The Audi R8 V10 plus will Pace the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona

January 27, 2017 | HERNDON, Virginia

•Audi named the Official Pace Car for the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona

•The Audi R8 LMS to defend the TPNAEC and WeatherTech Championships

•Three teams compete driving the Audi R8 LMS

The Audi R8 V10 plus will pace the field for the 55th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Three experienced teams will compete Saturday and Sunday to defend the manufacturer's championship.

The Audi R8 V10 plus will be the official car during the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The first round of the Tequila Patron North American Endurance Championships (TPNAEC), the 24 hour race will begin the 2017 season with 27 GTD entrants. Audi has found success at the 3.56-mile Speedway Road Course with Audi winning the 2013 and 2016 GTD classes.

Coming off of a historic 2016 season, the all-new Audi R8 LMS won its US debut at the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona, as well as clinched the Manufacturers championships in GTD for both TPNAEC and WeatherTech. The Audi R8 LMS returns to the Rolex 24 at Daytona to defend its title with three cars. Stevenson Motorsports and the Audi Tire Center return with one Audi R8 LMS and will continue with a full-season effort in 2017. Two new teams will also field the Audi R8 LMS. Alex Job Racing, bearing the Audi Genuine Parts door decals, will compete at the endurance classic, and the remaining TPNAEC races, after finding success in 2013 with a class win in an Audi R8 LMS Grand-Am. Land Motorsports, the 2016 ADAC GT Masters Champions, debuts in the USA at the 24-hour race with a third Audi R8 LMS.

Race coverage on TV:

FOX: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday

FSGO: 2 p.m. Saturday – 3 p.m. Sunday

FS2: 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Saturday, 11 p.m. Saturday – 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

FS1: 12:30 p.m. – 3 p.m. Sunday

Embodied in the R8 DNA is the know-how acquired on the racetrack and from the legacy of Audi endurance racing. In 2016, for the first time, Audi co-developed the all-new R8 with the all-new GT3 race car, the Audi R8 LMS. Both the new Audi R8 and the R8 LMS made significant performance gains, thanks to the cooperation between race car engineers, motorsports specialists and developers. The result is a race car that is 50 percent street car and 100 percent Audi.

Common parts shared between the two models including the V10 engine and a new ASF® construction with innovative light-weight multi-material construction. Design cues throughout the R8 also harken back to its racing roots, such as the prominent wheel arches and vertical lighting design, which are suggestive of the R18 LMP1 racecar.

Audi began a new chapter in 2009 with the introduction of the Audi Sport customer racing program. For the first time, it was possible for motorsport customers to acquire a race car designed for the track. Since its inception, the success of the R8 LMS has been significant throughout GT3 racing series worldwide, with multiple victories in the Pirelli World Challenge since 2012.

The all-new R8 LMS had strong endurance racing debuts, winning the 2015 24 hours of Nürburgring and the 2016 Rolex 24 at Daytona, and concluding the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech season with the Manufacturer's Championship in GTD. The Audi R8 LMS shares more than half of its parts with the Audi R8 street car including the naturally aspirated V10 5.2 liter engine, the Audi Space Frame and a variety of other components. Learn more at www.audiusa.com/motorsport.

Photo credit: Audi
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