By Tarek Ramchani
The Automobile Club de L'Ouest held their annual Awards Ceremony at Le Mans yesterday. The French club is of course the organizer of the world famous Le Mans 24 Hours and also fully involved in the brand new FIA World Endurance Championship. Two French Audi drivers were awarded for their efforts in 2012.
Firstly Benoît Tréluyer for his back to back victory at Le Mans with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and also for taking the FIA World Endurance Championship LMP1 title with Audi Sport Team Joest.
The other awarded Audi driver was Romain Dumas. Romain has left the Audi squad for 2013 but he was awarded for his victory at the 6 Hours of Spa last year with an Audi R18 ultra. He also received an award for his fantastic second place overall at the demanding Pikes Peak Hillclimb event with a Porsche 997 GT3 R.
Both drivers were not present at the ACO Ceremony as both were busy elsewhere, but it was great to see Audi drivers taking extra awards. Benoît will be back with Audi for Le Mans and the FIA WEC this year. As for Romain Dumas, he will rejoin Porsche after 3 great years driving for the Inglostadt brand, with his 2010 overall Le Mans win as a highlight.
