Re: Audi at Seibring.

[MSV96@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/10/99 Tuftywxm@aol.com writes:

<< I heard a rumor today that Audi are bringing 3 yes three R8's to the 12
hours of Seibring.Anybody else heard anything?? >>

That could have some merit though it would go against the grain of the past.
In 1988 Audi skipped the Daytona 24 hours and Sebring due to "lack of testing"
only to loose the IMSA GTO championship despite having the obviously best car.
(Kinda hard to make up them points.) 

That said, it almost makes sense to shake down the cars at Sebring if they are
close to fully developed since they will still have time before Le Mans to
implement any changes they deem necessary. Given that the goal this year is a
strong showing at Le Mans, what better way to "test" than to run Sebring?

Add to this, I heard early on that Audi planned to do the full 2000 season in
the new US Le Mans series. That series is official this year (and shows
promise, TV contracts and all). In Sears Point Raceway's newsletter that
announced the US Le Mans series race there, they mention Audi as one of the
expected entrants...makes one wonder. The US Le Mans series has a nice
convenient gap in scheduling specifically for the teams to be able to do both
the US series and Le Mans.

I'm sure that Audi knows WMB won their first race out of the box last October
in their R&S chassis car. At this point that is the chassis to beat. (Just won
Daytona with Ford power for the second time in three years.) I would think
Audi would like to see how they fare against it with time to make changes.

This will be an interesting year for Audi fans who also follow sports car
racing.

Mike Veglia
87 5kcstq