was said about the new 2013 ultra, and many photos appeared online of the first teams taking delivery and testing their new cars, most notably Hitotsuyama Racing (Japan) and Team Novadriver (Portugal).

2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra on display at Geneva. Photo from Fourtitude.com

The new 2013 ultra also made an appearance on the Audi stand at the Geneva Motor Show in March. It was a silver ultra which was also fitted with the facelifted Audi R8 road car front and rear lights, but it should be noted that the cars that compete in competition are fitted with the older R8 road car lights, to lower the cost and damage of the parts in racing.

Audi R8 LMS ultra cars retrofitted to 2012 spec at Nogaro FIA GT Series. Photo from Endurance-Info.com

It all looked set for the new ultra in 2013, as the start of most of the national and international GT Championships approached. However, the ultra was to face major issues during homologation, causing problems for some of the teams who had acquired new ultra cars / upgrade kits. The Audi R8 LMS ultra cars (all in 2013 spec) which were entered for the opening round of the FIA GT Series at Nogaro, had to be altered back into their 2012 specification, due to the homologation discrepancies as the car had not yet passed the process.

The original 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra rear diffuser. Photo from Audi Media

Eventually the homologation issues, which centered around the lavish new aerodynamic upgrades on the ultra, were sorted out. The 2013 specification Audi R8 LMS ultra was allowed to keep almost all of its parts, the notable omission being the new aggressive rear diffuser. All of the 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra cars are now required to run with the older specification Audi R8 LMS / ultra rear diffuser, as per the final homologation.

With the “homologation saga” completed, the 2013 cars have been allowed to compete internationally, but amongst all of the confusion regarding homologation, there were five Audi R8 LMS ultra cars which did indeed race in the full original 2013 specification.

The 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra cars which had competed before final homologation:

The Absolute Racing team at Sepang MSS. Photo from Audi Media

The race debut for the new ultra took place in Malaysia, at round one of the Malaysian Super Series, a support event for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang that weekend (23-24 March 2013). Absolute Racing entered the three cars which were driven by Jeffrey Lee (J-Fly Racing #7 blue), Philip Ma (Team Hong Kong Racing #98 orange) and Francis Hideki Onda (Tunewear Racing #77 red). The weekend was highlighted by a class podium finish for Jeffrey Lee.

M-Sport #10 Audi R8 LMS ultra competing at Oulton Park. Photo from British GT

The second appearance of a 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra came one week later, in Great Britain. M-Sport, a new Audi Sport customer racing team, entered their 2013 car in the opening round of the British GT Championship at Oulton Park (1 April 2013). It should be noted that this was the same weekend that all the cars at Nogaro (FIA GT Series) were disallowed to compete in the 2013 specification. For M-Sport’s entry the series organisers allowed them special dispensation to compete with the new car, as the team wanted to get use to their new machine. The dispensation included that they run penalty weight and thus they finished lower down in the order. The team’s drivers were Rembert Berg and Warren Hughes. Despite the result they gathered valuable experience with the car, as they demonstrated at round two, running the then fully allowed 2013 specification, finishing second overall at Rockingham.  

Hitotsuyama Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra at Okayama. Photo from Hitotsuyama Racing

The third and final competitive appearance of the full original 2013 specification was seen in Japan at Okayama, the opening round of the Japanese Super GT Series (7 April 2013). This was one week after the British GT and FIA GT Series weekend. The homologation was still not finalised by this point, and again the local series organisers allowed the car to compete, but with restrictions and weight due to its homologation status. Hitotsuyama Racing had entered the Audi R8 LMS ultra, driven by Akihiro Tsuzuki and Richard Lyons, and they finished lower down the field due to the restrictions handicapping the Audi.

The final 2013 homologation with older diffuser, as seen at Monza BES. Photo from Stefano Ciabettoni

The week that followed (8-14 April 2013) saw the appearance of many teams testing 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra cars, but with the older diffuser. It then emerged that the car had indeed finally been homologated and all of the cars since, in 2013 spec, have been seen with all of the new 2013 components, minus the new diffuser, as they were running the older diffuser. The first cars in the “new and final” 2013 spec were seen competing at the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Monza and VLN round two at the Nürburgring (13-14 April 2013).

The Audi R8 LMS ultra Race-Taxi at Hockenheim DTM. Photo from cubebikes369 on Youtube

Since the final homologation, the new diffuser as all but disappeared. The only Audi R8 LMS ultra cars seen with the new diffuser are some of the display cars and the Audi Race-Taxi at the DTM events. The red/black Race-Taxi is also sporting the facelifted Audi R8 road car lights.

For now it remains uncertain if the full original 2013 specification will ever be seen in competition again, however the current 2013 cars (as per the final homologation) are beautiful and proving to be very successful so far this season. The R8 LMS ultra remains one of the best GT3 race cars currently available.   

Photo credit: (in order of appearance)

Audi Sport Communication / Media

Team Novadriver

Fourtitude.com

Endurance-Info.com / 86400.fr

British GT

Hitotsuyama Racing

Stefano Ciabettoni - Mr Monza

cubebikes369 on Youtube

GT Asia: Top 5 finishes for the Audi R8 LMS ultra at Twin Ring Motegi

By Johan Laubscher

The GT Asia series held its first round in Japan this weekend. Twin Ring Motegi hosted the event and a total of five Audi R8 LMS and ultra cars took part.

Absolute Racing were out in force with three 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra cars and a strong driver line-up. Two more Audis were entered by Dilango Racing and Hitotsuyama Racing, fielding one car each, an Audi R8 LMS ultra (2013) and an older R8 LMS respectively.  

The Audis performed well during the sessions and achieved good qualifying positions. All five Audis qualified within the top ten for race one, being lead by the #7 R8 LMS ultra in third place. For race two three Audis were within the top ten grid, again being lead by the #7 in third.

Race one saw very wet and difficult conditions on Saturday afternoon. The Audis dropped back during the race, but an overall top five result was achieved by the #98 Absolute Racing entry driven by Philip Ma and Cong Fu Cheng. The other Audis finished outside of the top ten. Hitotsuyama Racing also finished within the top five of their class, finishing fifth in the GTM class. The first race was won by the #2 Asia Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 R. The results from race one can be seen HERE. 

A sunny day greeted the competitors for race two on Sunday. The race got underway on a dry track, a complete contrast to race one yesterday. The race saw an improvement as three Audis finished within the top ten. The highest placed Audi was again a fifth place finish overall, this time with the #7 Absolute Racing entry driven by Marchy Lee and Jeffrey Lee. The #888 of Francis Hideki Onda and Alex Yoong finished sixth followed by the #88 entry from Hitotsuyama Racing in ninth overall and second in the GTM class. Race two as won by the #007 Craft Racing Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3. The results from race two can be seen HERE.

The second round of the GT Asia series will also take place in Japan, to be hosted at Okayama in June. 

Photo credit and more information:

J-Fly Racing on Facebook

Hitotsuyama Racing on Facebook