Beginning of a new era for Audi

The 1000-kilometer race at Silverstone (Great Britain) on September 12 marks the beginning of a new era for Audi and the sports car scene: for the first time since 1992, there will be a worldwide racing series for Le Mans prototypes again. Audi Sport Team Joest will contest the series with two R15 TDI cars.

Silverstone, Road Atlanta, Zhuhai – three races in three different continents at the end of the 2010 sports car season will give sports car fans a foretaste of the year 2011. Next year, a total of seven endurance races are planned for the so called "Intercontinental Le Mans Cup” (ILMC).

47 vehicles have been entered in the ILMC inaugural race at Silverstone, as many as twelve of them in the top class, LMP1, whose "king” has traditionally been the Le Mans winner. This year it was the Audi R15 TDI which is powered by a V10 TDI engine delivering about 440 kW and – as is typical for Audi – features numerous innovative technical details.

In June the outstanding reliability of the R15 TDI in the fastest 24-hour race in Le Mans history was crucial. "In the shorter ILMC races we mustn’t just rely on this factor,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "The performance has got to be right.”

To be optimally prepared for the three races of the 2010 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the aerodynamics of the Le Mans winning car was modified and trimmed toward more downforce because there are no straights at Silverstone, Road Atlanta and Zhuhai which are as long as those at Le Mans.

In addition, Audi has formed a "dream team” for the ILMC races with Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. Kristensen, who with eight exploits under his belt is the record winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, was voted "Sports Car Driver of the Decade” by the British "Autosport” magazine last winter. Allan McNish finished the same voting as the runner-up. Now the two will go on the chase for points in a racing series together for the first time.

A look at the winners’ list shows that Allan McNish is a safe bet particularly at Silverstone: the Scotsman has competed in his "home round” as many as three times for Audi, and finished three times on the very top of the podium – most recently in 2008 when he clinched the first victory of the Audi R10 TDI in the Le Mans Series together with Dindo Capello.

Another high-caliber pairing has been formed for the "sister” car. Capello will contest all three races of the 2010 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup for Audi. At Silverstone, he will be running alongside Timo Bernhard, one of the three reigning Le Mans winners.

In tests at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, all four Audi drivers prepared themselves last week for the Silverstone race that will start on Sunday (September 12) at 11:55 hrs, local time (12:55 hrs in Germany). Eurosport will air live broadcasts of the starting and final phases.

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