The Audi vs. Peugeot endurance racing battle will continue next month at Road Atlanta as the German team finally confirmed it will bring the R15 TDI back to America. Peugeot announced several weeks ago that it would run its Le Mans-winning 908 HDI at both the Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca. So far Audi has only committed to the 10-hour race in Georgia. Audi Sport Team Joest will be running the two R15s for the German automaker.
The diesel-powered racers opened up the season battling at the 12 hours of Sebring with the R15 grabbing a debut victory. From there, the Franco-Prussian war moved on to the 24 Hours of Le Mans where Peugeot finally came through with a win after three years of trying.
Audi motorsports boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich blamed a lack of testing for the team's failure in France this year and plans to have the team test at Road Atlanta the week prior to the race next month. Hopefully, Audi will stick around for the California race, as well. Full press release after the jump, and thanks to all for the tips!
The 10th anniversary of the Petit Le Mans occurred this weekend at Road Atlanta, and the annual endurance event that occurs before the season-ending race of the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca did not disappoint. Peugeot arrived ready to take up its diesel-powered feud with Audi in the LMP1 class that recently concluded overseas in the European Le Mans Series with the German brand on top. The LMP2, GT1 and GT2 classes were also hotly contested, and the most drama came from Helio Castroneves, who arrived at the track to drive an LMP2 Porsche for Penske after having been in handcuffs the day before facing tax evasion charges.
It was a record setting day yesterday at Road Atlanta, with all four classes setting qualifying records including a blistering 1:06.242 by Stephane Sarrazin in his Peugeot 908 HDi to take the top overall spot. Peugeot has continually proved that it has a fast car, taking the last two pole positions at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it was Audi on top at the end of that race. Allan McNish will be putting plenty of pressure on the Peugeot team, who qualified just .085 seconds behind the Peugeot in his Audi R10 TDI. In P2, Penske racing not only captured pole with a record qualifying time of 1:07.061, but also grabbed the top three spots. It was all Corvette Racing in GT1, but it will be a close race between the two Corvette who were separated by only .047 seconds. Finally, Risi Competizione qualified first in GT2 for the second straight year. Coverage of the event starts today at 11:00 AM EST on SPEED TV today, with the green flag waving at 11:15. A NASCAR race splits up the coverage from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. EST, but you can still watch the race on AmericanLeMans.com (as well as look up live timing and scoring) or listen in on XM channel 166.
