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The End Of An Era

Audi R18. [Jack Webster Photo]

Audi’s participation in the FIA-WEC series and 24 Hours of Le Mans has come to an end. [Jack Webster Photo]

by Jack Webster & Eddie LePine

Today Volkswagen Group announced the end of Audi’s participation in the FIA-WEC series and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Obviously, the massive settlement announced yesterday in the “dieselgate” scandal, which is costing the company fifteen plus billion dollars in the US alone, was a major factor in the decision. It would be pretty hard to continue to spend two hundred plus million dollars per year on a racing program that promotes diesel technology, a technology that is likely to be abandoned entirely by the Volkswagen Group moving forward as they concentrate on the future development of all electric cars. The scandal killed the diesel.

Also, in the long term, it made little sense to continue Audi’s program while Porsche (another VW Group member) was spending similar money to race against Audi.

This leaves the FIA-WEC and the ACO in a bit of a pickle, as for next year there are now only two manufacturers who have made commitments to the top LMP1-Hybrid class – Porsche and Toyota. Sports car racing has always run in cycles, and with the huge budgets currently required to run LMP1, don’t be surprised to see some other shoes drop in the future.

All that said, it is a sad day for motorsport with Audi dropping out. We have had the pleasure of watching them from day one in 1999 when they debuted the Audi R8R at the 12 Hours of Sebring and enjoyed seeing all their success throughout the years – from the Audi R8, to the R10 TDI, R15 TDI, R18 TDI, R18 e-tron quattro and finally this year with the latest version of the R18.

Audi won Le Mans 13 times in 18 tries, won the 12 Hours of Sebring 11 times, was the FIA-WEC World Champion twice and American Le Mans Champions nine times.

In setting those incredible records, they did so with some of the finest drivers to ever suit up in endurance racing. Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Dindo Capello, Emanuele Pirro, JJ Lehto, Johnny Herbert, Michele Alboreto, Frank Biela, Marco Werner, Stefan Johansson, Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Marcel Fässler, Oliver Jarvis, Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer are just a few of the drivers who helped make Audi a legend in sports car racing over the past 18 seasons.

And let’s not forget some of the key Audi players over the years who put that entire program together and set so many records that they will forever be spoken of as legends: Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, Ralf Jüttner, Reinhold Joest and Brad Kettler, among others.

It is truly the end of an era, and we were fortunate to have witnessed this era from the beginning. Our thoughts go out today to all the fine people who have lost their jobs and we are also saddened by all the great future Audi prototype cars that we will not be able to see in competition.

It was a great ride while it lasted.

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