The 2022 season in the North Island Endurance Series in New Zealand started for Audi Sport customer racing with a victory at Pukekohe. The second-generation Audi RS 3 LMS prevailed for the first time in Italy in Europe’s largest national TCR racing series. Meanwhile, Audi Sport customer racing Asia has announced its driver line-up for various programs in Asia.
Audi R8 LMS GT3
Opening victory in New Zealand: Andrew Waite and Sam Fillmore prevailed at the season opener of the North Island Endurance Series in New Zealand. On the Pukekohe circuit, former single-seater driver Waite and his gentleman driver teammate Fillmore clinched the first victory of the season in the Audi R8 LMS in the three-hour race. The duo had a 1.6-second lead over their pursuers Ant Pedersen/Paul Pedersen in a Mercedes-AMG after 163 laps on the fast track south of Auckland. After the first of three endurance events, Andrew Waite and Sam Fillmore for Team International Motorsport (IMS) lead the standings by five points. The Audi customer team IMS had already won a comparative competition between the North and South Island – the New Zealand Endurance Championship – with a different driver line-up in April.
Podium result after strong recovery: Car Collection Motorsport managed a podium finish with the Audi R8 LMS at the Nürburgring Qualifiers in preparation for the 24-hour race against strong competition. Audi Sport drivers Christopher Mies and Mattia Drudi as well as their fellow competitor Patrick Kolb in car number #24 fought a thrilling battle with car number #22 until the very end. This car from the same team was shared by Audi Sport drivers Christopher Haase and Patric Niederhauser. Both driver teams worked their way forward from grid positions eleven (#24) and 14 (#22) in the course of the three-hour race on the Nordschleife. On the final lap, Mies overtook the sister car on the Döttinger Höhe and finished third – just under 1.6 seconds behind the second-placed BMW and half a second ahead of his teammates. However, the sporting action took a back seat when a fatality occurred shortly after the end of the race. A marshall had collapsed during clean-up work in the closing stages of the competition and could not be saved despite reanimation measures.
