APR Motorsport’s Volkswagens and Audis fly at Daytona

APR Motorsport showed the beginnings of another strong season in
the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at this weekend’s January Test Days, with their fleet of APR tuned Audis and Volkswagens taking part in three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway.

For the first time, Nelson Canache from Caracas, Venezuela joined Ian Baas in the no. 41 APR Tuned Audi S4. The duo will contest the entire CTSCC season in the GS class, and the team’s new S4 was on the pace with both drivers behind the wheel. As a rookie in the series, Canache impressed the team with his pace and his feedback as he adapted to the team, track, and the car on Daytona’s high banks. Canache will also
take part in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in the team’s Audi R8 Grand-Am.

“I am really enjoying driving the APR Audi S4,” said Canache. “I am getting a lot of good feedback from Ian and the team, which is helping me to improve. This is my first time at Daytona, and my first time in a four-wheel-drive car, but the car is very fast and has great top speed. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Baas, who has developed the Audi S4 for the GS class over the past two seasons, was also excited after spending three day’s in APR’s newest S4.

“The APR Audi S4 was really good from the first lap, and we were able to carry out three good days of development on the car,” said Baas. “This is a new car so we are still learning a bit. We don’t have the ultimate speed, but we have a car that is very consistent over a stint and has great top speed. Driving with Nelson here this weekend has been great as well – we both have similar styles and we can learn a lot from each other.”

Also making their debut with APR and in the CTSCC, teammates Aleks Altberg and David Cheng wheeled the no. 171 APR Tuned throughout three trouble-free days of testing. No. 171, made famous throughout multiple seasons of CTSCC competition, demonstrated its speed with its two new drivers.

“I had a little bit of a learning curve – I have raced front-wheel drive, but never on a high-banked track like Daytona,” said Altberg. “The high speed braking took some time to get used to but I got comfortable quickly and the car was a ton of fun to drive. I think we have a competitive car and we should be looking good when we come back here for the Grand-Am 200.”

Cheng was equally optimistic after quickly acclimating himself to the GTI and spending his first weekend with the APR Motorsport team.

“We had a great weekend testing the GTI,” said Cheng. “Aleks was on the pace right away and like always I had a great time driving with him. The team gave us a fast car and we were consistently fast, and able to make improvements each session. I’m looking forward to a great year with the team.”

The team also unveiled, for the first time, the no. 181 APR Tuned VW Jetta GLI. Put through its paces by team veterans Nate Norenberg and Josh Hurley, the car was also used to evaluate several drivers new to the team during the January Test Days. An exciting announcement about those drivers and the CTSCC season is coming from APR in the next few days.

“Just as the customers and fans of APR have become accustomed to seeing, our Continental program looks to be as strong as ever,” said Jeff Mishtawy, Director of Motorsport for APR. “Nelson and Ian had the Audi S4 up to speed right away and ran strong all weekend, as did Aleks and David in our GTI. We ran into a couple of issues with our new Jetta GLI but we still learned a lot and did a lot of driver.