Audi R10 claims 1-2 finish at Road America despite disadvantage
Despite the decision by American Le Mans Series officials to handicap both Audi R10 race cars in Round 7 at Road America, the two diesel-powered LMP1 race cars, one driven by Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro and the other by Allan McNish and Dindo Capello, won the race with the team's second successive 1-2 finish.
The Audi teams were racing against competing LMP1 Lolas from the Dyson team that were allowed to compete with 143 lbs. less, a decision made by ALMS officials to even the playing field. It didn't work, as both Audis overcame some hairy contact with the field on the first lap to finish the race in an all out duel.
Though both cars started on the pole (Allan McNish set a new ALMS track record in qualifying), the R10 driven by Frank Biela was forced off the track on the first lap and he spent the rest of the race charging the back of the field and eventually catching his teammate in the other R10. After McNish handed his R10 over to co-driver Capello, the pair lost the lead to their charging teammates and finished 0.4 seconds behind the R10 driven by Pirro. Round 8 of the AMLS will be in two weeks at Mosport in Canada.
[Source: Audi]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris 12:36PM (8/21/2006)
Good for them for sticking to the man!
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Apex 12:45PM (8/21/2006)
amen. I am all for an exciting close, competitive race. But I dont understand why extra advantages need to be given if everyone plays by the same rules.
I heard that next round the Audis are only allowed the use of 3 tires and one of them must wear have a parking boot fitted.
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rwdmtparkingonly 12:57PM (8/21/2006)
Yeah, the big oil companies are going to be sorry now that Audi has shown such high performance potential for cars that run on oil.
BioDiesel may have more potential than E85, but I think the man will be sleeping well tonight.
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ruggels 12:59PM (8/21/2006)
What? the only diesel team in ALMS is STILL winning. CRAP. Ok, new idea, decrease the size of the R10's fuel tank and demand a 10% reduction in power! Mid-Season? psch. Who cares, We need to keep the first diesel car to compete in ALMS/Le Mans down! That'll teach those car companies that take the intuitive and bring an alternative fuel race car to the field! psch. Who do they think they are!
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Gardiner Westbound 1:06PM (8/21/2006)
Ya got to love it! What will ALMS do next to sabotage this innovative, daring and winning team, make them run on three wheels?
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felonious monk 1:06PM (8/21/2006)
Have to play devil's advocate here. Audi whined about the rule changes and threatened to pull out of the series for next year and beyond. Now, the red car came back from behind, despite having taken one extra stop at the pits, to beat its sister car if that isn't evident of superior advantage, I don't know what is.
With the Audi squad dominating LMP1 over the past 6 years plus current season, ALMS has gotten really dull to watch. IMSA was correct the change the rules in attempt to level the playing field. From a racing perspective, without competition, it'd be nothing more than a demonstration run. Audi has a serious advantage in the series since they are the only ones in LMP1 with full manufacturer backing.
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gkz 1:09PM (8/21/2006)
How about no steering wheel? They can tie a rope to each of the front wheels. Good for Audi making the ALMS rules monkeys look like dicks. Maybe the other teams will finally put some effort into innovation of their own.
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Olivier 1:15PM (8/21/2006)
Expect many more teams to jump on the bandwagon and show up with Diesel powerplants next year. Mercedes and BMW would definitely be my first guesses.
Here in Europe we've been emjoying Diesels for quite some time. They offer huge torque advantage over petrol engines (engine over turbo petrols) and greater fuel efficiency. All of this thanks to sky high compression ratios (about 19:1)
Over the last 4 years, High-end Diesels have improved their power ratings while reducing noise and pollutant emissions.
I think that the writing on the wall is pretty clear now: Oil barrels are not getting any cheaper, people need alternative sources of fuels (Biodiesel), yet they aren't willing to sacrifice range or power.
Diesel all the way it is. America be prepared for some more European cars, as the American manfucaturers (and the Asians to some extent) can't build modern Diesel engines.
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M-M 1:19PM (8/21/2006)
Audi has supported ALMS for years and likely made ALMS what it is today. It is silly that ALMS would try to force a handicap on them. Good for Audi for getting a one-two!
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ruggels 1:25PM (8/21/2006)
“Mercedes and BMW would definitely be my first guesses.”
Or… say… Peugeot as they’ve already announced their Diesel Le Mans car… that would be a fantastic first guess.
“Diesel all the way it is. America be prepared for some more European cars, as the American manfucaturers (and the Asians to some extent) can't build modern Diesel engines.”
So you’ve never seen the diesel powered Hondas over in Europe? You know the new power plant that’s cleaner then anything VW builds?
Here’s a fun one, due to emissions requirements Americans can “be prepared” not to have any diesels this year, really. Our choices went from the entire VW range to… well… Just a Mercedes and a handful of Jettas. So, we’re actually seeing a REDUCTION in diesel powered cars right now. Though I guess you’re preaching to the choir here, there are plenty of Americans, like myself, with Diesel cars. At least that’s what the 2002 Jetta TDI and 2005 Passat TDI in my Garage seem to indicate… apparently some Americans have been “prepared” for years now O_o.
