For those who think they'll have to wait until March to see Audi in an endurance race, we have good news. The boys from Ingolstadt will be even further from home for a race preceding the International Le Mans Cup opener at Sebring next month. Audi will running two race-prepped R8 LMS cars in the GT3 class for a 12-hour race at Bathurst, in Australia. Audi sees this as the perfect venue to promote their R8 LMS to customers outside of Europe.

The R8 LMS joins the venerable ranks of factory race cars like the Porsche 911 GT3 as an option for privateer race teams. In the two years that Audi has been racing the R8 LMS it has run 197 races, with 64 wins, 163 podium finishes and seven championship title. If there's one thing Audi does well, it's endurance racing. So expect a good show from Audi and probably fewer fist fights than you're used to seeing at Bathurst on Sunday.