TCR World and life

4 FEATURE THE NEWRS 3 LMS TCR IS FOLLOWING THE STEPS OF THE VERY SUCCESSFUL PREVIOUS MODEL Audi Sportaimforhigh saleswithnewcar Audi Sport customer racing has high expectations for its new RS 3 LMS TCR, the successor to the outgoing first- generation RS 3 LMS that was launched in 2017. The new car is already twice a race winner in the WTCR, and later this year the new sedan will be made available to customers, with 100+ sales the goal. The new TCR racer made its debut at its home race at the Nürburgring in June, a track where the road-going RS 3 now holds the compact class lap record around the iconic Nordschleife. Two race weekends later in WTCR, and in the hands of Audi Sport factory driver Frédéric Vervisch, the new car became a race winner at the Aragón MotorLand circuit, with his teammate Gilles Magnus repeating the feat at the Hungaroring in August. “With the Generation 1 car, we really had a rocket start,” says Detlef Schmidt, the Audi Sport RS 3 LMS technical project manager. “Right out of the box in Dubai in the 24-hour race, we were able to win, and then in the TCR International Series later in Georgia with Comtoyou Racing we also had a very good start – and now we’ve also had a good start with the Generation 2 car.” “There is already great interest in the car,” says Andrea Milocco, the RS 3 LMS project manager. “You have to consider the TCR world has developed a lot since the first car. We have a lot of new manufacturers and new markets, such as South America and New Zealand – but we are quite confident we will produce the volume of the new car into three digits.” Frédéric Vervisch signs the first victory of the new Audi RS 3 LMS in WTCR’s second race at MotorLand Aragón