Ten Reasons to Keep an Eye on APR Motorsport During the Daytona Weekend

[Arin@APR]

Team's motto is 'We're not just here to race, we are here to entertain'

January 26, 2012 (Opelika, Ala.) - This weekend's 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona promises to be one of the most competitive in history of the twice-around-the-clock event. While the competition amongst the dozen or so Daytona Prototypes will no doubt command the headlines, the action in the 40+ strong GT field - with the no. 51 APR Motorsport Audi R8 Grand-Am - is likely to steal the show.


And, don't forget, Friday's season-opener of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge also promises to be incredibly exciting - there's 81 cars entered, five of them from APR Motorsport.

There are almost endless choices of teams, drivers, and cars to keep tabs on throughout the anniversary weekend at Daytona. Here are a few reasons to keep an eye on your favorite team from Alabama.

The Audi R8 Grand-Am. Grand-Am's fans, and APR Motorsport's customers and fans, have been waiting for this car for a long time. It will take the green flag for the first time on Saturday, and based on its endurance racing pedigree, it should run like a clock until the checkered flag falls at 3:30 PM on Sunday. We think ours looks very cool with its distinctive APR livery. And have you listened to it? It sounds like a vintage F1 car.

Stock up on energy drinks, and watch around-the-clock. When SPEED Channel goes off the air with its coverage of the Rolex 24 at Daytona at 11:00 PM ET, the race will be streamed on Speed.com until the race returns to television at 9:00 AM ET. So if you aren't in Daytona suffering enjoying the chilly January weather, you can still watch the race from start to finish from the comfort of your own home. The coverage begins at 2:30 PM ET on Saturday, with the race going green at 3:30 PM ET.

Talk to us for 24 Hours straight. If it's three in the morning and there is something you really need to know - how cold it is, how many energy drinks the APR Motorsport staff has had to drink, or how Emanuele prepares his pasta - just ask us a question on our Live Blog. The Live Blog, which will be available on APRMotorsport.com, will be a race-long conversation between APR Motorsport's fans and the team and drivers.

You get to practice your Spanish. Nelson, Juan Pablo, Juan Carlos, Daniel, Hector, and Christian all speak Spanish first and English second. Pretty much the entire APR Motorsport staff speaks English first and Spanish never. You can see how this might be entertaining. (We do have bilingual people on the radio with our drivers, so don't go and complain to Grand-Am).

We will blow up your twitter feed. Follow us at @GoAPR. Anything you want to know, and stuff you didn't know you wanted to know, will be on twitter. If you're not on twitter, follow us on facebook for text, photo and video updates, facebook.com/APRMotorsport.



Emanuele Pirro is driving with us. He's won Le Mans five times times driving Audis. He's also Italian, and as such he has put the entire APR Motorsport team on a diet of lasagna and pasta. Obviously he can turn a wheel, but he's a genuinely nice guy, cracks jokes all the time, and is also a class winner at the Rolex 24 at Daytona - 31 years ago.

The return of Dion. Dion von Moltke was just a kid when he first drove for APR in the CTSCC, and scored three wins with the team. He's still just a kid, a student at Florida International University, but now he'll be driving our Audi R8 Grand-Am in his fourth Rolex 24 at Daytona.

We have a real doctor on our team. Dr. Jim Norman will drive the no. 51 APR Audi R8 Grand-Am throughout the 2012 season. 'Dr. Jim' has dedicated his life to the treatment of hyperparathyroidism (in real life, not on TV) and aims to raise awareness of the disease and its treatment through his website at www.parathyroid.com. His passion for it will surprise you: ask him about the disease, and before long, he will have you performing surgery.

You couldn't miss us, even if you tried. We are bringing six cars to Daytona. Ten percent of the ST field in Friday's BMW Performance 200 will consist of APR Tuned VWs, including two brand new Mk. 6 Jetta GLI's. We also have two VW GTI's in ST, a Audi S4 in GS, and of course, our Audi R8 Grand-Am in the Rolex Series. That's only one car in Rolex, but we think it stands out from the crowd pretty well.

The weekend begins with Friday's CTSCC season opener, the BMW Performance 200, at 1:30 PM ET. That race will be shown tape-delayed on February 4th at 12:00 PM ET on SPEED Channel, but live timing and scoring can be seen on Grand-Am.com. The 50th Rolex 24 at Daytona goes green at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday, and will be broadcast on SPEED Channel and Speed.com.

ABOUT PR NEWSWIRE
PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 57 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content - from rich media to online video to multimedia - and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

ABOUT Parathyroid.com
Parathyroid.com is an educational website discussing the adverse health issues associated with high blood calcium. It is recognized as the leading authority on hyperparathyroidism caused by parathyroid tumors located in the neck which affect one in 1000 people causing high blood calcium, osteoporosis, chronic fatigue, depression, and kidney stones, among other conditions. For more information, visit www.parathyroid.com.

ABOUT MOTUL USA
Motul USA is a world-class company specialized in distribution of high-tech synthetic lubricants formulated for powersports and automotive applications. Motul is a partner to many manufacturers and racing teams in order to further their technological development in motorsports. It has invested in many international competitions as an official supplier for teams in: 24 Hours of Le Mans, GT1 World Championship, MotoGP, World Rally Car (WRC), Dakar® and others. For more information, log on to www.motul.com.

ABOUT APR
APR LLC is an automotive engineering firm operating a 36,000 sq. ft. performance campus in Opelika, Ala. APR was founded in 1997 with a corporate philosophy of Integrity, Excellence and Innovation. APR's sole mission is to provide the highest quality and most highly engineered aftermarket performance parts available for Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda vehicles. Learn more at www.goapr.com and follow us on facebook at facebook.com/APRMotorsport.

[S&W 10]

I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one here keeping a close eye on the #51 car (and Oryx racing's #74...just can't help myself, it's an R8 too)

Best wishes and GOOD LUCK TO TEAM APR!

[Arin@APR]

Here's Dion von Moltke behind the wheel of our R8 LMS during last night's practice session. We've already shaved several seconds off of our testing testing days and the R8's looking like a real contender in the 24.

I made the video long so you can see a bunch of the passing action (there's a bunch near the end!)

If you have facebook you can see more updates here: http://www.facebook.com/APRMotorsport

Enjoy!!!

[Professional_Slacker]

i'm gonna be at the track.

[Arin@APR]

Stop by, check everything out and say hello! : )

[KfabR8]

Good luck, guys!

One of my friends (and my R8 tech at my Audi dealership) is one of the pit crew for the A4, I believe. He was supposed to be a tire guy for the R8, but got bumped back to a different vehicle.

[Professional_Slacker]

I rolled through your area this evening but you had pretty much already packed it in, I'll cath you all tomorrow

[STEEVE]

Very nice.