Four year-old cars dominated proceedings in first free practice of the DTM at Brands Hatch. Audi works driver Miguel Molina established the fastest time in the first encounter at the race track in Kent county. The 22-year old Portuguese completed his fastest lap at the 1.929 kilometres long Indy lay-out of the British track with its long heritage in 42.776 seconds. Only 0.036 seconds down, his fellow Audi driver Edoardo Mortara ended up second. Mercedes-Benz drivers Maro Engel and David Coulthard ended up third and fourth respectively.In fifth position, Mike Rockenfeller was the fastest driver of a 2009-spec Audi A4 DTM in free practice on Friday afternoon. The German came 0.101 seconds short of Molina in first place. Behind Timo Scheider (Audi), Ralf Schumacher ended up seventh with his 2009-spec AMG Mercedes C-Class. Christian Vietoris (Mercedes-Benz), Mattias Ekström (Audi) and Renger van der Zande (Mercedes-Benz) rounded out the top ten. The other local drivers, Gary Paffett, Jamie Green (both Mercedes-Benz), Oliver Jarvis (Audi) and Susie Stoddart (Mercedes-Benz) ended up eleventh, 14th, 16th and 17th respectively.

In free practice, the lap times of all drivers, all the way down to Rahel Frey (Audi) in 18th place, were within one second. The Swiss was 0.790 seconds down. With 75 laps and 144.675 kilometres, Gary Paffett completed the longest distance.

Second free practice of the DTM follows on Saturday morning from 9.00 till 10.30 h local time in the UK. Qualifying from 14.10 h onwards will decide on the starting grid positions for the seventh round of the season. ARD will be broadcasting qualifying live from the UK from 15.03 h German time.

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Today the Audi plant in Ingolstadt produced the five-millionth Audi A4 – an Audi A4 Avant 3.0 TDI quattro in Misano Red. This production milestone is the latest evidence of a success story that began in 1994 when the A4 model name was adopted. A great favorite with customers, the A4 accounts for a high proportion of production capacity at the Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm plants.

• Jubilee car is an Audi A4 Avant 3.0 TDI quattro in Misano Red
• Production chief Frank Dreves: “Major milestone in Audi’s success story”
• Audi A4 is the most popular car in its class

In the words of Frank Dreves, Member of the Board of Management for Production at AUDI AG: “This is another major milestone in Audi’s history. All versions of the A4 are efficient, elegant and enjoy outstanding success in their class. Our highly motivated team and our effective Audi production system will keep this model on course for continued success in the future.” Audi began production of the A4 model line at its Ingolstadt site in 1994, and since 2007 has also been building it at Neckarsulm as part of the production turntable. Today the A4 Sedan, A4 Avant, A4 allroad quattro, S4 Sedan and S4 Avant are manufactured in Ingolstadt; the A4 Sedan also leaves the assembly line in Neckarsulm.

“The success of the entire A4 model family keeps our two main production plants fully occupied and safeguards the workforce’s jobs,” says Peter Mosch, Chairman of the General Works Council. “Audi owes this success to its employees, who have invested so much know-how, quality awareness and dedicated work in the A4.”
Peter Kössler, Ingolstadt Plant Manager, declares: “The A4 success story at this production plant is impressive evidence of the performance that the Ingolstadt team is capable of. As the assembly lines become more and more complex, the task can only be handled with lean processes and the motivation of a high-performance team – just like we have at Audi.”

With its sporty chassis and many comfort, convenience and infotainment features taken directly from the full-size category, the A4 is a perfect expression of Audi’s technical expertise. Customers and car journalists alike vote it to the top of the list, as proved by the many awards it has gained. Readers of the German car magazine auto motor und sport were evidently convinced: In January they chose the A4 as “best midsize car” for the fourth year in succession.

The Audi A4 also scores impressively on the list of German-market cars that keep their value best. Auto Bild car magazine and residual value assessor EurotaxSchwacke chose it as the midsize car with the highest value retention, and the Audi Q5 gained the same title in the compact SUV class. These “Top Value for 2011” awards were presented in December 2010.

- Audi

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Falken Tire, Porsche and the America Le Mans Series… What more could one ask for? A Porsche Cayman, a Sony home theater or a 32GB iPad 2 could be yours if you enter the Falken Tire Porsche Cayman Giveaway. The sweepstakes is tied to the new AZENIS PT722 A/S ultra-high performance touring tire that launched in early March. Learn how to enter after the jump!

Off the track, Team Falken continues to ramp up its marketing efforts in concert with its motorsports program, further positioning the company as the high performance tire choice among enthusiasts. The company has launched a special sweepstakes tied to its new AZENIS PT722 A/S ultra-high performance touring tire, and during the first week of October 2011 – coinciding with the end of the ALMS season – will give away a 2011 Porsche Cayman as the grand prize.

“Those interested can ‘Like Us’ on our Facebook fan page and enter the sweepstakes by going to http://on.fb.me/fdxjYG,” stated Andrew Hoit, Falken Director of Marketing.

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Rob Austin is confident that his team’s new NGTC Audi A4 will be on the grid for the opening round at Brands Hatch next weekend. Austin told TouringCarTimes that the car would “definitely” race at the Kent circuit and exuded confidence, despite driver David Pinkney rating the likelihood of an appearance at just 50/50.

