Allan McNish Blog

MUCH OF THE SAME MISFORTUNE IN ZHUHAI FINALE . . . ROLL ON 2012 !

2011-11-14T09:29:00+01:00

"Zhuhai promised so much and gave so little. It was so disappointing for everyone at Audi Sport Team Joest. For the mechanics, the engineers and obviously for Tom and I.

"I was very sad after the race as we had a very good car with great speed and a real contender for a race win.

"I led early on before getting tapped on the left rear corner by a Ferrari not for the first time this year as I'm sure many of you will remember. That forced us to change the tail section of the car and the team did a great job to get me back in the race after only a couple of minutes.

"But I then got hit by the Rebellion LM P1 car under braking going into Turn One. That damaged the rear bodywork again but also, and crucially, the wiring loom causing it to short out.

"We changed the loom and then the battery but unfortunately the battery wouldn't hold its charge so we were done for.

"In reality it was just a continuation of what we have had the entire 2011 season. We have been very fast, have been in a position to lead races but haven’t had any of them go our way.

"To have two consecutive retirements [Petit Le Mans and Zhuhai], something I've never had previously in my Audi career, in the last two ILMC races, has been particularly disappointing and very 'non' Audi for my time with the team.

"I have been so thankful over the course of my Audi career to have been in a position to finish a very, very big percentage of events and unfortunately it all turned against us in this one season. Hopefully when it comes to December 31 2011, that period is over and we can start afresh for 2012 . . !"

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Another frustrating outcome .....

2011-10-06T11:28:00+01:00

Petit Le Mans 2011 certainly set itself up to be a closely contested affair and one of the races to definitely be at, and I would agree, having been involved in it, certainly not from our point of view, but from the fans side, it was amazing from the number of spectators that were there and also the fights going pretty much down to the wire. LMP1 was looking as if that battle was going down to the wire but unfortunately, for Audi, it didn’t. Our fortunes went by the wayside a lot earlier on. There was a re start after about half an hour, in the 53 car traffic to snake its way down through the Esses and Tom unfortunately had small contact with Jonny Mowlem, which didn’t affect his Lotus at all but it damaged the rim of our car, which then sent Tom flying across the grass which caused a little bit more damage. He came in to the pits, which put us out of sequence and a couple of laps down. Later on, when I was in the car, we were making up ground, I was into 5^th position and starting to challenge 4^th. There was a big gaggle of cars, I over took them coming into turn 6, which is a long right hander into a tight one, and unfortunately one of the GT cars that I had just over taken, just miss judged his breaking, and hit me straight up the back, which damaged the right rear wheel, and also punted me into another car, so damaging the nose. It was a bit like a motorway accident. I can’t say I blame the GT car too much because there were six cars and just one piece of track, it’s just unfortunate the way it is with that amount of cars on such a small circuit. Then, on the way back to the pits, the clutch got damaged, so effectively that put us right out of contention. But the ‘Never say die’ attitude of Audi Sport, we repaired it and continued, even though we were 50 laps down, but then had to stop later on due to the affects of all of the knocks and bangs on the steering systems, and so it was felt best not to risk anything in the circumstances when we were in such a position. So I have to say, another very frustrating and disappointing event, because this one particularly, over the course of the year, we had the performance to take victory. The pure speed in pretty much every area we were in very good shape. But we go home with no trophy. That is the first thing. We also go home with that little bit of, I was going to say heavy weight been lifted off pur shoulders, but we have got one more race coming up, which is China, and we now know what we need to do with the car, to try to take the final race victory of 2011.

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Allan reflects on his and Audi’s disappointments at Imola last weekend . . .

2011-07-06T11:54:00+01:00

“I think we have to be honest and say that it was a disappointing weekend in Imola. Audi finished in third and fourth places but the distance to the first two Peugeots was significantly bigger than what we expected after qualifying – certainly after the first hour of the race.

