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Flags about to drop on Petit Le Mans

Andrew — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:27:33 +0000

Well the flags are about to drop on the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. The big surprise for everyone is that Audi wasn’t set to compete in the road race at the onset of the season. However, after a season of mixed results with a season-opening win at the 12 Hours of Sebring followed by a crushing defeat at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

As a result Audi announced late in the summer that they had every intention of contending their incredible winning streak of 9 wins at Road Atlanta. However, as the rain clouds continue to hang overhead of Atlanta, the weight of the qualifying session must be hanging over Audi’s team right now. We’ll be watching, hoping to see Audi pull out a win as the qualifying line-up is:

P1 - Peugeot

P2 - Peugeot

P3 - Audi

P4 - Audi

With the weather as a factor, maybe the cars with 4 rings will find themselves right at home? With McNish and Kristensen we’re thinking there’s a great chance!

Audi Surprises with Announcement for 2 Car Entry at Petit Le Mans

Andrew — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:42:12 +0000

The Petit Le Mans in Braselton, GA. is a phenomenal event for anyone who is a motorhead. When you see cars late braking into the 10A turn for the quick zig zag into the uphill behind then you know you’re at a fun event, not including all of the people camping out in the woods on the track as well as all of the exotics such as Ferrari 599 GTB’s or Porsche GT2’s wedged into the bright, thick Georgia clay, many miles outside of Buckhead in Atlanta, the more natural territory for some of these cars.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to see an Audi competing at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. The R10 TDI eerily shifting gears louder than the diesel engine humming along in the lazy, warm afternoon. Many times the Audi being drowned out by the throaty, angry V8 Corvettes or the high-pitched shriek of the V12 Maserati MC12. The R10 TDI went on to be one of the many successful prototype diesels that Audi touted both abroad and on U.S. tracks.

Hit the jump for more about Audi’s presence at the 2009 Petit Le Mans!

Upon it’s release, Audi had only intended to race the 2009 R10 TDI replacement, the R15 TDI, at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the enduro race at Laguna Seca in October. With significant pressure on due to winning 8 out of the last 9 Le Mans races, Audi had high hopes for the R15 TDI. However, it was a year of mixed results with a strong finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring but then being beat out by the Peugeot 908 diesels at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, nobody knew quite what to think of the R15 TDI, was it a true successor of the R8 and R10? Can Audi handle the pressures it finds itself under in the LMP001 field?

Well, according to Dr. Ulrich, head of Motorsport at Audi, the team will make an appearance with the new R15 TDI diesel at Road Atlanta as a means of ramping up to the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the feeling that the teams hadn’t extracted the most out of the R15, what better way to learn more about their new pride and joy than to put it through its paces at the 10-hour, 1000-mile endurance race that is the Petit Le Mans, late this September?

However, showing off the diesel racer for only the second time has further value to Audi as they begin to dip their toes into the diesel market within the United States with the Q7 diesel and their very high profile “Diesel isn’t a dirty word” campaign. Could it be true that the “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” adage still exists? We happen to think so but time will certainly tell at the end of September when the R15 goes toe-to-toe with the Peugeots once more!

Expect to see McNish and Capello in one Audi R15 TDI followed up by Luhr and Werner in the second R15 starting September 26th for the Petit Le Mans.

(Source: Speed TV)

Countdown to the 24 Heures du Le Mans

Andrew — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:46:11 +0000

That’s right, it is Le Mans weekend - one of the hardest, most challenging races on the face of this planet. A race that truly tests the mettle of both man and machine.

Last year Audi won the race with Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in the diesel-powered R10 TDI. However, with the new car, the R15 TDI, Audi is hoping for another victory. Thus far the R15 TDI looks to be a solid performer, winning the LMP1 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring this past March while battling the stiff competition from the Peugeot 908s. However, we’ll have more to come on all of that - below we’ve included a video of interviews with some of the drivers as well as the new folks on loan from Porsche to the Audi Sport team as they prepare for the race.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stay tuned to this space for more on Audi as they compete at the Circuit de la Sarthe this weekend.

24 Hours of Nurburgring: The Results

Andrew — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:38:27 +0000

Well, after 24 grueling hours on the world’s most difficult track, Audi has survived and even better, has ranked as high as second place with R8 #97 of the Abt Sportline team. This is an excellent placement considering the mechanical issues from accidents and a vicious, back-and-forth battle for the top spots with two Manthey Porsches - most of the race was spent with the Porsches on the same lap of a 150+ laps on a 14.2 mile circuit.

Audi R8 #99 managed a 5th place finish overall, again, being boxed out from 3rd and 4th by the ubiquitous 997 GT3’s. R8 #98, which was hanging near the front of the field but fell back due to mechanical problems found itself in 12th place while R8 #100 moved up from 27th place to 23rd place. Overall, the R8 LMS performed incredibly well for its first major outing considering how new the cars are for customer sportscar racing. This test of the R8 LMS shows that Audi’s newest baby has a lot to prove in the coming endurance races.

Check out this video for in-car footage from the R8 LMS at dusk and with a little rain keeping the track a little scarier than usual.

