Audi Racing

[nicksimc]

>Audi is pretty well behind the TT DTM ABT effort, I'm quite sure - Christian
>Abt was a factory driver, and Abt is probably now the closest to factory
>tuner.  Abt couldn't support that DTM effort without factory support - let's
>put it that way...
>
>Later!
>Carter

I have the european car article (August 2001 p14) in front of me now, and
the information is a bit dated, as it refers to the May DTM round at
Nurburgring where Laurent Aiello and Martin Tomczyk took the front two
positions and finished 1 and 4 respectively. However, it does say (edited
for bandwidth):

"...As with almost all racing these days, it is virtually unheard of for a
small
private team to upstage the major manufacturers...The fact that Audi is not
supporting the Abt effort is noteworthy and shows what determined
engineers and a team can do when motivated...It would not at all be
surprising for Ingolstadt to take a closer look at the series now that Abt
has drawn blood.  Beating Mercedes translates into great PR."

Granted, this refers to the May round, but at press time (most probably at
the end of June/beginning of July)  Audi was not supporting the effort, and
this particular point was the very reason they led the feature with DTM
news, which they normally wouldn't do.  If Audi is now showing support, it
is obviously _not_ because Abt can't manage without it.

M Nicksic

'84 4ksq
'82 4ks