By Sam Tickell
Courtesy of Audi
The Audi R8 was a successful machine as told in the first part of this story. But the Audi was more than just a car. It was a beast, it was alive, and loved by those closest to it.
This second part of the Audi R8 story will recall the feelings and emotions that this champion brought to those who witnessed and worked with its amazing abilities.
In the beginning it was just another race car. One that would trouble the front runners and notch up a victory or two. That was 1999, the Audi R8 predecessors (R8R, R8C) had limited success. They were just cars.
This one was different.
Nobody really knew it before the start of the 2000 season. The R8 had been designed in quick time and the competition in 2000 was great.
The Le Mans winning BMW was entering its second year with their particular car. Panoz were hungry for success and Cadillac was out for glory too.
This was enough for Audi to warrant an early rollout – they knew they had tough competition.
"Our new car has been built by Audi Sport in record time. That was a great team effort,” said Dr Wolfgang Ulrich, leader of the Audi Motorsport Division in early 2000. "We definitely wanted to have the first proper roll-out early so we could start the test programme right at the beginning of the year."
A great team effort. That would enable Audi to dominate the Sportscar world for years to come. Sure other teams have had great efforts but it is rare that a team can gel to the car like this one at Audi.
And the team effort came together nicely. Immediate reactions were positive.
The car was super," Frank Biela, Audi driver said early in 2000. "It immediately felt right."
Courtesy of Audi
These words could not have been accurate enough. Nor did they convey how dangerous this car was going to be to the opposition.
The R8 was a V8, twin turbo 600+ horsepower machine with amazing handling characteristics.
But what was truly amazing was the ability the R8 had to be repaired.
It could have its whole rear end replaced in about three and a half minutes.
Naturally the cost involved in replacing that much of a car during a race was high and gave an unfair competitive advantage so it was banned mid way through the Audi R8’s life.
But that feature did create many winning opportunities and did contribute to the amazing reliability record of the R8.
This reliability was demonstrated amply well at the 2002, 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“Our cars worked like clockwork for 24 hours despite the high temperatures. The little technical hick-ups we had were solved within the shortest possible time. The winning car spent not even 20 minutes in the pits. This is a big achievement,” boasted Dr Ulrich.
20 Minutes. That is a race winning performance for any car. Most teams are happy if they can spend under an hour in the pits.
During the race, the pit crew would have conducted over a dozen scheduled pit stops for the winning car. This leaves just a handful of minutes to fix anything that went wrong with the car.
This tells of the amazing reliability of the car and the ability of the car for quick repair jobs.
But no amount of repair could mend the one tragic incident that afflicted itself to the Audi R8.
While being a safe car, the unforeseen stuck. And stuck down Michele Alboreto.
Alboreto was killed while testing at the Lauitzring in Germany after a tyre failure.
This hit the Audi camp hard with it being described as an “incomprehensible tragedy” by Dr Ulrich.
Eager to know what happened, the team cooperated fully with investigations. When it was revealed that it was a puncture caused by debris, it was a comfort but did not diminish the pain of the team.
“Michele, you gave us so much, we will miss you terribly and you will always remain in our hearts,” explained Dr Ulrich in 2001 after the incident.
But Audi are racers and they raced on. They needed to honour their friend and fellow racer in the only way they knew how.
As teammate, Christian Pescatori said in Sebring 2002, "I am so proud that we were able to win this race. Last year, Michele [Alboreto] celebrated his last victory here. Dindo and I wanted to win this race for him”
They honoured Alboreto, the only way they could.
As time went on, Audi continued to win and introduce new drivers to the all conquering R8.
Courtesy of Audi
One of them was Perry McCarthy, famous for driving the infamous Andrea Moda Formula One car. His debut in that car lasted all of a 100 metres before the car broke down.
He would not have to worry about that in this all mighty car.
“I couldn't be happier," exclaimed McCarthy. "To be in a position of winning Sebring and Le Mans…is a fantastic feeling”
While McCarthy experienced some success with the R8, it was not all it could have been after lead driver, Frank Biela had an embarrassing moment at Le Mans in 2003.
Early in the race he needed to come in for fuel but could not get into the pit lane due of a backmarker.
This forced the retirement of McCarthy’s Le Mans campaign. An unfortunate end to a promising drive.
Biela transmitted his disappointment to the team but knew the next race could represent a return to the winning ways that Audi were so used to.
"I'm deeply sorry for the team," said Biela, "I'm extremely disappointed…[the next race track] Road Atlanta is just a fantastic circuit. It's a challenging circuit and that makes it more interesting. Everybody likes to go there and it's one of the nicest circuits"
And so it was. Road Atlanta represented a 1-2 for the Audi team and all was back to how it should be.
It continued like this for the next few years. Audi customer teams would dominate proceedings, barely allowing the opposition a chance.
But all race cars have their day and so was the same with the R8. It had a good life – a long life for a racing machine. But its fate was sealed when Audi announced its replacement – the R10.
This ensured that the Audi R8 would have its last full season of racing in 2005 with its last race being in 2006.
“This is a fantastic day -- simply unbelievable. It was an honour to drive the Audi R8 and achieve most of my victories with this car. Like always, I had a great team, great team mates and tough, but fair competitors,” said Tom Kristensen the most successful driver at Le Mans after the 2005 race.
And the Audi R8’s achievements were simply unbelievable. It had won 75% of races it had entered. It won every Sebring it entered, it won all bar one Le Mans.
It had powered Kristensen to the Le Mans record books as the Dane made the race his own by winning seven times, five of those in the Audi R8.
Courtesy of Audi
The Audi R8’s reign at the top eventually came to an end at Lime Rock, the fourth round of the 2006 American Le Mans Series.
It went out with a bang or rather a win.
“This is a big achievement to stop a great career with a victory … It's great to finish a big story of a great car. Thanks to the drivers, thanks to the team -- this was an excellent performance,” reminisced Dr Ulrich after R8’s last race.
Indeed all that were involved with the R8 should be proud. It took a huge team of people to create such a race car and all should be proud of their achievements.
The car was amazing. Anyone who was able to see it in person or on the television could not forget the R8.
It will live on in the history books and in the minds of all that came near it.
FeedMeSportscars hopes you enjoyed this two part recollection of the amazing Audi R8. FeedMeSportscars will keep bringing all the ALMS and LMS action plus much, much more.