Skip to main content

Audi Wins Macau GT Race Upside Down

Winning a race is hard. There are surprisingly few drivers who can even lay claim to winning a top-level professional race, and nearly none can say that they’ve won a race from the roof of their car, but following this weekend’s FIA GT Race at Macau, Laurens Vanthoor managed to win upside down.

The Macau leg of the FIA GT series was weird race all over, in which only four laps were run. The day started well, though, for Vanthoor who took off from first place on the starting grid.

After an accident involving an understeering Mercedes and a barrier, which, surprisingly, the Mercedes won, the race had to be stopped so that crews could fix the wall.

It took the race team a while to fix the wall, but eventually the race was ready to restart. It wasn’t long, though, before Vanthoor was overtaken by a Porsche. On the subsequent corner, Vanthoor ran over the inner curb, which unsettled the car, sending him oversteering into the outside wall at the corner exit.

Vanthoor’s R8 LMS tried to climb the wall, but was rebuffed, and eventually did a back flip to register its displeasure. A few hundred feet down the track, the R8, now on its roof, ground to a stop and Vanthoor got out unharmed.

Laurens Vanthoor

Because of how long it took to repair the wall after the first crash earlier in the race, organizers had no choice but to red flag the race and declare the leader of the last completed lap—Vanthoor—the winner.

Predictably, Vanthoor wasn’t exactly jubilant on the podium.

“I’m happy and relieved about not having been injured,” said Vanthoor. “I made a mistake and caused an accident, and won nonetheless. I’m still not quite sure about how to rate this victory.”

Motorsports / DTM 5. race Moskau

Audi Sport’s head of customer racing, on the other hand, saw the silver lining.

“The most important thing for us is that Laurens [Vanthoor] is okay,” said Reinke. “This shows how safe our cars are. It’s arguably a little strange to win this way. It was a very intensive race. Fortune and misfortune always play a role in Macau, but one of the prerequisites for success was the fact that we were in contention for the top spot in all sessions. That’s why I’m happy about the title in the FIA GT World Cup.”

This  story first appeared on fourtitude.com

The post Audi Wins Macau GT Race Upside Down appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2geQWVP
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Saying Goodbye to the CC V6

For all its size and its global reach, Volkswagen is still, in many ways, a deeply human company. There was, for instance, the Bugatti Veyron an ego project if ever there was one. Then the purchase of Ducati, a move most called folly. And then there was the Phaeton, the Volkswagen that most folks can’t afford. Not only were these moves all strange, I’m sure that they made VW’s accountants furious. None of them made good business sense, but they were all deeply interesting and they all are evidence of the heart that beats at the center of VW. Among these follies is the CC, a car that everyone agrees is rakishly handsome, but that no one really wanted to buy. The car couldn’t last, but the world is brighter for its having been in it. With the approach debut of the Arteon, it seems like a good time to look back on its sadly departing predecessor. The version I drove, because I live in Canada, is a V6 Wolfsburg Edition, which apparently isn’t available in the States. Nor is the V6, not as...
Post a Comment
Read more

Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway

Waterfest 24 will be held at Atco Dragway, in Atco, New Jersey. The summer event will take place at its new venue on July 21 and 22. Long held in Englishtown, New Jersey, the festival has been such a large part of the VW scene that the latest iteration of the Golf even comes with optional “Englishtown” wheels . The new venue, however, is an NHRA drag track a scant 52 miles southwest of Englishtown. The ¼ mile drag track opened in 1960, which makes it the oldest drag strip in New Jersey. The announcement came today on a social media post that announced the new location. Waterfest is North America’s largest VW/Audi show. As many 20,000 people show up for the annual show, making the second largest show in the world—with Worthersee being number one. 2018 will be Waterfest’s 24 th year in existence. The post Waterfest Moves to Atco Dragway appeared first on VWVortex . from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2GQjkuc via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

European Passat GTE launches as Saloon and Variant

Volkswagen continues e-motoring offensive with plug-in hybrid Passat GTE delivers 218 PS and travels up to 50 kilometres on all-electric power First Volkswagen plug-in hybrid in the high-volume segment of large family cars The Volkswagen continues to electrify! Following the Golf GTE*, comes the next high-volume model with a plug-in drive system: this time the German carmaker is electrifying the new Passat GTE. Its launch marks the debut of a new generation of business and family cars – zero-emission vehicle and long-distance touring car all in one. A Volkswagen that combines the present and the future. A car that boasts not only one of the most progressive drive systems of our time, but also an array of innovative assistance and infotainment systems that is ground-breaking in the segment of large family cars. With superb system output of 160 kW / 218 PS, frugal NEDC consumption of just 1.6 l/100 km and 12.2 kWh/100 km (Variant: 12.4 kWh) and an all-electric range of up to 50 k...
Post a Comment
Read more