By Tarek Ramchani
The 12 Hours of Sebring are fast approaching. The season opener for the brand new FIA World Endurance Championship. Sebring will kick off the American Le Mans Series season as well and Audi will be there with no less than three R18 TDI cars.
2012 will mark the 60th edition of the world famous 12 Hours of Sebring. Audi has already won Florida's big classic nine times overall between the years 2000 and 2009. It’s been three years now since the last victory, 2009 with the Audi R15 TDI. This year Audi is fielding three cars at Sebring, all of them TDI powered R18 cars. The brand new Audi R18 using hybrid technology will only have its race debut at the 6 Hours of Spa (round 2 of FIA WEC). All the cars will be under Audi Sport Team Joest banner. This will mark the first time since 2000 that Audi is racing three full factory cars at Sebring. Eleven of the twelve drivers for the 12 hours enduro have been confirmed.
#1 Audi R18 TDI, will be shared by the 2011 Le Mans winners Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Trelueyr. The trio have never raced at Sebring for Audi.
#2 Audi R18 TDI for the old warriors: Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen. Mr. Le Mans Tom Kristensen could be named Mr. Sebring as well as he holds the record of 5 overall wins in this big race. While Dindo Capello has won it four times outright.
#3 Audi R18 TDI has only got two drivers confirmed for now. 2010 Le Mans winners with Audi: Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas. The two drivers aren't strangers to Sebring, they won overall in 2008 with a less powerful Porsche RS Spyder of team Penske Racing against the top cars from the LMP1 class. The third driver will be announced soon.
Audi has been chasing a win at Sebring for three years now. A three cars assault in Florida is the perfect way to do that, while anticipating the Toyota's debut at Spa-Francorchamps. The opposition will come from three privateers HPD cars, two Lola Coupes/Toyota from Rebellion Racing, and the French teams of Pescarolo Team and OAK Racing. The ACO are aiming to have more balanced races this year. We are expecting to see less powerful R18 TDIs at Sebring. However Audi is clearly the big favourite for race win.
The very experienced Audi Sport Team Joest will hunt for a tenth overall win for Ingolstadt. The race is set for March 17th. A new era for sports car racing with the debut of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
