Braselton, June 28, 2003

The Audi customer teams gave the Audi R8 another 1-2 victory in the second round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). After Team ADT Champion Racing was narrowly defeated by Reinhold Joest’s team in the season opener at Sebring in March, Dave Maraj’s squad turned it the other way arround at Road Atlanta: The Champion R8 of JJ Lehto and Johnny Herbert crossed the finish line 30.407 seconds ahead of the Infineon Team Joest Audi R8 of Frank Biela and Marco Werner.

For Champion Racing, which has run an Audi R8 in the ALMS since 2001, it was the first ever victory in the American Le Mans Series. “Finally we did it,” enthused Team owner Dave Maraj. “We came close on many occasions but always had to be content with second. Finishing third at Le Mans and now scoring our maiden ALMS victory – I am so proud of my team.”

The foundation for the triumph at Road Atlanta was laid by JJ Lehto. Starting from the second row of the grid with the Champion R8, the Finn passed Marco Werner in the first corner. On lap six, Lehto also overtook James Weaver, who surprisingly started from pole position with the MG Lola of the Dyson Team. Lehto was able to extend his lead continuously until his first fuel stop.

Marco Werner followed JJ Lehto during the opening laps, but later got stuck behind James Weaver’s MG Lola. “It became difficult for me in traffic,” said the Sebring winner. “If you don’t know the track, you have a hard time at Road Atlanta. I did not want to make any mistakes and not risk a collision. Maybe I was a little bit too careful.”

A stop-and-go penalty imposed against the MG Lola allowed the Infineon Team Joest Audi R8 to move to second position before its first scheduled pit-stop. However, three time Le Mans winner Frank Biela was not able to make up the 24 seconds lost during the early stages of the race. Until the finish of the extremely fast race, the gap between the two Audi R8 racers remained almost the same. “Unfortunately we had really bad luck in traffic,” explained Biela. “Because of that I lost every little tenth of a second I had gained.”

The race at Road Atlanta proved also that the LMP 675 class MG Lola, which has been further developed, is competitive. During most of the race the MG Lolas were able to match the speed of the Audi R8. “I think this was only the beginning of an exciting season,” declared Head of Audi Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. “It will be very tight between the Audi customer teams and the LMP 675 prototypes from MG Lola also in the future.”


The race at a glance

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and gets a stop-and-go-penalty

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30.407s seconds in front of #1 Biela/Werner

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Drivers

1 Frank Biela

1 Marco Werner

1 JJ Lehto

4 Johnny Herbert

5 Philipp Peter

6 Olivier Beretta

6 Max Papis

8 Didier Theys

8 Eric van de Poele

10 Emanuele Pirro

10 Stefan Johansson

Chassis Manufacturers

1 Audi

2 Panoz

3 Dallara

4 Bentley

5 Lola

6 Riley & Scott

Engine Manufacturers

1 Audi

2 Elan Power

3 MG

4 Bentley

5 Lincoln

6 Judd

Teams

1 Infineon Team Joest

1 Champion Racing

3 JML

4 Doran Lista Racing

5 Team Bentley

6 American Spirit Racing

7 Audi Sport UK

8 Intersport Racing

9 Taurus Sports Racing

IMSA Cup

1 Infineon Team Joest #1

1 Champion Racing #38

3 JML #10

4 Doran Lister Racing #27

5 Audi Sport UK #9

5 JML #11

5 American Spirit Racing #12

8 Intersport Racing #77

9 Taurus Sports Racing #77

10 Jim Matthews Racing #36

11 Sezio Florida Racing #87

Next race
Infineon Raceway, Sonoma USA, 27 July