THE BELGIAN AUDI CLUB TEAM WRT TO THE NÜRBURGRING WITH A PERSONAL MESSAGE: FORZA ENZO!

THE BELGIAN AUDI CLUB TEAM WRT TO THE NÜRBURGRING WITH A PERSONAL MESSAGE: FORZA ENZO!

29/08/2019

No time to celebrate: only a few days after a resounding win at the Suzuka 10 Hours, the first for Audi and Team WRT in the prestigious Japanese race, the world’s GT élite and the Belgian squad are heading to the Nürburgring, for the fourth round of the GT World Challenge Europe, where the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT will be on track with its standard four-Audi R8 LMS line-up.

On a track generally friendly to the Audi cars, the Belgian squad will be even more determined to do well. This would be the best well-wishing and support message everybody will want to send to Enzo Ide.

As known since yesterday when the news broke out publicly, the 28-year-old former Belgian Audi Club Team WRT driver, a champion of the then labeled Blancpain GT Sprint Series in 2016, is in hospital fighting for recovery after suffering an accident at home some days ago.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse commented: “There are times when racing ceases to be the top priority. All our thoughts are with Enzo and his family at this moment. We wait and hope for positive news and want to send him and his family all our strength, support and affection. Enzo is part of the WRT family, he has been with us for almost his entire racing career, contributing a lot to our growth and success. More importantly, he is a terrific guy, with an incredible and unique personality, and a person we all love dearly in the team.”

At the Nürburgring, a track where the Audi R8 LMS has always been competitive, the Belgian squad is determined to keep the positive trend initiated, with one win at Misano. Driver line-ups will be back to the standard format.

Dries Vanthoor, fresh from his Suzuka win, will share car number #1 with Ezequiel Pérez-Companc, while in car #2, Charles Weerts is associated with local hero Christopher Mies. Rik Breukers and Oscar Tunjo share car #10, while Shae Davies and Tom Gamble, in contention for the top-3 honours in the Silver Cup, will drive car #17.

The Nürburgring round will also be the farewell event for Charles-Henri Bonnet, who has been at the helm of the Belgian Audi Club in recent years and is taking up a new exciting challenge in motorsports. “With his passion, competence and fresh ideas, Charles has been of tremendous support to Team WRT and has become a true friend”, underlines Vincent Vosse. “We thank him warmly for his contribution and wish him all the best in his new career. He knows he will always be part of our family.”

Dries Vanthoor: “Suzuka was great, a good team effort and a great achievement for Audi, Team WRT and the drivers. Now onto the next one! The Nürburgring is a good track for us, the Audi is generally quick there, let’s see how things go this year. The aim for Ezequiel and me is to work well throughout the weekend, avoid mistakes and do the best we can.”

Charles Weerts: “I am really anxious to be on track again after a month without racing! I used the break to recharge batteries and do some sports, but I really miss competition. We can do well at the Nürburgring, a track I quite like. My racing experience there applies only to a part of the track, as F.4 uses a shorter configuration of the GP track, but I tested with the Audi R8 LMS earlier in the year. My first objective will be to regain rhythm after the break, but it should be easy.”

Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe – Round 4
Nürburgring, Germany, 30 Augusts – 1^st September 2019

Timetable (all in local time = CET)

Friday 30 August 2019
09:45-11:05 Free Practice 1
14:35-15:55 Free Practice 2
Saturday 31 August 2019

09:15-10:05 Qualifying
14:30-15:30 Race 1

Sunday 1^st September 2019
14:30-15:30 Race 2

Belgian Audi Club Team WRT entries (Audi R8 LMS)
#1 Dries Vanthoor (BE) – Ezequiel Pérez-Companc (AR)

# 2 Charles Weerts (BE) – Christopher Mies (DE)
#10 Rik Breukers (NL) – Oscar Tunjo (CO) Silver Cup
#17 Shae Davies (AU) – Tom Gamble (UK) Silver Cup

Photo: Patrick Hecq Photography