AUDI SAYS GOODBYE TO ONE ERA, READY FOR ANOTHER

Audi said farewell to their first generation Audi R18+ dominating the opening round of the new World Endurance Championship with a comfortable one, two finish at the Sebring 12 hour race in Florida. The experienced team of Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the Audi R18 diesel took the win to give  Kristensen a record six wins at Sebring. Co-Driver McNish registered his fourth win with Cappello now stands between them on five victories. A sister Audi R18 diesel of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Loic Duval finished a strong second albeit four laps behind the winners. Third place and the first of the petrol powered cars was the P2 HPD ARX-03b of Starworks Motorsports. Driven by ex Peugeot works driver Stephane Sarrazin, Vicente Polotlicchio and Ryan Dalziel. The trio played the fuel economy game and won although Sarrazin admitted that he was running desperately low on fuel at the finish.

NISSAN DELTAWING CONTINUES TESTING & YES IT DOES TURN

It was the question on everybody’s lips. Would the revolutionary DeltaWing project car actually turn corners? Now one really doubted its capacity to go fast in a straight line, the car looks fast just standing there, but with that narrow front end and super skinny Michelin tyres how would the car corner. Well as this video from [...]

NISSAN GIVES YOU DELTAWINGS

DELTAWING POWERED BY NISSAN

Nissan have announced their involvement in the revolutionary DeltaWing project for this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race. The car, which is half the weight and has half the aerodynamic drag of a conventional racer, will be powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine. Nissan now joins the existing group of core partners - US-domiciled British designer Ben [...]

LE MANS: THE GREATEST RACE

TOYOTA TESTS TERRIFIC TS030

TOYOTA Racing has completed a successful first full test of the new TS030 HYBRID car which will compete in the LMP1 category in selected races of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The team spent three days at the Paul Ricard circuit in southern France for the first full test of the TS030 HYBRID, following a three-day roll-out at the same circuit earlier this month. Using the a configuration of the track which includes the complete Mistral Straight, all three race drivers - Alex Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre and Kazuki Nakajima - had the opportunity to test the new car, which features the THS-R (TOYOTA HYBRID System - Racing) power-train. The test programme built on the positive work already achieved during the TS030 HYBRID’s roll-out, when systems checks and basic set-up analysis was carried out.

REITER ROCKS WITH RAD CAMARO

International GT racing will see a spectacular and powerful package in 2012. The German company SARENI United is now offering the newly designed Camaro GT. The US car will make an impression on racing tracks all around the world with its 800 Nm from up to 650 HP. The power is transmitted to the rear tyres from a 7.9 litre eight-cylinder (V8) by a newly designed HOLINGER gear box. The HOLINGER speed shift system with paddle shifts on the steering wheel is extremely light, weighing only 37 kg, shifts gears very fast and is designed for high torque. The US engine developer KATECH received clear specifications: close-to-production, low cost, service performance of 10,000 km and maximum power. The car was developed under the direction of Reiter Engineering in Germany. Founder and owner Hans Reiter got the idea when he went to the USA in 2010. “I was immediately fascinated by the design. The Camaro is a real men’s car, a muscle car, it is designed to be on a race track”, says Hans Reiter who founded SARENI United especially for this project.

PEUGEOT ON TOP AGAIN IN ZHUHAI LE MANS FINAL

<strong>Peugeot have kept their recent edge on Audi alaive with a one, two in qulifying for tomorrow's 6 hour race at Zuhai in China.</strong> Anthony Davidson set a fast lap of 1:22;038 to edge out team-mate Stephane Sarrazin and the Audi pair of Tom Kristensen and Macel Fassler. Neel Jarni in the rebellion Toyota was the quickest of the petrol cars in fourth place just ahead of the Oak Pescarolo Judd of Neel Jarni. Stefan Mucke had a dissapointing run in the Aston Martin and will start back in seventh place.

WEEKS UNVEILS FORD GT FOR AUSSIE TITLE TILT

Kevin Week's Supaloc Racing Team will today unveil it's new weapon for the 2012 Australian GT Championship. The Supaloc Racing Ford GT will make its first public appearance at today’s Clipsal 500 launch at the historic Adelaide Oval. The sophisticated and distinctive Supaloc Racing livery has been combined with the classic, low-slung lines of the GT to produce a mouth-watering piece of automotive artwork. The GT3-spec version of the Ford GT combines the traditional styling and a rich racing heritage of the original Le Mans wining GT40 with the latest technology. This will be the only Ford GT competing in the 2012 Australian GT Championship, and it is in fact the last example that has been produced.

BRITISH DRIVERS DOWN UNDER PAY TRIBUTE TO DAN

British sportscar drivers Richard Westbrook and Oliver Gavin will pay tribute to countryman Dan Wheldon at this weekend’s Armor All Gold Coast 600. Wheldon tragically passed away following an IndyCar accident in Las Vegas last weekend. He was scheduled to race alongside James Courtney at the Surfers Paradise street circuit this weekend. Both Westbrook and Gavin are life long friends and rivals of their countryman Wheldon, with all three members of the exclusive British Racing Drivers Club. Westbrook and Gavin will unveil special visor stickers in memory of Wheldon in pit lane at the Surfers Paradise street circuit at 9.30am local Queensland time. All BRDC members present at this weekend’s event will carry the special visor stripe stickers as a tribute to Wheldon. They are Westbrook, Gavin, Andy Priaulx, Emanuele Pirro, Gil de Ferran, Marino Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Richard Lyons and Darren Turner. Westbrook will partner Todd Kelly in the #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore at the Armor All Gold Coast 600, while Gavin will drive alongside Greg Murphy in the #11 Pepsi Max Commodore. Source: Kelly Racing Media Release