Friday, July 5, 2013

Pirelli World Challenge: Mixed qualifying for Audi teams at Lime Rock



By Tarek Ramchani

The Pirelli World Challenge is moving to the North East this weekend. The popular Lime Rock Park is hosting the fifth meeting of the season.
Four Audi R8 LMS cars have been entered for the event, all of them from GMG Racing.

The qualifying session was held yesterday with some mixed results for the Audi and GMG squad. The best ranked R8 LMS car was in fifth place, with #24 Audi of Duncan Ende. Team owner and series points leader James Sofronas was sixth in his #14 car. The other two R8 LMS cars were tenth with Alex Welch in the #08 Audi and eleventh with Bill Ziegler, who is debuting with the R8 LMS this weekend, driving the #95 Audi.


It was an all-GM affair in the qualifying session. The factory Cadillac CTS-Vs were first and second, with Johnny O'Connel and Andy Pilgrim. Third was Mike Skeen with a Chevrolet Corvette.

Before the Lime Rock races James Sofronas was leading the overall points standing with 849 points. Cadillac's Johnny O'Connell is second with 703 points. Volvo's Randy Pobst is third with 675 points. In the manufacturer's standing Audi and Cadillac are leading with 52 points each. Volvo is third with 41 points.


In the GTS class it is great to see the Audi TT RS back in the competition. American Audi legend, Don Istook, is back after health issues, armed again with his Stasis/Revo backed #01 Audi TT RS. Don Istook qualified twentieth in class. The qualifying session results can be seen here.

Two WC races are on the program at Lime Rock Park. We hope that both GMG Racing in GT and Don Istook in GTS will do well on track.

Photo credit: Pirelli World Challenge