Audi Team Oreca - R8 LMS

Just announced that Audi Sport, Audi France and Team Oreca will be running the R8 LMS in the French GT Championship. The driver for the car couldn't have been a better choice - Stephane Ortelli - he'll pair with "a very fast gentleman driver" (this is per GT3 regs). Stephane is no stranger to Audi - having participated three times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999, 2000 (2nd with McNish and Aiello) and 2005 (4th Audi-Oreca with Montagny and Gounon) and in the 2001 Bentley (Audi/VW).

This week Stephane is teamed with Bruno Senna in the Oreca P1 car at the LMS 1000km of Catalunya. Stephane is the one that had that horrific accident in Monza last year, narrowly missing the back of Allan's car as he was flying thru the air.

This is most definitely good news from Audi France and for the race fans. Yet another European series running the R8 LMS. This is where the real racing is! ! !

ALMS has to do better than just the Porsche Cup Cars in their GT3 "Challenge" - they are really behind the power curve.

Carol

 

ALMS has always been a little too manufacturer focused for the series good, imho.

They'd do well to develop a privateer team support package.

 

I agree with you on both points. I guess we'll see in May for the race in Utah just how this will all work, it should prove interesting.

It seems that it's just you and me and a few others who really like this sportscar stuff!

Carol

 

Carol,

I'm one of the "few others" and I'm impatiently awaiting the delivery of a now "old school" R10 visor I ordered last week. This is my desktop after "24" and Sebring: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138510168&postcount=5987

Bring on the beer!

Steve

 

Yes, a little less interest here than I expected. Would've thought GT2 and GT3 of interest to many of the 430 owners here. Still, without privateer teams, there's not much to follow in ALMS this year.
Another aspect is unlike F1 there's not the stream of press reports providing prepackaged opinions to post. If you're going to discuss sportscar racing here you need to come up with the ideas and opinions yourself. That cuts it down to those really interested.
Just watched a stream of last years FIA GT Monza round. Every GT-2 Ferrari had an in car camera. Made for an enthralling two hours.

I'm anticipating the F1 testing ban to result in more of the F1 driver hopefuls to look at Sportscar racing as an alternative next season. 2010 could be a great season on both sides of the pond.


Italian team BMS Scuderia Italia, which finished second in GT2 last season, has announced that it will enter two Ferrari F430 GT2 2009-version cars in this year's FIA GT Championship. Matteo Malucelli and Paolo Ruberti, who were part of the winning GT2 crew at the Total 24 Hours of Spa, will be behind the wheel of the nr 77 car, while a young Italo-German line-up will share the nr 78. Kenneth Heyer, previously seen in the GTO Charouz Mosler, will drive with Diego Romanini of Italy, who will be making his FIA GT debut.

 

Anyone know of a website that will have a streaming video of the 1st round of the ELMS??

 

Got a few things in common it seems.
My last dog, Suki.
Yep we have Akitas in Oz too.
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YES ! ! ! What an AWESOME dog!!! I'll have to get one of Espirit and show you - she's not a show dog, just a pet dog.

B E A U T I F U L - I think I'm in love with him

(our fawn/blk mask Akita we lost after 13 years had in her pedigree a dog named Suki Wild Horse among other names - registration certificate is in safe deposit box so I can't look at it now - what's the background on your Suki?)


Carol


At Spa in May, the support races shown for the LMS race include SRO GT3 & GT4 - perhaps we'll see them there.......take a holiday from fall and join us at Spa.

 

Suki's mother's line was from Japan and sire's from the US.
Both Suki and one sister had short but successful show careers. I'm not really a dog show person but was showing my bulls at the time and many events were co-located at our area Ag shows.
Not a dog for everyone but Suki spoiled all other breeds for me.
In order to be the master that dog required I had to step up a level beyond that all my other dogs demanded. We were together constantly every day for ten years and after constant training our communication was at a special level.
I had a closer than normal relationship with two horses during that time. One was my team lead mare in combined driving and the other was a beautiful black arab mare that was the closest thing to a killer horse I've ever seen when we got her and the drugs wore off. It took a couple of years but eventually we removed all the fear from her life and were rewarded with a great riding horse and a wonderful experience in cross species communication. No ropes everything was verbal.
You never know what you have 'till its gone though.
One day I was out driving Jedda solo in my turn of the century buggy and she told me she wasn't up to it. So I retired her after the vet confirmed what she'd already told me. Discussed plans that night for introducing the black girl to driving but found her dead from snake bite the next morning. Two days later on the vets advice I had to say good bye to Suki too.
Took me years to emerge from the grieving but now I can remember all the good years.
Health issues restricted my actions but in her retirement I'd often drive down to see Jedda and she'd hang beside the car with her nose in the window for hours. It was humbling to have her demonstrate the depth of our bond by opting to stay with me at the car while my lady tossed lucerne hay to her paddock mates further up the paddock. Anyone who's ever fed a horse will understand how unusual that is.
Can't walk freely enough to exercise dogs or ground train horses now, so I've turned back to performance cars for an interest.
This year all surplus money is going towards my new horsepower fix but maybe I'll get to meet you in Spa next year.
Cheers

 

My friend we certainly have more than cars and Akitas in common. Cows and horses - I must PM you next week. Let's say that a little sick newborn mini goal changed our lives forever. You MUST come to Spa, so much to chat about.

Carol & John