Allan's Races

2011 is going to be a busy season starting off in the middle of March at the Sebring 12 Hour and finally concluding at the end of November in China. When you sit down and look at the calendar of Sebring, of Spa, of Le Mans, of Imola, of Silverstone, then Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta, and then finally ending up in China, you see that it is the best of the sportscar races in the season and to put it together as one Championship is really exciting. We certainly have a battle ahead of us with the competition that we have got, but one that we are looking forward to. 

The R18 I am very much looking forward to getting behind the wheel in anger in a race and we’ll debut that car in Spa later on in the year. It’s quite a change in philosophy – it’s a closed car as opposed to the open R8, R10 and R15 that we’ve been running up until now since 2000. It has right hand drive, which again is another departure as all Audis have been left hand drive in sports prototype. It has a much smaller engine, which is regulation driven, 3.7 litre V6 turbo diesel so from that side it’s quite different from the 5.5 litre V10 engine that we had before, but still using the same TDI technology. The regulations have very much driven us in the line of efficiency and I think that Audi Sport have produced a car that will give us the efficient running that we will require to win the Le Mans 24 hours and the Intercontinental Cup. 

RACE DATES 

2012 World Endurance Championship

17th March                                              Sebring 12 Hours

5th May                                                    Spa 1000kms

3rd June                                                   Le Mans Pre-test

16-17th June                                           Le Mans 24 Hours

25th August                                            Silverstone 6 Hours

16th September                                      Sao Paulo, Brazil

30th September                                      Fuji, Japan

20th October                                          Bahrain

November                                                China TBC