Grand Am Rolex - Audi Produces GT Class Win

Daytona, Jan. 28, 2013: The GT race came down to a battle between European luxury manufacturers Audi, Ferrari and Porsche. Similar to the action in DP, the GT race also saw a number of lead changes over the final hours and fuel concerns coming to the checkered flag.

Filipe Albuquerque drove the No. 24 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Audi R8 GRAND-AM into the GT lead for the final time with a little more than 40 minutes remaining. He went on to win by 1.476 seconds ahead of Rene Rast in the No. 52 Audi Sport Customer Racing/APR Motorsport Audi R8. Albuquerque and co-drivers Oliver Jarvis, Edoardo Mortara and Dion von Moltke gave Audi its first victory in GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series competition.

“It is the first one for Audi at Daytona and I am a part of, hopefully, a long run here,” said team owner Alex Job. “The win was a real team victory. My team, combined with the Audi Sport Customer Racing technical support staff – and of course a group of great drivers – made it all work. The Audi clearly had the speed and it was positioned to win.”

Rast combined with Frank Stippler, Marc Basseng and Ian Baas to finish second in the No. 52. Markus Winkelhock may have given Audi a top-three sweep had his No. 13 Rum Bum Racing Audi R8 GRAND-AM not run out of fuel on the final lap. That moved No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia teammates Emil Assentato, Nick Longhi, Anthony Lazzaro and Mark Wilkins to third in GT.