Miami, June 23, 2003
A new challenge confronts both Team ADT Champion Racing and Infineon
Team Joest with their Audi R8 sports cars at the second race of the 2003
American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Road Atlanta. In contrast to the
traditional final race in October (“Petit Le Mans”), the distance of the “Grand
Prix of Atlanta” on Sunday (29 June), the additional race included in the
schedule, is not 1000 miles but a mere 2 hours 45 minutes long. “The race
will be very hard,” believes Audi driver Frank Biela. “The circuit is very
challenging and physically demanding. During such a short race you cannot
pace yourself physically as you would normally over a longer distance. On
top of this, it should be much hotter in Atlanta at the end of June than in
October.”
Infineon Team Joest arrive at Road Atlanta as overall championship leaders
after winning the season opener at Sebring in March. Frank Biela has
already won there in 2001, his team colleague Marco Werner competes for
the first time on the circuit located in the US state of Georgia. “From now on,
all the circuits in America are new to me,” said Werner. “I can’t wait as I’ve
only heard good things about Road Atlanta. I’m really looking forward to the
roller coaster sections, which should suit me.”
The race is a very special one for Team ADT Champion Racing: For the first
time Johnny Herbert, the Briton, and the Finn JJ Lehto share the cockpit of
the “American” Audi R8. Following the success in Le Mans (third place),
Dave Maraj’s team is aiming for their first ALMS victory. “It could have already
happened in Sebring, unfortunately we had some bad luck at the end,” said
JJ Lehto. “It is only a question of time before Champion win their first ALMS
race.”
Infineon Team Joest, unbeaten in Road Atlanta till now, aims to prevent this.
At last years final race of the season, Champion and Joest were involved in
an exiting race long duel. The two Audi R8 racers were separated by less
than one minute after 394 laps. “I’m really interested to see how strong the
driver duo of Johnny Herbert and JJ Lehto at Champion Racing will be – it
will certainly be a hard fought contest,” said Marco Werner.
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