“The Peugeot guys did a very good job. It was clear that they were very consistent throughout the race, whereas for us, the big difference was the traffic. In clear laps we were very close to them. We had some problems, brakes and a few other little bits and pieces which cost us time.

“The Peugeots got through the traffic quicker than us, they were able to overtake a little bit easier than we could and with Imola being such a fast and flowing track, when there is only one line in quite a few places if you get caught behind the GT car, you can easily lose three seconds in two corners and ultimately there was more of those three second losses for us [Audi] than there was for them [Peugeot] and that was the real difference.

“It’s not something that will transfer through to the rest of the races in the season because that problem was due to the nature of the Imola circuit. I think we had a well balanced car in the end. The down force level was very good and like I said, lap time wise and pure performance, was close.

“But it was the other 45 cars on the track that created our inconsistency. Personally it was my first race since my Le Mans accident and I jumped into the cockpit of the R18 TDI having done a small test the week before. It felt like I hadn’t ever been away. I had no thoughts or feelings towards what had happened in France and was straight back into the rhythm.

“Not necessarily into the rhythm of the circuit, because by the time I had went into qualifying, I had done just eight or nine laps on the Friday and then one lap total on the Saturday morning in practice, so it wasn’t the best preparation for a ‘qually’ run.

“So taking that in to account, I was very happy with the qualifying performance. So the team is now back to Ingolstadt going through figures, well lick our wounds, and we get our act together for Silverstone which is the next big race in two months time.”

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Allan's reflections on Le Mans crash

2011-06-12T12:34:00+01:00

Immediately I realised after the start that the car balance was very good. The guys had done a superb job from the incident on Thursday night to bring it into perfect shape. I was up into fourth quite early on, in fact after the first corner, and was quicker than the Peugeot ahead of me but it took quite a long time through the stint to get in a position to overtake as they were pretty fast on the straight. However we were much quicker in the cornering. I got a run and overtook him around the outside down into the first chicane and then I had the pit-stop and caught up on the second place sister car of Benoit Treluyer and overtook him down into Porsche. Timo Bernhard was in the lead just ahead and he slid wide coming out of the Dunlop chicane so I kept to the inside as he came back on and overtook him. At the same time, I went down the inside of a GT class Ferrari which was just ahead. As I got past the first thing I knew was I was spinning towards the wall on the left hand side and so immediately realised that he’d tagged the left rear of my car with the right front of his. After that I was just along for the ride. It was a very big accident – I think everybody realises that. I climbed out of the car by myself then taken to the Medical Center for a check-up and then had a scan at a local hospital but was given the all-clear. I have to say a huge thank you to the Audi designers because they have produced a car that could survive an enormous impact allowing the driver to open the door and get out unharmed. It’s a big disappointment for the entire team. For Tom and Dindo because the car we were given by our mechanics and engineers was really, really good. I think it was the car to have and that means we all have a flat feeling.

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Le Mans Here We Come!

2011-06-01T11:35:00+01:00

Well, Le Mans is upon us. It is now! We have had quite a lot of performance testing and endurance tests with the Audi R18 TDI since we ran for the first time back in November 2010. We have had a run on the Le Mans circuit with the pre-test which went extremely well.

We were able to do a lot of good running there, with endurance runs, with long tyre runs and basically set-up work. We had a race at Spa last month, so it gave us drivers and engineers a bit of a feel how the car would react in race situations which is definitely different to testing.

Now we’re at the point where we have done all of the preparation, we have done our pit-stop training, done our tests, our one race and we are ready. In terms of Le Mans, it is going to be a very difficult one.

I think in a lot of ways it will be more difficult than any other [Le Mans] that I can remember because if we look at the pre-test, there were five cars covered by less than a second – the first four covered by 2 tenths of a second and that’s around a 13.629 km circuit!