“One car, definitely. Come hell or high water it will be there!” said Austin in response to his drivers worries. “We will certainly be there with one car with some testing miles on it, and as I’ve always maintained we believe in it otherwise we wouldn’t have this package and I believe it will be a very competitive car.

“I’m in this to go racing”, continues Austin in response to there being no Audis at Silverstone on Thursday. “So the fact that we’re not on media day doesn’t mean an awful lot to me. The fact is if we had of been here we’d have had to fling the car together, we’d have lost a day today of building work and then we’d have to take off what we’d thrown on and build it properly.

“We’re here to go racing and it’s all about next weekend and we don’t want to lose the time we’ve got.”

Time though is of concern to Austin’s so far only confirmed driver David Pinkney, who hopes to test at Rockingham on Thursday prior to Brands Hatch.

“I think that you can’t afford to miss three races,” said Pinkney. “If it’s not on the grid I might not bother. Obviously I want to be out there in a car that is competitive and have a go at having a dream of having a look at the championship. I think the car is capable. If the car is a similar weight with the specification we’ve got, or even a little bit heavier, then I think it is capable of winning.

“The biggest issue to me at the moment is that the car’s not finished and it’s not here today,” he continued. “I believe that the car and engine will be done next week and we’ll get one or two days testing next week.

“Obviously it’s a concern, the more time you get in a car the more time you have to sort out suspension and things so the quicker it will be.

“But,” the Harpenden racer stressed, “I’m not too concerned as you get in these things and drive them,” emphasising his excitement for the project and his belief that Audi can once again be a BTCC winner.

Austin concedes that a second Audi is unlikely for Brands Hatch.

“I can’t really comment on the second one as there’s nothing solid. There is a question mark over whether we can get it done in time. Our boys have now taken over the build of the car up at GPR Motorsport so progress is on the up.

“But we can only do what we can do, and it’s already late and that is a lot of time to claw back. Unfortunately that’s the one thing we need, time.”

The task of recruiting a driver to partner Pinkney in the A4 is well underway, but Austin is determined to have someone in the car who does justice to what he says will prove to be a strong package.

“We know we need somebody quick and we can’t have any slouches in these things. We need someone who can really run at the sharp end and win races for us, because again I solidly believe that this car will be more than capable of winning races.

“We’re talking to some people; ideally we need them to bring some sponsorship with them. Failing that we have a bit of superstar lined-up, so we will definitely have someone quick in that car, if not at the first round at the second round.”

Whoever Pinkney’s teammate ultimately transpires to be, they will take on the number 13, an intentional decision by the team and one which Austin believes won’t put a hex on the outfit.

“We’re quite proud of that! As far as I’m aware it certainly hasn’t been used in the BTCC in recent history.

“As soon as Dan Mayo told me that, I was ‘Right we want it’. Dave Pinkney wanted 12 so we asked if 13 was free they were ‘Really? No ones ever wanted that number!’, and I said ‘Right I’m having it’.

“It’s all in the mind; it’s about positive mental attitude. If you think it is unlucky then more than likely it will be. I think it’s lucky.”

The last driver to run with the #13 in the BTCC was Alan Morrison in 2000 in his Class B VIP Touring Car Club Peugeot 306. The Northern Irishman won the Class B Championship that year, which Rob Austin will surely see as justification for his decision.

TouringCarTimes

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David Heinemeier Hansson and Porsche Napleton Racing (PNR) finished sixth in their debut race in the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge by Yokohama on a Saint Patrick’s Day Thursday at Sebring International Raceway in the No. 37 PNR/37signals Porsche GT3.

“I feel great,” Hansson said. “I felt like I raced pretty much as hard as I could and the guys in front were fast. I am just happy I kept my car together all the way to the end. There were some good slides, but nothing too bad, and in the end it really did come down to tires.”

Hansson had a good start and settled into a quick but steady pace in eighth before making his first pass for position less than 10 minutes into the race to move to seventh place. He momentarily fell back to eighth at the 30 minute mark but had enough left in his PNR/37signals Porsche and Yokohama tires to have some fight for the finish.

“It seems like you are actually in there for a good hour-and-a-half to two hours,” Hansson said of the 45-minute race. “I was asking for time after 20 minutes, the car is just intense to drive. You have got to back off when you are halfway through it because the tires get real greasy and if you keep on pushing, you are going to find a flat spot. And once you find a flat spot, you’re toast.”

Flat spots actually factored into Hansson’s last lap move. After getting back to seventh, Hansson reeled in the sixth place Porsche and was right on its rear bumper as the white flag flew.

“I could see on his car that he had a flat spot too, I had a flat spot, so I was just trying to push him and see if I could get him to make a mistake going deep,” Hansson said. “In turn 10 I guess his left front just gave up and he went straight off the track.”

Thursday’s race was the first of this week’s pair of sprints at Sebring that kick off the 2011 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup season. Tomorrow’s race is scheduled to start at 4:20 p.m. and Hansson plans to put to good use some of things he learned in today’s successful debut run.

“For me I have just got to back it off a little more I think,” Hansson said. “I don’t think I lost too much time not pressing 120%.”
- PNR

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