VAG Division – Volkswagen Group Car Club

Allan McNish races his diesel-engined Audi R18 TDI on Sunday (3 July) for the first time since the Scotsman stepped uninjured from his spectacular Le Mans 24 Hours accident.

The tremendous strength of the Audi Coupé undoubtedly saved the Dumfries-born ace and German team-mate Mike Rockenfeller –  in a separate accident – from major injury in the annual race which Audi ultimately won.

But McNish is now raring to go again and relishing the prospect of contesting the four remaining Intercontinental Le Mans Cup races between now and November. Allan finished fourth (Sebring, USA) and third (Spa, Belgium), and is hungry for glory at Imola near Bologna.

“After Audi’s victory in the year’s biggest race [Le Mans 24 Hours] and obviously what I went through, the team and I are now totally focussed on the remaining ILMC races,” confirmed McNish who tested an Audi R18 TDI this week.

“There is no Drivers’ championship, only Manufacturers’ and Teams’ titles and it’s very close so my target for the remainder of the year is to help Audi and Audi Sport Team Joest claim the ILMC titles to go alongside the Le Mans 24 Hour race silverware in Ingolstadt.”

McNish has only raced once before at the 3.05-mile Imola circuit – in the 2002 San Marino Formula One Grand Prix – and last competed in Italy in 2008 when he and Dindo Capello shared an Audi R10 TDI to sixth place at Monza. 

For the Imola and remaining ILMC races, McNish will co-drive with Tom Kristensen (Denmark) while Marcel Fässler (Switzerland), one of the three triumphant Le Mans 24 Hour race drivers, partners 2010 Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard (Germany) in Italy.

“Between Timo, Marcel, Tom and myself, we will be trying very hard to ensure that we have a good follow-up success story following Le Mans,” continued Allan.

“It’s a fantastic track which has changed a lot since I raced there back in 2002. It has always been undulating but nowadays it has a long straight. Coping with slower “traffic’ will be challenging because the track is narrow while the corners lead into each other.

“We will need to find a good balance for the R18 TDI between top speed and downforce. It will also be hard on the brakes because there are some big stopping zones which can create overtaking opportunities.”

“This is only my third ever two-driver race sharing a car with Tom. The last time we finished second in China last November – less than five seconds from the win. We’re both keen to make sure we get a victory on the scoreboard but it’s going to be a tough race.”

The Imola Six Hours marks the third race for the Audi R18 TDI which made its race début less than two months ago. Having claimed pole-position on its race début at Spa (7 May), the 3.7-litre turbo diesel engined Coupé scored a “pole”, fastest race lap and race win in its second race, the Le Mans 24 Hours (11-12 Jun), to chalk up the German manufacturer’s 10^th Le Mans race win in 13 years. 

ILMC Classifications (after three rounds):

Manufacturers – LM P1: 1. Peugeot, 103pts; 2. Audi, 69pts; 3. Aston Martin, 0.

Teams – LM P1: 1. Audi Sport Team Joest; 50pts. 2. Peugeot Sport, 49pts; 3. Team Oreca Matmut, 34pts.

Provisional timetable:

Friday 1 July: 1215-1345 Practice 1; 1630-1800 Practice 2.

Saturday 2 July: 0855-0955 Practice 3; 1425-1445 Qualifying.

Sunday 3 July: 0900-0920 Warm-up; 1200-1800 Race.

* Local times

McNish bids to give Le Mans race winning R15 TDI a perfect “send off” in its final race – the Sebring 12 Hours in Florida
Britain’s Allan McNish sets out to score his fourth and Audi’s 10th race victory in the season-opening Sebring 12 Hours in Florida on Saturday (19 March).

Audi “factory” ace McNish begins a hectic seven race, nine month Intercontinental Le Mans Cup campaign and is determined to get his and Audi’s season off to a flying start.

McNish shares a revised diesel-engined Audi R15 TDI with regular co-drivers Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Dindo Capello (Italy), the trio looking to sign off the R15 TDI sportscar’s career on a winning note.

“Tom, Dindo and I will race the Audi R15 TDI as opposed to our new R18 which is not race ready yet so the Coupé’s first public outing will be at the ‘test weekend’ for the Le Mans 24 Hours in April and race début at Spa the following month,” confirmed Dumfries-born McNish.

“So we’ll be trying hard to give the ‘old girl’ one last victory in its 10th and final scheduled race. Tom, Dindo and I gave the R15 TDI a début race win at Sebring in 2009, the first of three race wins this particular Audi model scored over the past two years.

“The last win for the R15 TDI was at Le Mans last year when Audi achieved a fabulous 1-2-3 result while Tom and I were very close to adding to that tally in my last race in China last November. So we know the R15 TDI’s reliability record and its performance envelope so believe we can take the chase to the competition.”

New technical regulations from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) for 2011 prompted Audi to develop the “closed cockpit” R18. Older models like the R15 TDI may only compete in heavily modified form with greatly restricted engine power and a smaller fuel tank.

A field of over 50-cars is expected to contest the 59th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, the McNish/Kristensen/Capello Audi Sport Team Joest entry backed up by the “sister” R15 TDI of 2010 Le Mans 24 Hour winning combination of Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike Rockenfeller (D).

Audi’s arch-rival Peugeot will compete at the 3.7 mile, 17-corner Sebring International Raceway – America’s premier sports car racing facility nestling amongst the orange groves and cattle ranches of central Florida which is the oldest permanent road racing track in North America.

