J is for Jump - Get Ready for the Audi R 10 The on again off again vamp till ready excursion of Ingolstadt's replacement for the R8 is about to take flight. Gotcha ! How many times have you heard that line this year ? What a mystery the new Audi is. A recent conversation with Allan McNish at Laguna Seca only added to the controversy, as even Nishy as a current factory driver had not yet seen the R10. All of that is about to change on December 13 in the city of light, Paris. Audi will finally take the wraps off the R10 to a selected group of journalists and a whole new round of speculation will take root. This is déjà vu all over again. Back in December of 1998 I boarded a Lufthansa flight from L.A. to Berlin by way of Frankfurt. This is one of those ridiculous turn around trips that are the standard of automotive PR - land, get to the hotel, change for dinner, listen to what they have to say and see the product and get up the next morning and go home. The reason for the trip was to attend a party put on by Audi AG to show us the first generation R8 and the formal introduction of Reinhold Joest as the go to guy for Ingolstadt. Many had a low moan of laughter when in the prepared remarks it was stated that Audi planned to win Le Mans outright in a short time. No one is laughing anymore. By the way, I didn’t go home the next day - Berlin is a great city to hang out in. There appears to be little interest of the mothership in the form of Audi AG to get the word of the R10 out to anywhere but the borderline of Ingolstadt to La Sarthe. Audi and VAG have so cleanly put their stamp on Le Mans with the R8 and the Bentley that the dept. of Sarthe is just another region of the fatherland. The message of the R10 is clear as is the choice of the debut in Paris, racing in America is a nice diversion but it's Le Mans that matters baby. No press release has been issued but all indications are that the Pina Colada drinking werewolf of motorsport will be back at the helm of the R10 assault. Reinhold Joest or at least members of Team Joest will invade Sebring for extensive testing with the R10 the second week of January. At least that is how the script has been written. The formula is the same and Audi knows better to mess with such a proven offense. Sporting metaphors aside, the blending of Joest personal with that of Sport Audi is seamless. So where does this leave the Magic Man's Champion team ? I doubt that they even know what to expect. Tradition dictates that a werks team gets the new car until Le Mans and then a selected semi-werks squad will get the hardware after a full wash and wax detailing. Based on that logic, the best scenario of Sebring that Champion can hope for and get by with, is the werks R10 with a Champion logo on it and a driver wearing Champion nomex. And within that is the beauty of the whole mess… how many Team Joest, Velox, Audi UK, Audi Japan, Audi France and Bentley drivers have driven for the Magic Man ? |
Kerry Morse |
