Audi R10 narrowly beats Porsche RS Spyder in Salt Lake City
A successful debut for the Audi R10 in the fifth round of the American Le Mans Series at Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City was threatened yesterday as the No. 6 Porsche RS Spyder in the LMP2 class driven by Lucas Luhr pressured the No. 1 Audi R10 in the LMP1 class driven by Emanuele Pirro all the way to the end. Mad props must be given to Luhr for such excellent driving, especially in the high altitude, high temperature environment where his naturally aspirated motor was down some 60 horsepower, according to Porsche.
Both R10 diesel racers fielded by Audi had issues throughout the race. The No. 2 car led for much of the race but suffered a slow puncture in its rear left tire that dropped it back to a fourth place overall finish. The winning No. 1 car went off track early on and was forced to charge back through the field from 6th position.
Finally, a pair of Aston Martin DBR9 racers finished 1-2 in the GT1 class, ahead of the 3-4 finishing Corvette C6.Rs. It was the first time since October 2003 a Corvette hadn't finished first or second, the second consecutive win for Aston Martin, and the first 1-2 finish for Aston since the marque entered ALMS at Sebring last year. Along with the high altitude, the Corvette team blamed series-mandated handicaps that gave them 1-mm smaller intake air restrictors, 10-liter smaller fuel tanks, and 199 more pounds than their British rivals for the loss.
[More pics of Audi and Porsche at Miller Motorsports Park after the jump)
[Source: Audi, Porsche, GM, American Le Mans Series]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
soulstirred roadster 6:57PM (7/16/2006)
Do any of you bloggers believe in putting the race results into the body of message so that the results aren't visible unless you open the link? People complain about this all the bloody time. Some guy thought you had already posted the results when you posted on Friday, and you'd think you would bother to read the replies. Not very professional.
Great results for the teams, as I did watch the race before I opened the blog. But really, Autobloggers need to be a lot more careful.
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Perry 8:29PM (7/16/2006)
wow, thanks dude. Did you really watch the race on TV? or, you just like to post results ahead of other bloggers.
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chewy 11:28PM (7/16/2006)
Good job Audi. The TDI diesel continues to win.
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Olivier 4:21AM (7/17/2006)
This is no small feat for Audi, winning with a Diesel is a fantastic testimony of their expertise.
However I still don't understand why Diesels are allowed turbos and gas racers aren't.
I understand that the obvious answer today is that diesels suffer from extra weight, low revs etc.. But what will happen if Turbo Diesels totally crush Gas racing cars in the future? Will they allow turbos on the gas cars? Will they forbid turbos for everyone?
Will they limit displacement for Diesels?
Would like to know what you guys think.
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G 6:02AM (7/17/2006)
Soon to be a moot point isn't it? With Porsche taking a controlling shared of VW-Audi, it will be like saying the Enzo beat the MC12.
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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Bob Jones 8:54AM (7/17/2006)
The reason the R10's have turbos and the RS Spyders don't is because LMP1 class allows turbos while LMP2 class doesn't. If the RS was an LMP1 car they could add turbo's no problem... but they'd also have to add 150kg of weight.
Here is a link to the rules for the LMP1/2 class, its an interesting read on the technical differences between the two classes.
http://www.imsaracing.net/2006/competitors/aco3.pdf
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amp 10:28AM (7/17/2006)
FYI, a 'spoiler alert' in title would be a nice courtesy in the future.
When will the ALMS realize that throwing these absurd handicaps at the Corvette team is the wrong way to go about making the GT1 class interesting? If they’re going to insist on a handicapping system, at least use a results based formula, such as the World Challenge’s REWARDS system. Their application of handicaps has little rhyme or reason.
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dookie559 1:46AM (7/18/2006)
#6
gasoline turbo/supercharged engines are allowed 2liter limit, with a limit of up to 6 cyclinders. turbo diesels are not allowed.
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