Audi Factory Team WRT Joins the Audi R8 LMS Cup
The Audi R8 LMS Cup has announced that Team WRT Asia will join the one-make sprint series this season. Former Formula One driver Will Stevens will line up for the debut of the Asian arm of the prestigious Belgian team. WRT Asia becomes the fourth service partner for the Cup, along with Absolute Racing, Phoenix Racing Asia and KC Motorgroup (KCMG), and aims to replicate its impressive European success in Asia.
WRT will run two cars for the ten-race, five-stop 2017 Audi R8 LMS Cup season. 25-year-old Stevens will drive for the WRT-serviced Castrol Racing Team, with the driver of the Team WRT Asia car to be announced soon. Stevens, a Brit with highly impressive credentials, was LMP2 runner-up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, is an FIA World Endurance Championship race winner, and has 18 Formula One grand prix starts under his belt.
“The addition of Team WRT Asia underlines the Audi R8 LMS Cup’s role as an entry point into the burgeoning Asian GT market for the world’s leading teams,” commented Bernd Goeres, Director of Audi Sport customer racing Asia. “With the series debut of Will Stevens – a driver who has competed at the very pinnacle of our sport – the Cup line-up for 2017 is shaping up nicely.”
Audi R8 LMS Cup star Jeffrey Lee will join Stevens as part of the Team WRT Asia entry into the new Blancpain GT Series Asia, seeing the in-demand Stevens combine a full Blancpain GT Series season in Europe, including both the Sprint and Endurance Cups, with his Asian campaigns.
“Audi Sport customer racing Asia has been at the forefront of the rapid expansion of Asian motorsport that has taken place in recent years,” said Vincent Vosse, Managing Director of WRT. “Building on our long-held connection to Audi Sport, this partnership is the perfect fit for our Asian championship debut.”
Belgium-based WRT has enjoyed great success with Audi R8 LMS GT3 cars in the eight years since the team’s launch. WRT’s illustrious list of achievements in that short period includes victories at Spa 24 Hours, Nürburgring 24 Hours and last season’s FIA GT World Cup in Macau.
WRT, Stevens and Lee will make their competition debut together on April 8-9 as the new Blancpain GT Series Asia gets underway at Malaysia’s Formula One track, the Sepang International Circuit, while the sixth season of the Audi R8 LMS Cup roars off the grid on May 6-7 at the same venue.
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