PERFECT FINISH Audi won at the 12 hours of Sebring endurance race with its R15 TDI

By Derryn Wong

ANOTHER DREAM DEBUT was enjoyed, this time by Audi, at the 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race held at Sebring International Raceway on March 21.

Audi Sport Team Joest, the team which won the 24 Hours of Lemans last year with drivers Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello were once again triumphant, mostly thanks to the same factors: reliability and speed over the course of the race.

The R15 had only seen limited testing before its race debut, as Capello said, “I honestly did not expect to win with the R15 TDI at Sebring because the car is so new and had little testing in Europe.” It also seemed to be outpaced by the Acura ARX-02a on pure one lap speed, as the Acura #66 campaigned by De Ferran Motorsport took pole, which was followed by #2 Audi of Joest and then Team Peugeot Total’s #07 Peugeot 908.

In the race, McNish took off into the lead though with the Peugeot’s not far behind and this wasn’t an efficiency victory as it was in LeMans 08: the lead changed 22 times and only a few seconds covered the leading Peugeots and Audis for long period throughout the race.

The advantage finally tipped in Audi’s favour when McNish put in a series of quick laps and was able to do a quick pit stop without losing first place – at the end of twelve hours and 383 laps (a new record) the #2 R15 just 22.279 seconds ahead of #08 Peugeot 908 driven by Sebastian Bourdais, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin while the all-German crew of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner finishing third at the wheel of the second #1 Audi R15.

Victory marked the ninth Audi triumph at Sebring, continuing the winning ways of its predecessors the R8 and R10 cars, with Tom Kristensen taking a record fifth Sebring win. It’s a good sign for Ingolstadt, as Sebring is often considered a tough quality test and a rehearsal for the 24 Hours of LeMans in June.