“In 2009, the Audi brand has been celebrating its 100th anniversary and our motorsport squad presented the brand with a particularly nice birthday gift, the successful title defense in the DTM,” said Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Management Board of Audi in a release for the press. “Audi Sport has been a guarantor of successes in motorsport for as many as 30 years now – successes which are of major importance to the development of the Audi brand.”
In the future, the “Le Mans Intercontinental Cup” will consist of the major races of the Le Mans Series in Europe, the USA and Asia, namely the 1,000-kilometer race at Silverstone (Great Britain), the “Petit Le Mans” race at Road Atlanta (USA) and an event on the Asian continent. However, further races are to be added in 2011.
“In 2001, at Le Mans, we used a TFSI engine for the first time that has since become standard in production vehicles,” added Head of Audi Motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich. “In 2006, we were the first automobile manufacturer in history to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a diesel-powered vehicle. And in the future we will use our LMP1 cars to test pioneering technologies and to underscore our ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ claim also on the race track.”
“Therefore, we welcome greatly the fact that the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) has announced the first international racing series for LMP1 vehicles. We are convinced that this motorsport category, which is particularly attractive from the perspective of technology, has prospects for a great future and fits our times well,” Ullrich concluded.
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