Sonoma, May 18, 2002
The second round of the American Le Mans Series 2002 (ALMS) sees
another all Audi front row – a familiar but on this occasion, somewhat
unexpected picture: At Sears Point (US state of California), Audi is not
racing the latest generation Infineon Audi R8 sportscars which stayed in
Europe after the Le Mans pre-practice so as not to disturb the team´s
preparation for the highlight of the season on June 15/16.
During qualifying at Sears Point, however, Audi was still able to make the
pace. Audi works driver Tom Kristensen, driving for Champion Racing this
weekend, was fastest in the 2001-spec R8 giving Dave Maraj´s team its
first ALMS pole position. Emanuele Pirro was just three tenths of a second
slower with the R8 of Team Audi Sport North America which is even two
years old relegating the fastest Panoz to the second row of the grid.
The “Grand Prix of Sonoma“ starts at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday running
over the “classic” ALMS distance of 2:45 hours. Tom Kristensen (ADT
Champion Audi R8 #38) and Rinaldo Capello (Audi R8 #1) are scheduled
as start drivers. Johnny Herbert´s Whit Sunday will be especially strenuous:
The Sebring winner will attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on
Sunday morning. He will then fly back to Sears Point taking over the ADT
Champion Audi R8 from Andy Wallace and Tom Kristensen in the final
stages of the race.
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