le mans: testing progress

["Dave Eaton" <Dave.Eaton@clear.net.nz>]

from the wire....
dave
'95 rs2
'90 ur-q
'61 mb fintail 

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Audi's Le Mans coupe has made 'significant progress' in testing,
according to Perry McCarthy. 

The Briton claimed the Audi Sport UK team was buoyed by an
encouraging test at Paul Ricard last week. 

He said the team was 'starting to get the R8C rocking and rolling'
following a difficult first month for the car. 

'We didn't do a bad lap,' said McCarthy, who will share one of two
R8Cs entered for Le Mans on June 12-13. 

'More important, however, was our race pace, which was very
consistent.' 

McCarthy set a best time of 1m49.26s around the Paul Ricard long
circuit on race tyres and on full tanks. 

That run matched the lap set by the DAMS team's Lola-Judd
B98/10 at the same test and compares favourably with the race
pace of Le Mans favourites Toyota and BMW during previous Paul
Ricard tests. 

Audi continued its Le Mans preparations at Jerez this week with
two open R8Rs run by Joest.