San Francisco, June 23, 2003

Tough week for the customer Audi teams ADT Champion Racing and Infineon Team Joest: Two races within eight days on the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) schedule. And if that is not enough: Both the races, the GP of Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway close to San Francisco (California) and in Canadian Trois-Rivières, lie more than 3000 miles apart. The transporters of both teams must drive practically non-stop to arrive punctually in Canada.

The Infineon Raceway is regarded as one of the most challenging tracks in the ALMS. “There is not a single straight, overtaking is extremely difficult,” explained Ralf Jüttner, Infineon Team Joest Technical Director. His team has already won twice with the Audi R8 there, however, last year a Panoz triumphed. After the Champion team celebrated their first ALMS victory three weeks ago in Road Atlanta, the Joest team has two reasons for revenge. “Our target is clear: We want to climb the top step of the rostrum again,” said Marco Werner, for whom the circuit in California is new terriotory.

The German driver duo of Frank Biela and Marco Werner is under threat from Johnny Herbert and JJ Lehto again, who won from the word go in their first race together driving the Team Champion Audi R8. “It would be fabulous if we left California as clear championship leaders”, said JJ Lehto. “But it will be a hard race: Team Joest will be highly motivated after our victory in Road Atlanta.”

The ALMS race on the Infineon Raceway starts on Sunday at 12.00 a.m. local time (21.00 p.m. CET) and last for 2 hours 45 minutes.