• Kelvin van der Linde / Rene Rast
new champs
• Prosperia Racing defends title
• Audi R8 LMS ultra wins second
championship
INGOLSTADT, Germany – Kelvin van der Linde (SA) and Rene Rast (Germany) have won the ADAC GT Masters 2014 in the finale at Hockenheim, giving Audi a second championship title within 14 days with the Audi R8 LMS ultra, after the production based GT3 race car had scooped the Blancpain Endurance Series title.
It was a premiere for both talents: Kelvin van der Linde was the youngest Scirocco R-Cup champion in 2013 at then 17 years old. The Johannesburg lad won three times during the season and had nine podium visits with his team mate in the hard-fought series.
The GT3 models from seven brands were represented in Germany’s league of super sports-cars.
CONSISTENT DRIVING
Rast has already won six motorsport titles for brands within the VW Group but none for Audi. He's now celebrated his first championship in the R8 LMS ultra. As a result, the 27-year-old has crowned a season during which he won the 24-hour races around the Nürburgring and at Spa with Audi.
Team Boss of Prosperia Racing, Christian Abt, said: “I’m proud of my drivers and the team. Our drivers were consistent at the front, scored points in every race, and worked step-by-step for the title.
"And they delivered the lion’s share of the points so that we could also defend the team title.”
Head of Audi Sport customer racing Romolo Liebchen said: “Congratulations to our new Champions. The ADAC GT Masters is one of the most important GT3 racing series, in which many strong private teams and brands were capable of winning this year. Winning the championship was anything but a matter of course and is well deserved. Our GT3 sportscar has now won 25 titles since the 2009 season."
The Audi R8 LMS ultra is developed, built, sold and supported by the quattro GmbH. More than 50% of the race car is based on the production line R8 model. In the meantime, 120 examples of the GT3 racecar were delivered worldwide to customers.