Following on from a successful first year of racing the R8 LMS, Audi are expanding the program in cooperation with their Le Mans winning team to allow customers to race competitively with, on a per-race basis.


"For the first time, the Audi race experience offers customers the opportunity to participate in a race with a professional Audi ‘factory’ team without having to enter into a long-term commitment or to make a high financial investment," explains Klaus Demel, who is in charge of the Audi driving experience. "I’m very happy that we’ve been able to win Audi Sport and Reinhold Joest’s team as a partners for this project."

The Audi R8 LMS was the class leader in GT3 last year, and was developed with customer participation in mind. By offering the opportunity for customers to race with the R8 LMS, with a possibility of being alongside professional race drivers, it provides an interesting, and unique opportunity to race in a class-leading car, prepared by the multi-race winning team - Reinhold Joest, giving customers the chance to perhaps enter the history books!.


The Audi race experience team Joest is planning a total of six races for the 2010 season, fielding two cars each as part of the "Langstreckenmeisterschaft" (VLN) on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, starting with the race on April 24. In addition, there are plans for events with the Audi R8 LMS on race tracks and at the Groß Dölln driver training facility at which the customers will be trained and can also obtain the required racing license.

"As far as I know, Audi is the first automobile manufacturer in the world to offer such a program," says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "This shows yet again how innovative and progressive the Audi brand is. Our colleagues from the Audi driving experience and Reinhold Joest’s squad with whom we’ve been successfully working together since twelve years will provide our customers with an exclusive and unforgettable motorsport experience. And the Audi R8 LMS, which, according to our "factory" drivers, is a very forgiving GT3 car is perfectly suited for this project which we fully support on the part of Audi Sport."


Source: Audi Motorsport

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