VIDEO: The Crocodile is back! - A look at the last time the Croc won Down Under - 2000 ALMS Adelaide finale

By Johan Laubscher

The Bathurst 12 Hour is only a few hours away and will be getting underway at 05:50 local time on Sunday morning.

Phoenix Racing will be starting from pole position with the #15 "Kangaroo" liveried Audi R8 LMS ultra driven by Markus Winkelhock, Marco Mapelli and pole-man, Laurens Vanthoor. The German team's second car has a very special revival of a unique bit of Audi motorsport history in Australia. The #16 Audi R8 LMS ultra, driven by Felix Baumgartner, Christopher Haase and Stéphane Ortelli, is wearing a "Crocodile" themed livery.

It is indeed the return of the Crocodile, because this livery is a throwback to a special design which raced and won in Australia over a decade ago. The occasion was the 2000 American Le Mans Series finale and the track was Adelaide in Australia on New Year's Eve. Audi Sport Team Joest entered two Audi R8 sportscars in the race dubbed as the "Race of a Thousand Years." Their leading entry was the championship leading #77 Audi R8 driven by Allan McNish and Dindo Capello. The car was given a special "Crocodile" livery for its race in Australia. This livery has a special place in Audi motorsport history and will always be remembered for its victory in Adelaide.

As we wait for the beginning of the 2015 Bathurst 12 Hour, let's look back at the previous time that the "Crocodile" raced in Australia. We have embedded the two-hour highlights package of the 2000 ALMS Race of a Thousand Years below, enjoy:

Photo credit: Audi Communications - Motorsport

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Video: The legend's last race was victorious - Audi R8

By Johan Laubscher

The Audi R8 LMP will forever be a legend. After six years of competition the old girl was still competitive, and running at the front in international sports car racing. The car won a staggering 63 races from 80 starts, making it one of the all time great race cars. 

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Another historic success for Audi

Audi Press Release 

•          First triumph of a hybrid race car at Sebring
•          One-two victory of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro on U.S. debut
•          Fässler/Jarvis/Tréluyer win endurance classic

Ingolstadt/Sebring, March 17, 2013 – Another historic racing success for Audi: The Audi R18 e-tron quattro’s victory marked the first ever of a hybrid race car at the Sebring (Florida) 12 Hours in the history of the U.S. endurance classic. 

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Audi wins the final LMP1 Sebring 12 Hours

By Johan Laubscher

Audi Sport Team Joest has won the 2013 Sebring 12 Hours. A 1-2 finish after a very long race. Victory went to the #1 driving crew of Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer and Oliver Jarvis in the 2012 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. The #2 squad of Lucas di Grassi, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish finished second in the 2013 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.

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Follow the Sebring 12 Hours LIVE

By Johan Laubscher 

The Sebring 12 Hours is taking place this weekend. It will be the last Sebring under the current ALMS regulations, and the very last appearance of LMP1 cars at Sebring. This makes it a very special occasion as Audi is aiming for their eleventh overall victory to mark the swansong of the LMP1 category at Sebring. 

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Ten Audi victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring

By Tarek Ramchani

Since the debut of the Audi sportscar program with Le Mans prototypes, the German brand has almost always competed at the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring.

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Video: Onboard the Sebring pole position lap

By Johan Laubscher 

Audi Sport Team Joest have taken pole postion at Sebring. The #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, driven by Marcel Fässler, set the pole time of 1:43.886, beating Allan McNish by a mere 0.009s.

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Record lap of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro

Audi Press Release

•          Marcel Fässler achieves new qualifying track record at Sebring
•          Both hybrid race cars of Audi Sport Team Joest on front row
•          Tenth pole position in total for Audi at Sebring

Ingolstadt/Sebring, March 15, 2013 – The Audi R18 e-tron quattro is causing a sensation on its first racing commitment in the United States. In qualifying for the 12-hour race at Sebring (Florida) both hybrid race cars from Audi Sport Team Joest clearly beat the previous qualifying track record. 

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Spot the difference: 2013 vs 2012 Audi R18 e-tron quattro

By Johan Laubscher

Audi Sport has released the first real-world image of the new 2013 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (pictured in the cover image), along with a variety of renders. In the last few months a number of spy photos appeared online, prompting the usual pre-season winter speculation. It appeared that the 2013 version of the latest generation Audi sportscar would remain visually similar to the 2012 variant. Based on the renders released today this seems to be the case, but there are a number of significant differences.

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Audi makes Sebring the ‘home of quattro’

Audi Press Release

•          First race for the Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the USA
•          Farewell event for LMP1 class with historic automobile exhibition
•          Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich: “Emotional race weekend”

Ingolstadt, March 8, 2013 – It is a debut and a farewell at the same time: the Audi R18 e-tron quattro contests the 12-hour race at Sebring (Florida) in the USA for the first time on March 16 and, in doing so, makes the legendary racetrack ‘home of quattro’. At the same time, it is provisionally the LMP1 sports car’s final appearance in the North American endurance classic.

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Video: When the legend raced on New Year’s Eve

By Johan Laubscher

As we head into the final hours of 2012 it has been another great year for Audi in the world of Motorsport. Multiple successes stretching to all the corners of the globe. Fittingly we have included the embedded video from one of Audi's most notable New Year’s Eve successes which was uploaded onto YouTube a few years ago. At the end of 2000 the ALMS held its final round at Adelaide in Australia. It was the event where the now legendary Audi R8 in the “Crocodile livery” competed. It was a great race and was perfectly titled as the “Race of a Thousand Years.”

Enjoy watching this race which took place on New Year’s Eve twelve years ago.

We wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year for 2013.

Best regards,

The Audi Motorsport Blog Team

Note: Part one of eleven of the race footage is included above, the rest can be seen via this link HERE. 

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Video: The first LMP1 diesel victory - Sebring 2006 Audi R10 TDI

By Johan Laubscher

2006 saw the birth of a new era in sports car racing, the diesel era. The 2006 Sebring 12 Hours was the debut race for the Audi R10 TDI and the beginning of Audi’s diesel LMP1 race programs. Two Audi R10 TDI’s lined up on the grid and blitzed the field. The #2 Audi of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello stormed to the victory. The R10 became the second model from Audi race to win Sebring on its debut and the first ever Diesel victory in LMP1.

Below is the hour long highlights film from the race. The video is split into four parts hosted at motorsport.com. We recommend having a look through motorsport.com’s video archive as they have a huge selection of videos including the recent uploading of ALMS highlights videos such as this one. Enjoy the race: 

More information:
Motorsport.com ALMS video collection

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