So I think in terms of qualifying and race pace, everybody is going to be very close and that makes me think that we have got to be very good at our execution of pit-stops, good in our strategy, good in our fuel economy, good in our ability to lap traffic, good in our tyre management in the pits and also on the track and good in the fact that we do the Le Mans as Audi has done so many times before, exactly like clockwork.

But with this type of race, this pace of race, with these new regulations, with the difference in speed with the slower cars on the straights because we have got less power and torque to previously, it means that it is going to be more difficult, more tricky to have all of those clean runs all the way through, but that is part of racing. That is part of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Bring it on!

Follow Allan on Twitter - www.twitter.com/#!/allanmcnish

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Satisfactory race debut for Audi R18 TDI at sunny Spa . . .

2011-05-09T15:04:00+01:00

Well it was beautiful to get back on to the Spa track, fantastic to be there with the sun shining – the weather was absolutely glorious throughout – sun and hot weather all weekend. It was really incredible, it was more like Knockhill than Spa – just joking!

And of course it was obviously the race debut of the Audi R18 TDI. Having been tested extensively since we ran it for the first time in November last year and at the recent Le Mans pre-test, we’d already got a bit of an idea where we would be against our main opposition but when we came here we were pleasantly surprised with how it fitted and adapted to the circuit.

We were pleased as drivers how much you could see and how you could work with traffic, because the traffic here was quite immense, over 50 cars on a track of just about six kilometres which equated to one car every 100 metres, if you wanted to space the field out, and that meant that traffic was a big key to the race.

That is something with the closed cockpit car that we certainly had to get used to – and have to a little bit more – but it was good that there were no major incidents. Qualifying was odd to say the least because the Audi’s were 1, 2 & 3. The Peugeots were 13th, 18th and ‘not classified’ after deciding strategy wise, not to go out at the start of the session. But an accident caused a red flag which meant the session was brought to a close early.

But in a six hour race, as we have seen before, qualifying isn’t everything. The race start was quite good. I made a good one, got up into second place by the time we got around to Eau Rouge. Unfortunately I then made a mistake which I was really annoyed about. I miscalculated Andre Lotterer, who was in the leading ‘sister’ Audi going into Les Combes.

He braked a little bit earlier than I thought he was going to but it was my mistake. I braked really hard to avoid hitting him, locked up the rear tyres and spun. It was quite harmless in terms of no damage or anything else, we just lost valuable time, and dropped down to 16th and so I then had to come back through the field.

By the time I ended my first stint and handed over to Dindo we were fourth and pretty close to the leading Peugeot and the ‘sister’ Audi. So our performance was definitely there. Unfortunately Dindo had a wee problem when he accidentally activated the pit limiter and that lost us a bit of time.

In the last hour Tom had a slow puncture, just as he was catching the second-placed Peugeot, which meant we had to settle for third place. The puncture caused bodywork damage and the unscheduled pit-stop for repairs meant that our fuel strategy was wrong necessitating one extra pit stop.

All in all, I would say the result was slightly frustrating having been 1, 2 & 3 on the grid. However it certainly showed the pure pace potential of our new R18 TDI. Roll on Le Mans !

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Race debut for Audi R18 TDI At One Of My All-Time Favourite Tracks . . .

2011-05-04T10:50:00+01:00

Spa is a circuit that I think every driver really looks forward to going to. And this year, probably more than most, for us all at Audi Sport, it’s more ‘attractive’ then ever because we are there with a new car, the Audi R18 TDI.

The Spa 1,000km on Saturday 7 May, the second round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, marks the race debut of this car. We were up against the competition at the Le Mans test day a week or so ago and we know the competition is very fierce.

But we are going to Spa with two goals in mind; first goal is to win this race staged on this magnificent, historic track. Our second goal is to progress with the development for the Le Mans 24 Hours which is coming up very soon afterwards.

Spa requires a similar characteristic car, however because it has got slightly shorter straights and more corners than Le Mans, and definitely more cars, there are around 60 entered, we have to compromise our set-up slightly.

