By Tarek Ramchani :
The 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona marked the American race debut for the brand new Audi R8 GRAND-AM. 2 teams represented Audi in Florida's prestigious endurance event. Grand-Am regulars APR Motorsport, moved to the major Rolex Series, after years racing exclusively the Grand-Am Challenge. The other team is Oryx Racing, from the United Arab Emirates, last season they did the American Le Mans Series.
Radically diffrent from its original FIA GT3 Spec version, to meet the Grand-Am GT rules. The R8 GRAND-AM did pretty well in qualifying. The #74 Oryx Racing got a nice 15th in class, less than a second, from the pole sitting Porsche GT3 Cup. While the #51 APR Motorsport car ended in 22nd. Not bad for a world class GT field, made by a mega 42 cars entry. With APR adding Audi's veteran and star Emanuele Pirro for their drivers line-up.
The race started saturday afternoon. Immediatelly Oryx Racing's R8 improved in hands of Steven Kane . Moving up to 8th position in class. While APR car running with consistent lap times in the middle of the GT pack. Entering the first hours of the race, bad luck started to hit both Audis. Some contacts with other cars, or some technical issues. Problems that sent them back of the GT class standing. Both teams never give up and each time returned on track fighting hard. Same bad luck hit again the #51 APR car, with only few minutes to go. The R8 crashed at the Bus Stop chicane. Again the team brought back the car to the pits and did everything to send it back on track. Great team efforts as the #51 machine resumed in the very final stages and made it to the finish line. Very emotional for a brand new racer and 2 rookie teams.
The Audi R8 GRAND-AM did quite well, as seen in qualifying and the first stages of the race. Proving it could fight and challenge the top GT cars of the series from Porsche, Chevrolet or Ferrari. Not bad for a debut in North American sports car racing. Next roud of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series is at Barber Motorsport Park, March 31st.