Click here to view the embedded video.

24 Hours of Nurburgring Update #5

Andrew — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:32:59 +0000

Audi R8 #99 had high-speed instability while Rockenfeller was behind the wheel - a Manthey Porsche also went into the pits as we’re getting down to the last few minutes of the race. The lapboard shows Abt Sportline R8 #97 still in 2nd place.

24 Hours of Nurburgring Update #3

Andrew — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:55:20 +0000

It’s day break across the Eiffel mountains and the light finds the R8 #99 of Phoenix Racing still in the lead with Abt Sportline R8 #97 holding third, while R8 #98 has climbed from 11th to 10th.

Also worth noting in the Audi realm is the Audi #107 - an A3 that has so far managed to hold onto 23rd place, impressive considering the other cars behind it are more 997 Porsches.

Nurburgring Update #1

Andrew — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:16:10 +0000

Success so far for the Audi R8 LMS cars. The sun has gone down over zee Deutschland and the darkness finds the the R8’s in the following positions:

Audi R8 LMS #99 - 1st Place

Abt R8 LMS #97 - 4th Place

Audi R8 LMS #96 - 5th Place

Some of the challenges faced by the Audis thus far was that R8 #98 was penalized 3 minutes for ignoring a yellow-flag warning just after the start of the race. During it’s first stint, with Ekstrom behind the wheel when they began to have problems and had to pull off the road in Quiddelbacher Höhe before eventually making his way back to the pits - we’re working to find out the status of #100 and what caused the problems for Ekstrom.

All in all, so far so good, though we’re not even half way through the race yet and this is a race of attrition, not necessarily position. The 3 Audis in the top 5 are dueling with some Porsche GT3’s and the evil looking Ford GT. Live feed on top cars in the field can be found here - you may need to check the box for English at the top right.

Stay tuned for more!

Audi tackles the 24 Hours of Nurburgring

Andrew — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:21:39 +0000

This Saturday marks the 37th running of the ADAC 24 Hours of Nurburgring - or a 24-hour endurance race on the track aptly named Der Grune Holle or “The Green Hell.” Jackie Stewart coined this term during his tenure as a three-time world champion in Formula One going on to state that it was the greatest and most challenging track in the world but also one that you can never quite make a perfect lap of. And how could you on a track where one lap of the full circuit includes 14.2 miles and 170+ turns? It’s said to be the ultimate test of man and machine.

Hit the jump to see the line-up of drivers for the R8 LMS and links to live feeds

Well, Audi’s newest GT/Sportscar , the R8 LMS, will be put to the test of a car that is the 24 Hours of Nurburgring. This newest Audi race comes equipped with a 500HP V10(think the upcoming road-going R8 V10) The R8 LMS will be fielded by two teams, Abt Sportline( who aided Audi as a co-developer of this vehicle) and Phoenix Racing, two seasoned and capable teams. Whats better, the drivers that will fill these teams:

Abt Sportline:

Christian Abt
Jean-François Hemroulle
Pierre Kaffer
Lucas Luhr
Mattias Ekström
Timo Scheider
Marco Werner

Phoenix Racing:

Marc Basseng
Frank Stippler
Mike Rockenfeller
Frank Biela
Marcel Fässler
Emanuele Pirro
Hans-Joachim Stuck

In reading the list, it must be noted that a number of the drivers across these highly competent teams are actually those of Audi’s works teams with such as Pirro, Rockenfeller, and Biela coming fresh from last season’s R10 diesel, winner of the 2008 Le Mans race. Even more impressive is the inclusion of Hans-Joachim Stuck, one of the most experienced and decorated veterans of racing with experience ranging from Formula One, ETCC, DTM (winning in 1990 at the wheel of an Audi) and Sportscar racing. Stuck also went on to win the ‘04 24 Hours of Nurburgring at the helm of an M3 GTR.

These drivers, driving the mighty R8 LMS, should make for some entertaining racing this weekend. To complicate things just a little, the field of cars will ultimately be a total of 220. That’s right, two-hundred and twenty cars all competing on one track.

Watch this space for updates on this crusher of an Enduro race and track live feeds here - if you speak German…

(Source for link: Axis of Oversteer)

Audi for the win at 12 Hours of Sebring!

Andrew — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:27:47 +0000

Well, when it all came down to it, the Audi R15 TDI won in its first outing against the dominant, powerful Peugeots. The car of Capello, Kristensen and McNish won the 12 Hours of Sebring showing that Audi has definitely done their homework to keep ahead of the competition, now we’ll have to see how Audi and Peugeot stack up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans!

More details to follow.

Car/Driver spotting tool for 12 Hours of Sebring

Andrew — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:18:14 +0000

Axis of Oversteer has posted a cool spotters guide for the 12 Hours of Sebring and the rest of the ALMS season. It shows the shapes, designs and colors of the cars and drivers’ helmets and makes it a hell of a lot easier to spot who is driving at a particular time in the fixed-roof GT1 and GT2 cars and the LMP1 and LMP2 cars.

Be sure to have this ready when the flag drops tomorrow afternoon at 2:30PM!

(Source: AxisofOversteer.com)