Aurélien Panis, Lucas Legeret and Nicolas Baert are teaming up for Sainteloc Racing in what will be Audi Sport’s fourth and final Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli nominated car at the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS.
Audi had already confirmed that Sainteloc’s Silver class entry would be eligible to score points towards the global Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ Championships in the US, which hosts Round 2 of the globetrotting GT3 series next weekend (October 15-17).
However, Sainteloc has now revealed that its GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup regular, Panis, is once again linking up with Legeret after the Franco-Swiss duo also shared an R8 LMS GT3 at this year’s TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa – albeit without one of Audi’s IGTC nominations.
The trio is completed by Baert who races an Audi in the TCR Europe Touring Car Series. The 20-year-old Belgian finished third in the same championship last season after graduating from single-seaters. Indianapolis marks his first major GT3 outing.
Sainteloc’s Pro entry, featuring factory stars Christopher Haase, Patric Niederhauser and Markus Winkelhock, comprise another quarter of Audi’s Indianapolis IGTC nominees. The other two, both entered by Team WRT, comprise Dries Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Christopher Mies, and Mattia Drudi, Robin Frijns and Nico Mueller.
Only each registered manufacturer’s two best placed entries can score points at Indianapolis, but that might still be enough for Audi to clinch its first IGTC title since 2018. Leaving the Brickyard with a 44-point advantage – one more than available for finishing first and second – over IGTC’s other four full-season marques would be enough for it to seal the Manufacturers’ crown before Kyalami’s season finale.