VAG Division – Volkswagen Group Car Club

PhoenixRacing wins the GT3 class in the 24h race
No luck during the race in fight for overall victory
Only two of the seven Audi R8 LMS on the grid make the finish
Ingolstadt/Nürburg, May 16, 2010 – The Audi R8 LMS remains as best in class in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife: Also during its second outing in the “green hell”, the world’s longest and toughest race track, the mid-engine sportscar crossed the finish line as winner of the GT3 class (SP9).

With third place overall in Phoenix Racing’s Audi LMS R8 Marc Bronzel (Siek), Luca Ludwig (Roisdorf), Dennis Rostek (Porta Westfalica) and Markus Winkelhock (Berglen) presented the team with an unexpected surprise since this quartet did not even number among the favourites before the race started. The conservative and mechanically easy going driving style of the Phoenix squad, however, paid dividends: The Audi R8 LMS with start number 97 ran – apart from a small electrical problem during the opening stages – with the smallest technical problem.

Of particular note was the performance of DTM driver Markus Winkelhock, who, after only landing a drive in the Phoenix team at the last moment, drove consistently fast lap times without any experience of the Nordschleife and in the closing stages convincingly defended the class lead. “The Audi R8 LMS and this race were great fun,” beamed the Swabian following his successful Nordschleife debut. “It was a fantastic experience. My thanks go to Phoenix Racing who did a fantastic job. I’m speechless that I managed to finish on the podium here!”

Great delight also erupted in the Black Falcon team that brought one of its two Audi R8 LMS home in fifth place overall and third position in the GT3 category. Sean-Paul Breslin (Great Britain), Christer Jöns (Ingelheim), Kenneth Heyer (Wegberg) and Johannes Stuck (Liechtenstein) also choose the best compromise between speed and reliability.

Nevertheless, the 24-hour race around the Nürburgring did not run as desired for the newly opened Customer Sport Centre at Audi Sport. The 38th running of the long-distance classic was plagued by numerous accidents and incidents from which none of the favourites escaped unharmed – also not the Audi customer teams ABT Sportsline, Black Falcon and Phoenix Racing, which were deserted by the necessary luck during the race following the strong qualifying performance.

All three teams lost one of its Audi R8 LMS in accidents. Nordschleife typical defects on two other cars ensured that only two of the seven Audi R8 LMS competing saw the chequered flag in this unusually hard and incident packed 24-hour race.

The race on the world’s longest and toughest race track ended particularly early for the two fastest Audi R8 LMS. Both the Phoenix R8 LMS with start number 98 (Marc Basseng/Mike Rockenfeller/Frank Stippler/Hans-Joachim Stuck) and the ABT R8 LMS with start number 100 (Mattias Estkröm/Oliver Jarvis/Timo Scheider/Marco Werner) retired as early as Saturday evening due to accidents.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. it claimed Marc Basseng (Phoenix Racing R8 LMS #98), who was running second at this time, in the track sector “Pflanzgarten 2″. “I was overtaking a slower car which had its left-turn signal blinking,” explained the Phoenix driver. “I was completely alongside him when he suddenly moved over. I wanted to avoid having an accident and swerved onto the grass, and hit a kerb exactly with the centre of the car.” The impact from below was so hard that the V10 engine was damaged and the R8 LMS ground to a halt in around the “Tiergarten”.

About an hour later bad luck also claimed Marco Werner (ABT Sportsline R8 LMS #100). The three-time Le Mans winner experienced a near identical situation in the sector “Pflanzgarten” when also running in second position. Werner was barged off by another car and had to park his R8 LMS with the rear-left suspension torn-off.

Marcel Fässler (Phoenix Racing R8 LMS #99) also had external contact on Saturday night, which fortunately ended with a damaged wheel. At 10:22 p.m. the silver-red R8 LMS took the lead for the first time and which Marcel Fässler, Frank Biela, Pierre Kaffer and Marc Hennerici temporarily extended to more than two-minutes during the night. After almost 17 hours a defect on the engine mounting also brought the race to an end for the second Phoenix-R8. “That really was a shame as we were really running strongly up to that point,” said Marcel Fässler.

Christian Abt was also involved in a collision in the second R8 LMS of the ABT Sportsline (#2) team. The result was tyre failure and deranged wheel alignment. Nevertheless, on Sunday morning at 10:42 a.m. after a fantastic fight back Christian Abt, Emmanuel Collard, Lucas Luhr and Christopher Mies were once again in second place on the same lap as the then leading hybrid-Porsche, when Lucas Luhr stopped on the track around the “Pflanzgarten” with a transmission problem.

Black Falcon Racing lost one of its two Audi R8 LMS (#111) during the night because of an accident. The second R8 LMS fielded by the private team from the Eifel ran just as reliably throughout the entire 24 hours as the third Phoenix team car – apart from gearbox issues just at the end of the race.

“We are happy that the R8 LMS remains unbeaten in its class in this race,” explained Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who was at the race himself. “We developed this car logically for customer sport, and the cars which finished third and fifth overall embody our customer sport idea perfectly. Congratulations to the Phoenix Racing and Black Falcon teams. The other cars put in great performances, but like many other top cars the extremely fast pace claimed its victims. ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing both lost a car when in promising positions due to accidents, which are typical on the Nordschleife. The two technical defects are also typical for this race track.”