Spa, as most of you know, has got some strange weather peculiarities that I have only previously seen at Knockhill in my whole racing career! It can be sunny and raining at the same time. But that is one of the features of the place.

It has a fast flowing section through Eau Rouge down Pouhon and Blanchimont. it has got the tight La Source hairpin, it has got overtaking opportunities, it has got places where you have to take big risks to do that.

But overall, it is one that when you finish a lap around Spa, you know you have worked very hard for it. I can’t wait!

Listen to Allan’s Spa Preview Podcast here

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Successful Le Mans Pre-Test & Public Debut for Audi R18 TDI

2011-04-28T06:38:00+01:00

The Le Mans test day was very important for everybody but for us with the new car, the R18 TDI, it was vital to get a feel for the circuit the car was principally designed for, to see how it was going to react on the big long straights, for top speed performance to see how it would be in the fast corners of Porsche and Indianapolis or the slow corners of Mulsanne and Arnage and even the chicanes on the Mulsanne straight.

Overall, I have to say, I think all Audi Sport drivers came away quite satisfied with the base set-up that we’d achieved at the end of the eight hour test and satisfied with our performance level.

It was very close with us [Audi] and our main competitors [Peugeot], there were just two tenths of a second difference, I repeat two tenths of a second difference, covering the top-three so it really is nip and tuck over a 13km track.

Audi Sport worked through a lot of base development elements, making sure we understood the tyres, which have to be new with the big wide, front tyre now on the R18 TDI, and also how they are going to react to this car on this track, with this kind of downforce, with this power level – we have got quite a lot less horse power than we had in previous years with the regulation changes.

Each of the three cars worked on different programmes but we will pull all of that together in time to go back there for the race in June. I wouldn’t necessarily go too much on the lap times, in terms of pure performance, because traffic is always a big thing around there.

There were a lot of new drivers to the track and it does take a bit of time to get acclimatized to it. When you have got an average speed of 150mph around that place, and you have got top speeds four or five times a lap, then it takes your attention.

It does take more than the average circuit to get used to. So all in all, I think when we come back in June, quite a lot of things will have changed, but the one thing that I am quite sure hasn’t changed is our determination to be successful and we’ll be gunning to give Audi a 10^th Le Mans 24 Hour race victory.

Follow Allan on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/AllanMcNish

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Bye, bye to the R15 TDI and Sebring reflections . . .

2011-03-21T10:10:00+01:00

“Well it was bye bye to the Audi R15 TDI here at Sebring. We weren’t able to give “her” a winning send off but we certainly had the pace and the capability to have done so. Right from the start of the Sebring 12 Hours we were in contention with the two, new ‘factory’ Peugeots and also with the Oreca and the new Acura.

“It was a really tight battle up at the front and with the new regulations for the full course yellows over in the US, it meant that you had to be cute and clever to try to take any advantage out of it. But unfortunately after a few hours, Marc Gene miss calculated and tagged the back of Dindo which broke our right rear suspension and Gene’s left front suspension and that effectively ruined the chances for both cars in the race.

“But typically the Audi Sport Team Joest team, once again, did a very good job when repairing the car, getting it back out on the track again with the minimum of time lost but we were seven laps so it became a ‘recovery’ drive, one of our famous ones, but this time we weren’t able to give it the final victory that we could have done in the past.

“We had the pace, we had the capability, and we had the speed in traffic. We’d set-up the Audi especially for the end of the race, not the beginning, because the track changes quite a lot here and we believed that the race was going to be won in the closing stages.

“And we were right with it being won by the privateer Oreca Peugeot team from the Acura with Montagny bringing the new 908 home in third and us in fourth, so it was quite a good fight for the 160,000 fans present. It was certainly a good race, it was a hot and hard race and it is one that I think we had the chances to be writing our names on the trophy again but it wasn’t to be this time. Now we focus on the new R18 . . .”

