Lexington, June 30, 2002
With a 1-2 victory in round three of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at
Mid-Ohio, Audi revenged last year´s defeat by Panoz. But also this time, it
proved that it is not enough to have the fastest car on the winding track in
the heart of Ohio. Both Infineon Audi R8 sportscars of Team Audi Sport
North America were a second per lap faster than the Panoz cars. Heavy
traffic and a total of five caution periods always voided the advantage the
Audi drivers had gained.
Dramatic final stages of the race were the consequence which even saw
eventual race winners Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro drop behind the
fastest Panoz. At the same time, the crew of the companion Infineon Audi
R8 choose a couragous strategy by not bringing in their car for the second
scheduled fuel stop. For the suprise of the competitors, Tom Kristensen
was able to complete 62 laps in a row thanks to the economical fuel
consumption of the FSI engine in the rear of his Audi without refuelling. The
fuel gamble nearly paid off, but shortly before the end of the 2:45 hour race,
the stock of fuel in the tank of his R8 was almost drawn to an end. About
300 metres before the finish, Kristensen dropped behind Pirro, who had
meanwhile repassed Jan Magnussen in the Panoz and made it over the
finish line with the last drops of fuel in second place in front of the two
Panoz cars.
Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson with the 2001-spec R8 of Audi
customer team Champion were unlucky: The duo were temporarily second
between the two “works” Audi cars. Just before half distance, however,
Johnny Herbert was touched by a lapped GT car and ended up in the gravel.
This incident and the following repairs of a damaged rear suspension
made him lose nine laps and the lead in the overall classification of the
ALMS to Tom Kristensen.
Two weeks following the historic triumph at Le Mans, Audi has once more
displayed “Vorsprung durch Technik” with four victoires in one day: 1-2 in
the ALMS, a victory for Michael Galati in an Audi S4 in the Speed World
Challenge GT race at Mid-Ohio – and two further successes of the Abt
team´s Abt-Audi TT-R in the DTM season highlight at the Norisring in
Nürnberg, Germany.
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