The last time Audi raced at Sebring in 2009, 170,800 spectators attended the race meeting. Legends Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio have previously won the annual race which has also attracted the likes of Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman, Paul Newman and Patrick Dempsey.

Allan added: “Sebring is one of the hardest races because it is the opening race of the year while it’s invariably staged in hot and humid weather conditions. The circuit is fast, intense and bumpy requiring 100% concentration throughout.

“I raced at Sebring for the first time in 1997 and won while in the 12 Hour race itself, have won it three times finishing on the podium six times from seven starts, so it has been a happy hunting ground for me and I’m very much looking to continue that trend in 2011.

“I like the circuit because it is an ‘old style’ circuit and hasn’t changed much since Stirling Moss raced there first in the mid-1950s. The track surface is bumpy with some nasty kerbing at some corners all of which we don’t see in Europe, especially not at circuits used for Formula 1 races, but I think it gives it a lot of character. Additionally there is always a mega crowd generating an electric atmosphere.”

Allan McNish steered his diesel engined Audi home in to third place after a spirited recovery in the Le Mans 24 Hour race which ended today (13 June) as the German manufacturer scored a dominant 1-2-3 result.

German Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller plus Romain Dumas, of France, claimed Audi’s ninth Le Mans race win since its début in 1999 – their Audi R15 TDI setting a new distance record of 3,361-miles in the 78th running of the historic event in France.

“It’s an unbelievable result because we didn’t have the outright pace of Peugeot,” commented McNish. “But Audi had the efficiency and reliability plus the team, structure, drivers and engineers that knew from experience, how to win here.”

Audi’s fourth 1-2-3 victory at Le Mans after 2000, 2002 and 2004, completed at an average speed of 139.95mph, was a supreme combination of TDI turbo diesel efficiency and reliability but less than five hours in to the twice-around-the-clock marathon, the race had turned against former two-time race winner McNish.

The 40-year-old Scotsman, driving a latest specification Audi R15 TDI with Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello – Audi’s previous Le Mans winners from two years ago – ultimately recovered to claim a “podium” position after losing three laps and dropping from being the highest-placed Audi in fourth to eighth.

McNish had started sixth on the 55-car grid and was up to fourth when after almost 4½hrs, co-driver Kristensen came across a slow-moving car which moved across in front of him.

Allan added: “Tom had to take avoiding action of a slow, wounded car that drifted across on him. TK ended up in the gravel having also lightly touched the guard rail. He was towed out of the trap and got the car back to the pits for repairs. In all we lost around three laps – the distance we finished behind our winning team-mates . . .”

The Bernhard (29/Germany)/Dumas (32/France)/Rockenfeller Audi finished one-lap ahead of the “sister” R15 TDI of Marcel Fässler (34/Switzerland)/André Lotterer (29/Germany)/Benoît Treluyer (23/France) with the McNish/Kristensen/Capello Audi third, a further two laps adrift.

“I’ve not been involved in a Le Mans like this one in my 10 previous starts here! It turned on its head two or three times. The result of our car was obviously dictated by Tom’s incident which was frustrating. But our fight back was intense and we can all be very proud – but that doesn’t mean to say that we can forget about the performance of our ‘French friends’ as we now must focus on the Intercontinental Cup which begins at Silverstone in September.”

Meanwhile Le Mans débutant Oliver Jarvis, from Cambridge, who shared his “customer” Audi R10 TDI with Christian Bakkerud (Den) and Christijan Albers (NED), started from the seventh row and lay a commendable seventh with three hours to run but a mechanical problem when seventh caused the car’s retirement in the closing stages.

Allan McNish gave himself a good warm-up to next month’s Le Mans 24 Hours when the Scotsman’s diesel-engined Audi finished third in an abnormal 1,000km sportscar endurance race at Spa-Francorchamps today (SUN).

Dumfries-born McNish, 40, started his Audi R15 TDI from sixth place on the 49-car grid and along with co-drivers Dindo Capello (Italy) and Tom Kristensen (Denmark) led convincingly before first a power cut and then rain returned to thwart Audi’s bid for victory in a bizarre Le Mans Series race.

“Rain fell just before the start and being on dry weather ‘slicks’, made it extremely difficult on the slippery surface,” reflected McNish. “The Audi team then made a good strategy call to pit me under a safety car period and I led at the end of my stint.

“But then a power cut brought the race to a temporary stop, something I’ve never previously experienced in my career, and then a further rain shower late in the race prompted us to bring Tom [Kristensen] in to change onto intermediate [part-treaded] tyres with 30mins remaining.

“Unfortunately it stopped raining soon afterwards, the track dried and we lost second place with just four minutes to run. But in terms of the performance, Audi can be pleased looking ahead to Le Mans which is why we ran our cars in Le Mans specification unlike Peugeot who chose to run in a higher downforce set-up more beneficial for Spa.”

The McNish/Capello/Kristensen Audi ultimately finished 86.215secs behind the winning Peugeot of Sébastien Bourdais/Simon Pagenaud/Pedro Lamy which had started from pole-position.

The Audi R15 TDI sportscar of Timo Bernhard (D)/Romain Dumas (F)/Mike Rockenfeller (D) started from the front row and finished fifth. The third “factory” Audi of Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Treluyer (F) had been due to begin the race from fifth position but lost eight laps having repairs made in the pits after Lotterer spun off on the warm-up lap after drizzle made the track surface treacherously slippery. They recovered to finish 12th.