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A Driving Experience With A Difference Courtesy Of The World’s Most Powerful Truck . . . Our new R18 Coupe is unveiled . . . Farewell to Tom Walkinshaw . . .

2010-12-13T17:42:00+01:00

Just prior to the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup race at Silverstone, I was interviewed for Scene Scania magazine and during the chat, was asked if I fancied driving a Scania R 730 pulling a 42-tonne tri-axle trailer around the Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire.

I’m always up for a challenge and love doing unusual things so jumped at the chance – although I didn’t realise when I accepted back in September that Millbrook’s “Alpine” route would remind me of Austria or Switzerland on the day with lots of snow on the pine trees and in general across the countryside as the test run coincided with a real wintry snap in the UK.

Driving up from London Heathrow to Bedfordshire in an Audi S4 Avant, its quattro all-wheel-drive coping without a problem with the -12 Centigrade icy conditions, it did cross my mind whether this was really a good idea to drive the world’s most powerful truck.

I was briefed by Scania personnel that UK hauliers generally look for 10hp/tonne so on that basis, the R 730 would be good for 73-tonnes. To put that in perspective, the UK's top weight for 'standard' road operations is 44-tonnes – so the R 730 had plenty of power to spare.

As you know, I’ve spend the last five seasons driving either a turbocharged diesel V12, then V10 and most recently, a V6 engined TDI Audi sports-prototype (see below). The R10 TDI back in 2006 boasted over 1,100 Newton Metres of torque with the R15 TDI that I drove in this year’s Le Mans featuring around 1,050 Nm.

Let me give some figures for the Scania R 730 . . . 16-litre V8, 730 horsepower, 12-speed plus two crawlers gearbox and, wait for it . . . 3,500Nm torque . . . Wow! Like I said earlier, it’s the World's most powerful truck and designed for the most demanding transport operations like trans-Alpine, long-haul, heavy haulage etc.

It’s the flagship of Scania's R-series range, the International Truck of the Year 2010, and while I previously driven a 7.5 ton truck on the odd occasion, never anything beyond that. I was heading into a different world. Okay, it had got a steering wheel, a lot of horse power and torque, four wheels, well actually in this case it had many more than four wheels, but effectively it was motor vehicle - but totally different to anything I’d previously experienced.

I’m 1.65m and that meant I didn’t even come up to the bottom of the seat before I climbed up the steps in to the plush cab – in fact my first sensation aboard was vertigo – you sit so incredibly high. There is a wide expanse of glass in front of you. You obviously can’t see the rear of the trailer but the multitude of mirrors and varying angles gives you a good vision – mirrors are even positioned so that you could see a cyclist right down beside the cab.

Scania had brought along their driver trainer, Mark Agnew, to give me some much needed expert tuition although I was a little concerned when Mark told me it was very easy to drive but actually it was actually quite easy. Basically, you start the engine, you then put it into drive, it automatically selects the best gear considering the weight of the vehicle but also the incline, whether it is going uphill or downhill.

I then took off the handbrake but there is an auto hold brake on there as well, so when you go from the foot brake over to the throttle, there is an auto hold for three seconds, so you don’t start rolling and then you touch the throttle and off you glide.

With that amount of sheer power I expected a kick or an aggressive sort of acceleration but it was very controlled. It was very relaxed and very smooth in its acceleration, and also then the changes between the gears were instantaneous and suddenly I’d ramped up to 8th or 9th gear before I even knew it and that was a surprise because of that smoothness.

I didn’t think you could be able to control that sort of horse power and torque in such a way. We have similar amounts of horsepower but a lot less torque while of course an Audi sportscar weighs in at 900kg. When you are pulling 42 tonnes, without stating the obvious, that’s a helluva a lot more weight to pull and, importantly, stop.

The Scania’s technology was very interesting for me because I saw a lot of the same solutions to problems but maybe using them in a slightly different way as we do at Audi Sport face. For example, gear shifts are critical for us. They have to be fast, precise and smooth. If not, then there is a loss of top speed and it can be one or two kilometres per hour at the end of each straight or on the Mulsanne at Le Mans.

