"The 24 Hours is not only one of the biggest motorsport events in Germany," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "The Nürburgring-Nordschleife is considered one of the world's toughest and most demanding race tracks. Similar to Sebring for the sports prototypes, it is superbly suited for revealing the final improvement potential of any new race car. This is exactly what we're planning to do at the 24-hour race before delivering the R8 LMS to customers, starting this fall."
The ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing teams will hit the 'Ring on May 23 with driver squads consisting of five current Audi "factory" drivers, four DTM Champions, four Le Mans winners and five drivers who have won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring at least once.
Among others they include the reigning DTM Champion Timo Scheider, who – together with his DTM teammate Mattias Ekström and three-time Le Mans winner Marco Werner – will compete for Team ABT Sportsline, and three-times 24h Nurburgring winner Hans-Joachim Stuck, who will pilot one of the cars of the Team Phoenix Racing.
The Audi teams at the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring:
Audi R8 LMS #97 (ABT Sportsline)
- Christian Abt (D)
- Jean-François Hemroulle (B)
- Pierre Kaffer (D)
- Lucas Luhr (D)
Audi R8 LMS #98 (Phoenix Racing)
- Marc Basseng (D)
- Frank Stippler (D)
- Mike Rockenfeller (D)
Audi R8 LMS #99 (Phoenix Racing)
- Frank Biela (D)
- Marcel Fässler (CH)
- Emanuele Pirro (I)
- Hans-Joachim Stuck (A)
Audi R8 LMS #100 (ABT Sportsline)
- Mattias Ekström (S)
- Timo Scheider (D)
- Marco Werner (D)
Audi will attempt to achieve a new victory next month at the Le Mans endurance race, with last year's victorious trio of veteran drivers (Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello) aiming for a win in the new R18TDI. Audi has won the Le Mans...
This year's running of the 24 hours of Nürburgring that kicks off this weekend will see three Audi customer teams (ABT Sportsline, Black Falcon and Phoenix Racing) entering a total of seven R8 LMS racers. Read more »...
The first example of Audi's track-only R8 LMS with chassis number '101' has been delivered to its lucky owner in Italy. Overall, twelve units of the 500hp+GT3 sports car will be delivered during the forthcoming weeks to six customer teams...
The GT3 race version of the Audi R8 called LMS made its first public appearance at this week's Essen Motorshow in Germany. Audi's first-ever racing sports car that has been developed specifically for customer use will available from autumn 2009...
The racing version of the new Volkswagen Scirocco is all set to show off its sporting credentials at next month’s 24-Hour Race at the Nürburgring (23 -25 May) as the German carmaker completed a comprehensive endurance test at the Motorsport...