Our very own Dr Jim at Daytona

[LAT]

All the best at the track, will be watching for you.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-181096.html

[Administrator]

That's amazing! All the best!

[Dr-J]

Thanks for the shout-out! For those of you who haven't seen pics of the car, let me tell you she is beautiful... and in a way, sinister and evil. She was the hottest car at Daytona this past weekend. Everybody came by to see it--all the best racecar drivers in the world wanted to touch her and some even wanted to sit in her. Juan Pablo Montoya thought about getting in, until he saw how small the opening is (our seat is not on a slider yet, and it is VERY tight getting in and out!). He's on the "Tony Stuart Diet"

We've got a great driver lineup with Dion von Moltke (21 year old hot-shoe) who is my co-driver for the 24 and for the entire season. Ian Baas is a past Daytona 24 winner (and only 29 years old I think). But for me the coolest part of this past weekend (The Roar Before the 24) was spending time with Emannuele Pirro. What a wonderful gentleman who has had one of the best racing careers in the world (5 LeMans overall wins in the Audi, 3 Sebring wins, 7 consecutive podiums at LeMans, 4 years in F1 (Beneton and Ferrari), and then several years as the test driver for Williams (for Senna). The stories at dinner were wonderful and mezmerizing.

The APR Motorsports guys (should be well known to all you Audi guys) are a fantastic group. I've been with the team only a month now, but the professionalism and dedication to excellence is palpable. Only the best is good enough. I couldn't be happier with the team--I know we will have a great season!

There are certain aspects of the car we can't discuss, but we were down on power a little as we got the car sorted. As expected with a brand new car, we had a handful of little gremlins pop up... like a radio that had a bad ground, and the windshield wiper kept coming on all by itself and then stopping right smack dab in front of our line of site. I was told by our engineer that we have re-designed the factory deployment of that dumb system!

We spent considerable time on setup. All of the drivers were within a second of eachother, but we were having some issues getting power down. The brakes are fantastic (a lot better than the GT3 Cup Porsches I've been racing). High speed turns (like the kink at the infield of Daytona) are also much more comfortable than in the Porsche. The overall platform is very stable and predictable.

It looks like we are going to have a live blog, including videos during the Daytona 24. This isn't finalized yet, but if it is I'll pass the word along. This car is amazing... amazing to look at, amazing to hear go by, and amazing to drive/race.

On a personal note... my R8 V10 6speed Spyder (white) is being delivered tomorrow! Bought some black HRE wheels for it and a carbon steering wheel from MaCarbon. Gonna be styling on my way to the racetrack!

[Dr-J]

CarOnTrackDaytonaFrontLeft.jpg
NightDaytonaPractice.jpg

The APR Motorsports Audi R8 Grand-Am testing at the Roar Before the 24, Daytona International Speedway. January 6-8, 2012.

[SebringSilver]

That is incredible! So great to see this fantastic machine taken to this level; really hoping to see it (and your team) succeed. Thank you for an excellent story and write-up!

Good luck!!

[CALBenzo]

Awesome stories! Look forward to hearing more as the season progresses! Thanks for sharing.