That 1-2kph means a little bit of fuel but it also means that the opposition could be coming past you. In the Scania the gear shifts also have to be smooth and precise because there are 14 gears. You are going up and down the gear box very quickly but also to get the correct gear for the correct speed, for the correct revs, to achieve the optimum fuel economy too.

I was very aware that this piece of kit was long . .. . especially once I’d taken the Scania off the ‘bowl’ and on to the Alpine route, a narrow single carriageway road. Because I live in mainland Europe, I am used to a left-hand-drive car nowadays so I have to re calibrate my brain a little bit. But the other thing is, when we were crossing over a bridge, I was then looking in to the left hand mirror with intensity because obviously I didn’t want to get too close to the bridge itself.

Like I hinted at earlier, the length of this vehicle took some getting used to especially when overtaking something or around some cones in the road when you suddenly have to manoeuvre it in a non standard way for a ‘normal’ motorist. You only have the width of the truck plus half a metre either side to play with – that’s when you realise the length and that’s when the positioning is very critical and that took me a little bit of time to get my brain around.

The secret to reversing is having . . . pure talent. As a racing driver we don’t park cars very well because as I have said to quite a few people it doesn’t take a lot of skill to park it against a barrier at 120mph. But I grew up in the South-West of Scotland and Dumfries is a big farming area, a big farming community. My whole family are involved in farming and so I was quite used to a short tractor and a long trailer when I was a kid growing up but that was a good 25 odd years ago.

But the principles remain the same in terms of getting yourself lined up and in to position. I managed two out of three reversing manoeuvres pretty well perfect. The third one, I had to take a second attempt at it, I was a bit embarrassed about that one as of course it took place right in front of a unit full of Scania and Audi UK guys.

But it was a fantastic day last week. It’s always good to get outside your natural boundaries, what you are used to and to look at other things. I have known Scania for a long time at quite close quarters. But to drive its latest and greatest truck on the roads was a thrill. You will be able to read about my experience in a forthcoming issue of Autosport magazine while I’ll get some video uploaded onto my website later this month.

Last Friday evening we had our new car launch, the Audi R18, unveiled here at the Audi Sportpark in Ingolstadt tonight. Of course it’s not the first time I have seen the car. I did the Coupe’s initial roll out last month but certainly to see it sitting on the presentation stage in carbon black and showing it to the world, I think has revealed to the motorsport world the fact that Audi has done its homework with the aerodynamics taking a little bit of a styling cue from the R15.

However, as many of you will have seen from the photographs, our new exciting car is very, very sleek with a closed cockpit. It is a ‘right’ hand drive. Everyone has done a pretty good job to make sure that the first feelings of the car are very positive.

We will now start an extensive test programme, developing the R18 prior to its first race at Spa in Belgium next May, a couple of weeks after the official Le Mans test day which returns for 2011. By that time we will understand where we are with the Coupe.

I am very much looking forward to 2011 and actually getting on with things. I headed home from Germany back to Monaco early Saturday and then spent the rest of the weekend lying on the settee – struck down with ‘man flu’.

I was then saddened to read on Autosport.com that Tom Walkinshaw had died. The former racing driver and team owner from Scotland, a former Scottish FF1600 champion, was my type of racer, hard and aggressive. RIP Tom . . ..

I’m now winding down to a family Christmas followed by Hogmany where we’ll get a bit of a rest and recovery for after 2010 but as soon as we get into January 2011 then all the hard work begins with the Autosport Show at the NEC kicking things off – hope to see you there and at race tracks around the world in 2011. Thanks for your support this season – it means a lot to me. Here’s to 2011!

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CHINESE REFLECTIONS – the good, the bad and the ugly . . .

