DOUG “Hollywood” Gore belted his Audi TT DTM around Dover circuit making good on his threat to break David Summerbell’s 1.18.47 track record, with a lighting time of 1.18.114 at the Independence of Speed race meet last Sunday.

Gore last week told Auto that his aim, after having tweaked his Audi racing machine was to break the Dover record, then held by his main rival Summerbell.

Project Leader for the DTM cars at ABT Sportsline, Franco Chiocchetti, who travelled to the island from Germany to make the adjustments to the Audi, believes power is nothing without balance.

“We made Doug comfortable in his environment and gave him a balance that was always predictable so that he knows what to expect from the car when he pushes the limits, and does not get too many surprises at every corner,” said Chiocchetti. “This balance gives the confidence to get to the limits of the car and go for the track record.”

The DTM race car lived up to the expectations of the ATL Racing crew Sunday and paraded its superb German engineering to fans, while shaving time off Gore’s and all previous performances, as promised.

Adjustments to the shock absorbers and tire pressure propelled the Audi to its record-breaking run with the enhanced braking system working wonders for Gore’s control on the Dover track.

Now extremely comfortable in his TT missile, Gore went on to commandeer the track record, and the Independence of Speed MP4 and Thundersport2 class championship awards. Gore is presently leading the point standing for the 2011 MP4 class Championship.

Tony Love, master technician for Audi and Volkswagen at ATL Autohaus has been following Gore’s progress from the debut of the Audi racecar on local soil — and he is very pleased with the ownership of the track record.

“From the beginning I saw how Doug struggled with the car, he is coming from a four wheel drive car to a completely different rear wheel drive car, and a very different engine,” he shared. “The DTM cars are very difficult to drive and his breaking of the track record shows that he is a very brave man and a really good driver” Love added.

“We made some modifications to the TT and Doug worked very hard to achieve this feat. The Audi didn’t just win the race, it annihilated Summerbell and I’m really happy for the entire team. The lap record is ours and it’s a real milestone for us,” said Love.

Being familiar with the history of the Audi TT DTM and its advanced mechanical and technological engineering, Love believes that the car can go 1 minute 17 seconds on the Dover track.

“There’s definitely more we can do and we are gearing up for it. Look out for Doug and the Audi maybe October, maybe next year, but we are

definitely going for 1.17,” he told Auto.

A very proud Adam Stewart, CEO of ATL Automotive, highlighted Audi’s reliability as one of the factors that contributed to the shattering of Summerbell’s record.

“Audi is winning worldwide, we beat Mercedes in local sales by a long shot and we beat them worldwide in sales as well. Audi is on track to overtake BMW worldwide by 2015, and now Audi is winning at Dover,” said an elated Stewart.

“The brand is surrounded by technology and reliability and Audi motorsports paves the way for technologically advanced consumer cars,” he added.

“I want to big up Doug; it’s an absolute pleasure to work with him as a friend and as a business partner. I always knew that if given the right equipment, he would prove himself to be the number one driver, now he has dominated the track,” Stewart told Auto.