No, we’re actually not going to be waited for baited for quite some time, at least if you actually read interviews with people such as Audi of America’s spokes person for their diesel cars.
Lastly, Oil isn’t getting any cheaper, and where I live, Diesel is $.20 more per gallon then premium fuel. With VW’s technology such as TSI providing 40 MPG and 170 HP at the same time, I’m going to start hoping they go ahead and bring those power plants over before a large influx of diesels – there is no reasonable excuse for VW’s petrol offerings to be achieving 10 LESS MPG then Honda’s. America has been very slow to adopt the technology (I’m a unique example), don’t trust me, just go read any of Audi or BMW’s interviews on the subject.
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Chris 1:43PM (8/21/2006)
rwdmtparkingonly,
Big oil isn't the man they are sticking it to. Big oil isn't the only man around...The Man in this case are the ALMS officials that tried to handicap the Audi team. Use contextual thinking.
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rwdmtparkingonly 2:01PM (8/21/2006)
Chris, use thinking period. Big oil is the only "man" you could have been talking about because ALMS is definitely not the man, they are simply trying to provide an alternative to NASCAR in the US.
Audi is the only factory team in its class http://www.americanlemans.com/drivers_and_teams/Teams.aspx?CARCLASS=4 . ALMS is only trying to help Audi avoid the embarrassment of being caught playing with itself.
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amp 2:19PM (8/21/2006)
Please post SPOILER in the title in the future. I Tivo'ed the race this weekend and was going to watch it today after work. I was quickly scrolling through AB's main page trying to get to a story I saw earlier, when I caught a glimps of this post title. Damn.
Thanks in advance for your future consideration.
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DMan 3:41PM (8/21/2006)
This is why I stopped supporting ALMS (IMSA) years ago. They are in-frigging-capable of setting a rules package and sticking to it. They have too constantly shift and tweak and play. All to no end in most cases. Same hold trun for NASCAR also. Cannot stop playing with the rules.
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Mike 3:54PM (8/21/2006)
Next move by ALMS, add 143lbs to the Audi. See how that goes, and add some more if need be!
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not a n00b... 4:10PM (8/21/2006)
Hey ruggels, the R10 isn't the first Diesel to compete in Le Mans. Caterpillar competed two years ago.
The comments from all you n00bs are very embarassing. I think ALMS would do a lot better if perhaps they had some fans who actually knew or followed the sport instead of the kind of people seen on here.
There was an almost 5 minute explanation during the broadcast as to why the cars were reequalized. They mentioned that this is because like any other series, ALMS is nothing without privateers and privateers only have gas engines available to them. Scott Atherton sure went out his way to explain why this is happening and goes right over the heads of everyone here. He even explained ACO is on board with this.
The equalization wasn't even close to effective, since one of the R10s fell a lap behind (on a 4 mile long track!) at one point and still came back to the top 2 positions. You can be sure there will be more equalization.
And remember (Apex), the Diesels enjoy a massive advantage already (50% larger air restrictor, 40% larger displacement, double the turbo boost and a fuel cell that carries more energy than a gas one), so the Diesels wouldn't even be out there if "competition equalization" hadn't already massively skewed things. This idea that that everyone has been competing under the same rules so far is far off base.
The ACO and IMSA spent most of the rest of the year slamming American cars (the Corvettes have been penalized 3 times this year), so please stop propagating the idea that this is some kind of parochial thing.
The Corvettes and Aston Martins spent most of the race within 20 seconds of each other. You can be sure IMSA (and ACO) will continue to adjust the rules to make it so that a car like the R10 cannot make up an entire lap on the field.
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kevin 4:27PM (8/21/2006)
haw haw!
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RacetrackOwner 7:10PM (8/21/2006)
#15's point about the diesels starting out with massive advantages is the key point. The diesels didn't have a "disadvantage" in this race, otherwise ACO would have called it a penalty (they do sometimes penalize teams) rather than an adjustment for equalization purposes.
The headline just demonstrates that Autoblog's writers don't know much about racing.
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Bruce J. 6:39PM (8/30/2006)
Diesel having no disadvantages?
How about much higher engine weight.
How about lower top revs (7000 vs 14000 RPM) due to heavier parts... which makes up for the higher allowed displacement.
Remember, horsepower is basically torque*rpm. Diesels have more torque, but it occurs at a lower RPM.
Sometimes race officials go overboard in trying to balance out the weight equation. For a while Nissan was running with a large weight penalty. 300zx was at 350lbs, Toyota supras were at 200+lbs, Mazda was slightly over 100lbs and Ford Mustangs had no weight penalty. Kind of destroys innovation though. Kind of like what Chrysler did at NASCAR a long time ago. Chrysler ame out with the HEMI, ran it and consistently won. Ford came out with a 427SOHC (overhead cam 427 hemi), Chrysler complained and threatened to pull out of NASCAR. (this is back in the mid-late 60's) As a result, the 427SOHC was banned from NASCAR. {of course Ford then screwed up.. they could have marketed it to the general public as the engine so potent that it was banned from NASCAR)..
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