Britain’s new Audi team aims for a début victory when it contests the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in Florida on Saturday (20 March). A two-car Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx entry is bidding to score the German manufacturer’s fifth consecutive victory in the 52nd running of the historic American sportscar endurance event.
British quartet Jamie Davies, Johnny Herbert, Allan McNish and Guy Smith plus German duo Frank Biela and Pierre Kaffer campaign two Audi R8 sportscars for the Brackley, Northamptonshire based outfit. Former Le Mans 24 Hour race winners Biela (2000/01/02), Herbert (1991), McNish (1998) and Smith (2003) plus Audi sportscar “rookies” Davies and Kaffer will look to the annual Sebring race as a successful “dress rehearsal” in advance of this year’s Le Mans race (12-13 June).
Both Audi R8 sportscars compete in 2002 specification and are powered by a 3.6-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 engine featuring FSI (petrol direct injection) fuel-saving technology with an organiser imposed restricted output of 550bhp.
The Audi R8 made its race début in the 2000 Sebring race and has gone on to become the most successful, “open top” sportscar of the modern day era. For the past four years, an Audi has started from pole-position and finished at least first and second in the Sebring race.
The Sebring 12 Hours is the oldest sportscar endurance race in the United States having begun in 1952. The 3.7-mile Sebring International Raceway, featuring 17 corners, is built on the site of a military training airfield. The race winner is expected to clock-up around 1,400-miles at an average speed in excess of 110mph.
Previous Sebring 12 Hour race winners include Stirling Moss, 50 years ago, Mike Hawthorn (1955) and Peter Collins (1958). Herbert (2002) was the last British driver to win - in an Audi - one of only two “Brits” to sample success in the last 20 years.
Triple Le Mans winner Biela will be looking for his fifth consecutive “pole” start and would join Mario Andretti (US), Phil Hill (US), Olivier Gendebien (Bel) and Hans Stuck Jnr (Ger) as the race’s most successful driver if he achieved his third Sebring victory.
