16 May, Sears Point Raceway - With the two month layoff
after the Sebring 12 Hours finally over, the ADT/Champion Audi R8 racing team
is at Sears Point, readying for Friday's 90-minute testing session. Only support
events on track today, so plenty of time for the Champion crew to get paddock
and pits set up and work on last minute preparations. As has been in the news
of late, there are two Champion R8's here at Sears Point - chassis 505, the
team's current 2001-spec R8 which will be raced by the Champion crew, and chassis
405, Champion's previous 2000-spec R8, which has been leased to the Joest (Audi
factory) Racing team for this event, while their own cars remain in Europe in
preparation for Le Mans.

 

Besides that, factory pilot Tom Kristensen is joining the Champion
driving squad for this event, co-driving with Champion regulars Andy Wallace
and Johnny Herbert. This was done as a favor to the factory team, which would
otherwise have had to choose which of their four drivers (all high in the drivers
points standings) might have to sit out this race since they are only running
a single car. We last saw Tom K. at the
Sebring Michelin Tests in February, when he drove Champion's newly-delivered 2001
R8 over the three day test.

Complicating matters a bit, Johnny Herbert is commuting between
Indianapolis and Sonoma this weekend, as he tries to qualify for the Indy 500,
and simultaneously meets his regular obligation to the ADT/Champion ALMS effort.
Johnny will be present for Friday's testing here in California, and will return
to Indianapolis for his qualifying run on Sunday. If all goes according to plan,
Herbert will then jet back to Sonoma to compete in Sunday's 2hr45min ALMS race.

Check back here over the course of the weekend to read and see
more from this most unusual race meeting....