2010-11-08T15:50:00+01:00

It was my first time in China although I did come to Hong Kong, my first time in Asia in fact, back in 1989, and so arriving back in to Hong Kong itself, you could tell it was the same place, but obviously it had evolved a lot.

Coming to China was a different experience. I was surprised that it was similar to some other Asian countries I have been to but very different in its own way. It certainly had its own stamp of personality. You can see that the new China is very much growing out of the old.

Zhuhai is close to Hong Kong, just a 90mins ferry ride. It is also culturally just a toe in the water but the people were extremely polite, very helpful, very friendly and they made a tremendously big effort with the circuit.

Anything that we thought could be an improvement or of benefit, the locals were very willing to help. The track itself was well maintained, it wasn’t necessarily suiting our car, with all of the slow hairpins – a car that is designed for Le Mans, where you average 150mph per lap – but it was the same for everybody.

Because of the lack of dry running through the testing and also the qualifying sessions, then it was very difficult for us to get a set up on the car, and so we made a guess, we made a change after the warm up, a hunch more than anything else that was instigated by Tom. When I drove the car in warm up I could see what he was trying.

We went in a particular direction with the “sister” car going off in a slightly different one but we had no real knowledge of which one was going to be best. When we got into the race, Tom struggled with the balance but also, more importantly, with tyre wear.

But in the second part of his double stint, he was able to catch back up and overtake Dindo who had got past at the beginning and got stuck in around the Peugeots. But then Dindo seemed to struggle when he got into the second stint.

So when I got in then, the strategy slightly changed to go into single stinting with the same tyre compound and I had to push like mad to be able to get the gaps hopefully back which we achieved so that when Tom got back in, we were right in contention.

However a pace car halved our 30secs lead towards the end and then with about 10 laps to go, leader Sarazzin pitted for a ‘splash n dash’. That was the opportunity for us to either be first or second when he came out the pits.

Unfortunately the other Peugeot, some laps down, happened to be just in front of Tom and obviously wasn’t looking for the blue (faster car approaching) flags being waved and so that lost us critical time losing TK the opportunity to have an attack at Stephane, ultimately in the winning car.

I have to say I was quite disappointed with that type of strategy, it wasn’t necessarily the way I would have liked to have ended the current era with this particular R15 TDI but we had done a tremendously good job with the strategy.

Tom and I from a racing point of view, and the mechanics at the pit stops, it was a really good effort to get us into the position to win the race. And then to have the final race of the season tainted a little bit, in my eyes not allowing the two main cars in the race to fight head to head over the last laps, was the thing that disappointed me a little bit.

But anyway, congratulations to Stephane and to Franck because the competition that they provided to Tom, Dindo and I this year was very strong, and I enjoyed the fights tremendously. We had our debrief on Sunday night and then went to the prize giving ceremonies and already were thinking about 2011 because that is where the focus lies, not on what has happened in the past but what happens in the future.

Regards, Allan

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SILVERSTONE DEBRIEF ...

2010-09-14T14:49:00+01:00

The highs and lows of motor racing ... I experienced both at Silverstone!

I started from pole position, qualifying had been superb. I could really ‘lean' on the car, get the feel of it, understand it, push it through the high speed sections and also muscle it through all of the low speed bits to get pole. It was the first time an Audi R15 TDI had been on "pole" and the first time I'd earned the No1 qualifying spot for three years - and some kind person reminded me it was my first Silverstone "pole" since 1990. Crikey me!

At the start of the race it took time to warm up the tyres and that was where Peugeot had a small advantage. They slipped into the lead and just as it looked as if the race would come back to me, the differential failed, and I coasted to a stop.

It was the first retirement due to a technical failure since the launch of the R15 TDI project and the first for Audi Sport Team Joest in more than four years. The differential will be carefully examined in Ingolstadt this week.

It was a [major] surprise because we [Audi Sport] have never had any problems like this previously with Audi reliability being one of our strong cards over the last decade of sportscar racing. I was massively disappointed and with adrenaline pumping through my veins and no release for it, it took time to come down from it all.

