According to yesterdays announcement on the Audi Joest Racing news page, Audi has decided to pick up the gauntlet thrown by Peugeot Sport by putting two R15 TDI LM-P1 prototypes on the grid at this year’s Petit Le Mans. Audi can hardly afford not to race. In the context of their efforts to sell TDI powered cars in the US they need to establish a strong presence, and a victory against Peugeot at Road Atlanta would be more than helpful.
It’s interesting to notice that Audi sees the Road Atlanta race partly as training for the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2010, a huge chance to collect real-world information about how their car races – and that they blame this year’s Le Mans failure on the little driving experience they had with this new car. That is, if you call a third place at the 24 Heures du Mans a failure….