• Audi race experience Team Joest fields two Audi R8 LMS cars• Strong drivers from Australia, Asia and Europe• Extended program for the AUDI AG GT3 sportscar
The 2011 motorsport season opens with a genuine highlight for Audi: On February 6, Audi race experience Team Joest contests the 12-hour race at Bathurst with two Audi R8 LMS cars. The event at Australia’s most famous race track rings in the extended program for the AUDI AG GT3 sportscar.
The customer sport program started in 2009 with the Audi R8 LMS was restructuredfor the 2011 season. Further development of the Audi R8 LMS, sales and marketingof the cars and the technical support for customers and importer teams worldwidewere transferred to the quattro GmbH.
The extended program includes additional events for Audi race experience TeamJoest, which was active last year mainly on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife and gaveAudi customers the possibility to compete in races themselves with the fascinatingAudi R8 LMS.
For the 12-hour race at Bathurst, however, six experienced campaigners sit at thewheel of the two Audi R8 LMS. Mark Eddy, Craig Lowdnes and Warren Luff will sharean “all-Australian” car. Mark Eddy competes already for a year with an Audi R8 LMSin the Australian GT Championship. Craig Lowdnes won the Australian V8 SupercarChampionship three times and the 1,000-kilometer race at Bathurst five times.Warren Luff also claims years of Bathurst experience as long-standing V8 Supercardriver.
The two Germans Marc Basseng and Christopher Mies and also the Hong Kong-Chinese Darryl O’Young share the sister car. Basseng and Mies have alreadycompleted many races with the Audi R8 LMS. Darryl O’Young impressed during the12-hour race in Sepang (Malaysia), in which Audi race experience Team Joest tooksecond place at the end of August. Furthermore, he replaced Alexandre Prémat atthe DTM finale in Shanghai.
The 6.213 kilometer long Mount Panorama Circuit at Bathurst is Australia’s mostwell-known circuit and includes a near two-kilometer long straight and an altitudedifference of 174 meters. For this reason the track, opened in 1938, also bears thename “Mini Nordschleife” among experts.
The Bathurst event, through which the quattro GmbH also aims to open newmarkets for the Audi R8 LMS, is the opener to an entire series of long-distance racesthat Audi contest throughout the 2011 season with the GT3 sportscar. The programis spearheaded by the two 24-hours races at the Nürburgring (June 25/26) and Spa-Francorchamps (July 30/31).
“The race track at Bathurst is a real classic,” explains Romolo Liebchen, Head ofCustomer Sport of quattro GmbH. “For our restructured customer sport programBathurst is certainly a perfect way to start the season.”
“To see the Audi R8 LMS in action there will certainly be a real experience for thefans,” adds Ralf Jüttner, Team Director of Audi race experience Team Joest.
