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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.... |
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