Team WRT increased its title collection in 2016, ‘our most complicated season’, as Vincent Vosse describes it

Team WRT increased its title collection in 2016, ‘our most complicated season’, as Vincent Vosse describes it

22/12/2015

• Three Teams’ titles for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and Drivers’ overall title for Robin Frijns in the Blancpain Series
• A sixth podium finish in five years at the Spa 24 Hours
• First-ever win at the Nürburgring 24 Hours for Audi and Team WRT with the new R8 LMS
• Runner-up honours at Macau’s FIA GT World Cup
• Team WRT enters new business with the acquisition of roll-cage producer AMP

As the festive season approaches, time has come for Team WRT to make an assessment of the 2015 season and … be ready to discuss the matter with family and friends over the forthcoming parties!

Under the Belgian Audi Club banner, Team WRT has added more GT titles to its collection, winning the Teams’ crowns in all the Blancpain competitions (GT, Endurance and Sprint Series), while Robin Frijns took the Drivers’ GT title. It also continued to shine in the Total Spa 24 Hours, with a second place that meant staying on the podium of the world’s most prestigious GT race for the fifth year on a row. A 1-2 in the 12 Hours of Sepang, last week, completed a very successful record.

Defending the Audi Sport colors, Team WRT also signed a history-writing first win for both Audi with the new R8 LMSD and the team, at the ‘Green Hell’ of the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring, and was an excellent runner-up in the first edition of the FIA GT World Cup at Macau.

Team WRT also continued its successful diversification strategy, collecting laurels in the Trophée Andros and expanding into new activities, with the recent acquisition of AMP, the Belgian roll-cage producer and chassis preparation company.

Team Principal Vincent Vosse looks back at 2015 with satisfaction, although reckoning that “this has probably been the most complicated season in WRT’s history”. “In the Blancpain, we brought home the three Teams’ titles”, he elaborates, “and Robin Frijns took the overall Drivers’ title, which means that we have performed very well as a whole. At the risk of sounding tedious, I have to repeat how proud and

happy I am with our work as a team. It also means that we were less successful in making points with a single car in either the Endurance or Sprint series. Clearly, we were also very unlucky, as Laurens Vanthoor’s serious accident at Misano, while he and Robin Frijns were leading the Blancpain Sprint standings, disrupted our chances. This was the first time we had a driver injured in one of our cars and it was not a nice experience, but it’s something which has made Laurens and the entire group stronger.”

Vosse is also very happy with the work done together with Audi Sport with the Audi R8 LMS, the GT racer of the next generation: “We were able to give Audi a first VLN win to the brand new R8 LMS and shortly after, a first success at the Nürburgring 24 Hours”, he explains, “and those are significant achievements. We were also on the podium and the best-placed Audi at Macau, which was new to us and certainly is a track different from all others”.

Team WRT did well also on more … slippery grounds, as it took 2^nd in the Elite 1 category (with Olivier Panis) and 1^st in the Elite 2 (with Lionel Daziano) at the 2014-15 Trophée Andros, the well-known series on ice tracks that takes place during the winter sports season and whose 2015-16 season has just started.

“It’s already 2016 for us”, underlines Vosse, “thanks to the Trophée Andros but also because preparation for the new GT season is extremely well-advanced and we will be racing right after the Christmas break, as we will take part for the first time, with one car, to the Dubai 24 Hours in early January, a race which is becoming part of the endurance pinnacle.”

Next year will continue to see a diversification of WRT’s activities, with the Fun Cup and Track Days programmes, and new exciting racing challenges, but also in the engineering sector. Team WRT has recently acquired AMP, the Belgian company specialized in the production of roll-cage and preparation of chassis (welding, reinforcement, aligning, accessories, etc) for racing cars. “It’s a new venture for us, and a very exciting project”, comments Vosse, “We are currently strengthening Georges Goeders’ team with new hires and have moved AMP into larger and better premises. I am confident we will be able to develop this very specific business with the interesting synergies we can provide.”

No doubt that 2016 will be a busy and exciting year, but for the time being: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!