Audi pulls out of the ALMS

[Chuck Miller]

This from Autoweek

12/05/08, 9:24 am et

In what can best be described as a surprise, Audi said on Friday that it will not be represented by its factory team, Audi Sport North America, in the 2009 American Le Mans Series. The company said it has decided instead to concentrate its motorsports efforts on the new R15 TDI sport prototype for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Also, Audi has reworked the racing A4 to compete in the German Touring Car series (DTM), and the company will focus its efforts on the newly developed R8 LMS for customer use in the GT3 class.
Even though it is pulling out of the ALMS, Audi said it will compete in next year’s Sebring 12-hour event on March 21, where it will debut the all-new Audi R15 TDI sports prototype. The race, to be contested by Audi Sport Team Joest, is traditionally regarded as excellent...

[Flieger]

I saw this earlier and was very disappointed. At least they will go for one last hurrah at Sebring.

They need to bring the R8 GT2 that the factory is developing this year in the Nuerburgring 24 hours. That would make the Porsche/Ferrari/BMW battles in GT2 even better. That is going to be some exciting racing.

Honda is pulling out of F1. It seems everyone is hurting in these economic conditions. I wonder if Acura will continue to race in P1? At least there is a little more relavence to the road compared to F1. No Porsche, no Acura in P2, no Audi in P1. The only racing will be GT2- even Corvette and Aston are joining.

Reminds me of the switch from Sports Prototypes to Sports-GT racing/silhouette cars. 917 to the 935.

[Flieger]

BTW, Porsche's racing engine engineer Laudenbach got a special award for work on the MR6B motor with Direct Fuel Injection from the 9R6 RS Spyder. 11,000 rpm, more power, more torque, and more efficiency.

http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=5041

[Mr9146]

Yeah, and Honda pulled out of F-1, too.

'Tis the way of the world economy.

[Flieger]

Like I said above

Honda is pulling out of F1. It seems everyone is hurting in these economic conditions...

You think Acura will keep going?

[sithot]

I'm waiting for NASCAR to tank. None of the automakers on the dole should be able to spend money on racing.

If our government bails out Chrysler, Ford and GM it's only a matter of time.

I cannot believe that they have the sheer arrogance to spend money on dead or dying companies for the sake of votes. Congress have their heads so far up the Unions rear end they know what they had for lunch.
This is not for the greater good of the country. Bankruptcy and reorganizaton is a better solution but who in Congress has a business head? None. They're all lawyers.

I can tell you from personal experience how government works for small guys. It doesn't because 2 or 3 votes mean nothing. They'll walk on you like a rug.

Rant over.

Tom

[sithot]

Rumor is that Brumos laid off approximately 30 people yesterday.

Tom

[Homemade 911]

I'm waiting for NASCAR to tank. None of the automakers on the dole should be able to spend money on racing.

If our government bails out Chrysler, Ford and GM it's only a matter of time.

I cannot believe that they have the sheer arrogance to spend money on dead or dying companies for the sake of votes. Congress have their heads so far up the Unions rear end they know what they had for lunch.
This is not for the greater good of the country. Bankruptcy and reorganizaton is a better solution but who in Congress has a business head? None. They're all lawyers.

I can tell you from personal experience how government works for small guys. It doesn't because 2 or 3 votes mean nothing. They'll walk on you like a rug.

Rant over.

Tom

+1 on this...as a publisher of a small, niche magazine, I'm not liking the handwriting I read on the wall... I just hope/pray I stay alive

Keep a stiff upper y'awl.
r/thom

[boba]

If you look at the history of manufacturer involvement in motorsports you will see the same patterns and behaviors. The manufactures come into a series for commercial reasons and leave for the same. This has been the bain of road racing for decades.

Audi is on top and has established its dominance and is the target for both the rules makers and other manufactures. Now is the correct time to move on from P1. They have other programs to launch so it makes sense to focus attention on those efforts and not on an old P1 effort.

Porsche has a customer centric model, no factory team. Penske was selected to launch the P2 program, for a predetermined term, which was planned to be a base for a customer program. It was conceived and launched to sell cars to private teams. Only one team came, so close the program. Private teams do not fare well in a manufacture based series, just look at the history.

ALMS built is business model around the manufacturers and that defines the series, the competitors, car counts, and the racing. This is not good or bad it just how they chose to build their program.

Honda could not make their F1 program successful, it was truly an embarrassment. The current economic situation just makes it easy to justify. It will deflect comments to be about the effect of the economy rather than on the dismal track record of the team

Much of what is taking place would have come to pass regardless of the economic crisis.

[Flieger]

Honda F1 had a good season a couple of years ago. They even won a race.

This seasons car was terrible but they stopped developing it and right away concentrated on next year's very different cars.

I think Nick Fry is right that their car could be good, as it is far along in development. Ross Brawn can get Ferrari engines. They could be a real force on the grid IF their drivers can race.

Granted, they were not as successful out of the box as the Acura ALMS team...