Results

1 Müller/Farfus/Alzen/Lamy (BMW) 154 laps in 24h 00m 18.168s
2 Farnbacher/Simonsen/Lehman/Seefried (Ferrari) + 3m 54.191s
3 Bronzel/Ludwig/Rostek/Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS) – 1 lap (1st GT3)
4 Hartung/Söderlund/Sandström/Öhlin (BMW) – 2 laps (2nd GT3)
5 Breslin/Jöns/Heyer/Stuck (Audi R8 LMS) – 2 laps (3rd GT3)
6 Alzen/Schwager/Jäger/Bert (Porsche) – 3 laps
7 Werner/Müller/Priaulx/Adorf (BMW) – 4 laps
8 Zehe/Schelp/Roloff/Bullitt (Porsche) – 4 laps
9 Aust/Adams/Übler/Grossmann (BMW) – 5 laps
10 Weiland/Forbes/Riemer/Horn (Porsche) – 6 laps

Marco Werner sets best time on the Nordschleife
Four Audi R8 LMS fill first four grid positions
New circuit lap record

Ingolstadt/Nürburg, May 14, 2010 – The Audi R8 LMS looks to be the car to beat in the 38th running of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring: Four of the fascinating mid-engine sportscars start the race on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. from the first four grid positions.

The two Audi customer teams ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing had the correct strategy in qualifying: After it had rained during first qualifying on Thursday and the Nordschleife was still very dirty and slippery at the start of Friday’s second qualifying session, the two teams only went gunning for lap times shortly before the end of the final two-hour qualifying session. Lucas Luhr (ABT Sportsline/8m 27.967s) and Mike Rockenfeller (Phoenix Racing/8m 25.782s) initially used the now considerably superior conditions to set new fastest laps before they were beaten by Marco Werner (ABT Sportsline) with 8m 24.753s. Rockenfeller was still able to improve to 8m 25.568s on his last lap, but remained in second position. Pierre Kaffer (Phoenix Racing) completed the Audi quartet at the head of the field after posting a 8m 29.250s lap.

As a result, an Audi starts from pole position for the first time in the history of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring. “That four of our customer cars occupy the first four grid positions underlines the qualities of the Audi R8 LMS on the world’s longest and most demanding race track and is fantastic advertising for our new customer car, which we have developed over the last two-and-a-half years,” explained Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who follows the Audi customer teams’ preparations himself on location, and in doing so demonstrates how important the new customer sport programmed with the Audi R8 LMS is for Audi Sport.

Marco Werner broke the existing lap record for the current Nürburgring circuit layout by almost two seconds and, in the process, underlined the progress made during the further development of the Audi R8 LMS and how good the Michelin tires work on the cars from ABT and Phoenix. “We are satisfied to be on pole position, even though it isn’t really a very important step for a 24-hour race,” explained the three-time Le Mans winner. “It’s always ‘nice to have’. It was important that we had a few laps in the dry to see just how the car handles. We were unable to work in the set-up in the previous practice sessions, since the conditions were always very difficult. At least it was dry today. I was really fighting in the car. My lap was good, I only came across traffic on two or three occasions. That is the key to success for the last few seconds, which is what it was about in the end and led to pole position. We could show that Audi and ABT have produced a good package with the R8 LMS. Thanks also to Michelin, to whom we only switched to last week. Everything worked well.”

The three other Audi R8 LMS start on Saturday from positions 12, 17 and 22. The third Phoenix Racing R8 LMS had an accident in first qualifying on Thursday evening in which the car’s front end was damaged. The team Black Falcon Audi R8 LMS #102 made contact twice with the guardrails in final practice.

The 38th running of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring is started in Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Sport1 broadcasts 20 hours live. During the formation lap one of the limited edition of 333 Audi R8 GT will lead the starter field.

Since 2002, Audi is partner of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring through its sports subsidiary quattro GmbH, but is still missing from the endurance classic’s winners’ list. The Audi customer team ABT Sportsline and Phoenix Racing, who share the first two rows, now have an excellent chance to change this.

The starting grid at the Nürburgring

1 Ekström/Jarvis/Scheider/Werner (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 24.753s
2 Basseng/Rockenfeller/Stippler/Stuck (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 25.568s
3 Abt/Collard/Luhr/Mies (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 27.967s
4 Biela/Fässler/Hennerici/Kaffer (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 29.250s
5 Arnold/Menzel/Westbrook/Margaritis (Porsche) 8m 29.521s
6 Mamerow/Henzler/Hardt (Porsche) 8m 29.779s
7 Lieb/Bernhard/Dumas/Tiemann (Porsche) 8m 30.323s
8 Müller/Farfus/Alzen/Lamy (BMW) 8m 32.861s
9 Bergmeister/Lietz/Holzer/Ragginger (Porsche) 8m 34.427s
10 Alzen/Schwager/Jäger/Bert (Porsche) 8m 34.906s
…
12 Bronzel/Ludwig/Rostek/Winkelhock (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 37.859s
17 Breslin/Jöhns/Heyer/Stuck (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 44.070s
22 Ammermüller/Breslin/Mehta/Wilson (Audi R8 LMS) 8m 47.254s