Team LeMans puts Audi GT3 car up for sale

The car raced in the Japanese sportscar series by Roberto Merhi and Yoshiaki Katayama has been listed on racecarsdirect.com with an asking price of 400,000 euros plus VAT.

Although the listing was added on Monday, the day after last weekend's Sugo race, it states that any handover of the car will not take place until November, after the current SUPER GT season finishes.

Contacted by Motorsport.com's Japanese edition for comment, a team representative confirmed that the Gotemba-based squad intends to see out the current season with the Audi, with two races remaining at Autopolis and Motegi, and is now considering its options for the 2023 campaign.

Despite upgrading its Audi to Evo II spec for the new season, Team LeMans has generally struggled for competitiveness in the GT300 class this year, its best results being a pair of fifth-place finishes.

The first of these came in the season opener at Okayama with Katayama and Japanese racing legend Satoshi Motoyama, who entered into a joint venture with Team LeMans last year but departed the squad in acrimonious circumstances ahead of the second round at Fuji.

Ex-Formula 1 racer Merhi was brought on board to partner Katayama from that race onwards, with the pair finishing fifth at Suzuka in August.

Last weekend at Sugo Merhi and Katayama finished a lowly 16th, three laps down, starting the race from the pitlane after experiencing engine trouble that left the Audi an estimated 100bhp down on power.

Should Team LeMans ultimately elect for a switch of manufacturer, it could mark the end of Audi's presence on the SUPER GT grid.

The German brand was reduced to a single car for 2022 following the withdrawal of long-time Audi customer Hitotsuyama Racing, which currently campaigns an Audi R8 LMS GT4 in the Super Taikyu series.