In the Super Sports Car League, the team of juniors from Audi driving experience - Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky (24, S), Ricardo Feller (17, CH), Christopher Höher (20, A) and Elia Erhart (29, DEU) - race two Audi R8 LMS cars prepared by TKL Motorsport, who used to look after the racing cars for Audi Racing Experience within the context of their customer programme at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Klaus Demel, Head of Audi Driving Experience: "As a race series, the ADAC GT Masters is full of strong drivers and top-class cars. It's the ideal place for young talents to prove themselves against top drivers and learn a lot, of course."

The group of four drivers is being mentored by some well-known names, including former rally ace Sepp Haider (62, A), Rahel Frey (31, CH, YACO Racing), who also competes in an Audi in the ADAC GT Masters, and sports car veteran Pierre Kaffer (41, DEU). They are on hand to assist the drivers at academy meetings and during ADAC GT Masters race weekends and also help with questions and queries away from race events and meetings. Åhlin-Kottulinsky: "The whole team is still a bit lacking in experience, as it's our first year, so the help provided by the mentors is invaluable. For example, I often talk to Rahel Frey away from the track and chat with her. I really look up to her, because she has already driven in the DTM and has won a couple of ADAC GT Masters races. We are constantly evolving and improving. On Sunday, for example, we moved up 13 places in the rain, and Ricardo qualified in a fantastic eleventh place at the Nürburgring."

Aside from the driving element of their training, the academy's students are also schooled in areas such as fitness, media, engineering/technology and in attracting sponsors. Demel: "We aim to support young racing drivers on their way to a possible future professional career in motorsport. Our students can show by their continuous development and good performance when they are ready to move on to greater things. In that respect, we regularly update our colleagues at Audi Motorsport and Audi Sport customer racing and get feedback from them." Åhlin-Kottulinsky is very enthusiastic about the programme at the Audi Sport Racing Academy: "It means a lot to me to be able to line up for the Audi Sport Racing Academy. I'm learning both about driving and about other areas such as engineering, which is great. We've already had, for example, training sessions about the car and the tyres. That's just how an academy should be."

The team are very satisfied with the development of the drivers, who, in the case of Feller and Höher, had no GT3 racing experience before the start of the season. Demel: "The ADAC GT Masters is even stronger this year and the standard has improved yet again, which means for our team and drivers that the top priority is to learn and gain experience. We've seen with some of our students that they have an excellent approach and have made great strides initially with their development which we are now working hard to progress."