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The history of Audi retirements at Le Mans
dimanche 17 juin 2007 - 09h01

Photo : Bruno FOUQUE - ACO/Nikon
The overwhelming shock of seeing the leading Audi Sport North America No.2 of 'Dindo' Capello spin out at Indianapolis, its left rear wheel on a separate trajectory, should not numb fans to the point of believing this is an entirely new situation for Audi. True even when one considers the equally surprising and hard exit of Audi Sport Team Joest No.3 in the first hours of the race with M. Rockenfeller driving. Punctuating its incredible dominance in the past eight years, Audi has encountered misfortune at Le Mans as well.

In 1999, with four cars entered in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a matched set of two R8R open-top prototypes and two R8C prototype coupes, the two coupes both failed to complete the race. The Wallace-Weaver-McCarthy Coupe No.10 completed 198 laps before repeated gearbox problems ended its race. Less than four hours into the same race the No.9 Coupe of Apt-Johansson-Ortelli had to abandon its efforts due to a broken differential. In 2003 the Audi Sport UK R8 of Biela-McCarthy-Salo completed a mere 28 laps before withdrawing.

The difference in 2007 is that Audi has come to represent rock-solid reliability as well as speed, and this means it has enjoyed the excellent race preparation which presages good luck. It is therefore something of a shock when three 'works' cars suffer a rash of difficulties which sees two of them out of competition and the third, though leading with six hours to go, having encountered such indignities as hitting a large chunk of concrete. Perhaps ironically, the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans at which the Audi R8Cs proved so unreliable was expected to be dominated by the three Toyota GT1s. In fact two of them went out and the third suffered some abyssmal luck in between brilliant driving to finish second. The Audi R8Rs, meanwhile, finished third and fourth while laying the groundwork for subsequent dominance by Audi of sports car racing.
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