Home » Blog » Allan's Blog » BACK TO THE DAY JOB . . . CHARACTER-BUILDING TIMES AT PETIT . . .
29 September 2009 | Posted in Allan's Blog
After making various trips around the world in conjunction with Audi celebrating their 100 year anniversary and also the launch of the R8 V10, it was back to my "day job". Prior to heading to America for the Petit Le Mans race, we had a three-day test at Vallelunga in Italy.
It was really cool to get back in the Audi R15 TDI. I hadn't physically sat in the car since the Le Mans 24 Hour race in June! So it was a case of jumping in and dusting myself off. Dindo and I completed three days of testing, trying to improve and understand the R15 TDI a little bit more so that when we arrived at Road Atlanta, we had the best car possible.
So at Petit, immediately before qualifying, we were very happy. However, when we got into qualifying, Peugeot took 1.2secs out of us and that was a shock and a big disappointment. It proved that as much as we'd moved forward, they'd moved forward as well, competition wasn't standing still. Acura had also made big strides since our last encounter with them at Sebring.
When the heavens opened on raceday, we weren't really sure whether it would play into our hands or there hands. Unfortunately we're not allowed quattro - if Audi's four-wheel-drive system had been eligible we'd have been singing and dancing. But the adaptability of the V10 TDI, the chassis and our traction control, meant that when it was wet in varying degrees, or on a drying track, we were in a very good position and be able to pull away from the Peugeot.
In fact, I was agonisingly within two metres of putting the second-placed Peugeot down one complete lap after just 1hr 30mins. However a full course yellow came out just as I was about to challenge him, for the re-start he was allowed to come all the way back around behind the safety Car so our advantage had been lost. We were then playing nip and tuck with them. Dindo had a very good stint after my opening stint and it was a real fight with our car and the two Peugeots with Marco {Werner] and Lucas [Luhr] a lap down in fourth in the "sister" R15 TDI.
The race had started on a very wet track which gradually dried through my stint and for Dindo. When I was back in the car just after the four hour mark we had some light rain which made the track surface very greasy. There was an incident bringing out another Safety Car period, there were seven in all, and I was trying to get some temperature into the tyres. It was a lot colder than normal, and the tyres were losing grip because of the slow speed we were doing. Unfortunately I looped it behind the Safety Car, a quick spin, nothing serious, didn't hit anything and continued in third place behind the two Peugeots when the race re-started.
The rain intensified so we all pitted, Audi before Peugeot, I was back up to second place, moments before I spun down to third again - by this time the rain was torrential. After a while under full course caution conditions, the race was red-flagged. Organisers had hoped to re-start the race but the rain just kept coming down for the next four hours while we kicked our heels in the Audi transporter and so it was ultimately called off with the positions remaining the same as at the point of the very last caution period - we were third!
It was the correct decision - it would have been unsafe to re-start - but an innocuous spin had cost us the win and left me feeling very, very frustrated. We had a car capable of winning, Audi Sport Team Joest were capable of doing the job, while Dindo and I had been running at the front. In normal circumstances we'd have fought our way back to the front I have no doubt and we may have seen a different result. But as they say that's racing, that's character-building.
Looking back on it, the race still gave us a lot of information on us, and also we were able to watch closely our main opposition. To see where they had an advantage, compared to where we were strong. We can go away and work on our weaknesses, and then try to reduce their strengths in readiness for Le Mans 2010. That's our key goal. However, we've a lot of testing and development to do before next June comes around.
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