Later in the day I sat down with Tom, Dindo and our engineer to discuss what we are going to do at Petit Le Mans - we have a chance to rectify this feeling of loss when the three of us are back together and try and get another victory for Audi.

I love Petit. There will be over 100,000 very enthusiastic fans at Road Atlanta. The circuit suits me because it is very fast and flowing and aggressive. It is a race that is intense from every single point of view and will renew the battle with Peugeot.

In 2007 we beat Porsche by 0.923 seconds - after 1,000 miles of racing! In 2008 we beat Peugeot by 4.512 seconds. Last year's race was stopped before half distance, when it was tooth and nail with Peugeot again, due to heavy rain. There are a few scores to be settled and so I'm very much looking forward to getting on to the track and getting the job done out there.

For those of you who travelled to Silverstone hoping for Audi to repeat its tremendous victory, I'm sorry but at least Dindo and Timo [Bernhard] got Audi a place on the podium and if it's any consolation to you, there was no one more disappointed than me last Sunday evening!

Posted by in Allan's Blog

PRE SILVERSTONE BLOG

2010-08-31T09:33:00+01:00

I'm busy preparing for the Silverstone race a week on Sunday (Sep 12), an important event that is not only the fifth and final round of the Le Mans Series but the first of three races in the inaugural Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - and I can't wait to get back racing.

I'm driving with Tom Kristensen on this occasion and it's very important TK and I, and of course Audi, get off to a good start in the new series as Peugeot, our main competition, will be keen for revenge especially after our Le Mans success.

Le Mans was my last race so it's been a long summer without racing but we have been very busy with testing and motivation is high. Silverstone marks the first time Audi and Peugeot have faced each other since Le Mans so you can expect fireworks and a titanic fight between us.

The Audi R15 TDI has already won two out of the three races we've done this year and TK and I will be fighting hard to make it a third win on what is the R15 TDI's UK race début. It's effectively this car's final race on European soil this year.

I always like racing at Silverstone. In fact, I had my first ever car race there and I have had success on all the variants of track since then. It has been quite a happy hunting ground throughout my career. With most of my racing taking place abroad these days, it's really nice to ‘come home' to catch up with fans and family that come along to watch.

I have only seen the new track layout on television. It still has the long, fast section from Copse to Club and then the slower section back to the start-finish line. I don't think the track will be any easier but actually more complicated for set-up with aerodynamic grip and balance being important in the first part and mechanical grip and balance in the second part. I am sure it will, as always, produce a good, exciting race.

I hope many of you can attend, it should be a great race but I thought it may be interesting for you to know how what I do each day . . . well this is the plan!

I arrive Thursday at the track, I generally run the track in the afternoon just to see if anything has changed since I was last there, kerbs, bumps that sort of thing, and of course on this occasion layout. I'll then have a meeting with TK and our engineers to speak in detail about how we approach the weekend before a main Audi Sport team meeting. I then try to see the physio to treat any previous war wounds before the circus all starts.

Friday, after administration checks you have a driver briefing, a bit like an assembly at school but we get the chance to bring up problems at previous races, sometimes it gets heated and a bit of hand bags at dawn but it's all part of the game, then it is into practice sessions and debriefs.

Friday night I have an event with the British Racing Drivers Club to talk to the next generation of British Stars about "what it takes to succeed", driving talent is not enough, a modern driver is a business man, an image for international companies, a sound bite for the media, an athlete, a 200 strong team motivator, to lead the direction of engineering of the car, tyres, engine, as well as a good racing driver.

Saturday' sessions are split focused on the race and qualifying and getting a front row slot for the race, when it all comes down to it the tyres are at their peak for just one lap. After that there is a Press Conference for the quickest qualifiers and then a team debrief . . . how was it in qualifying but also what do we do for tomorrow.

Finally practice some pit stops with TK before being presented with a trophy by the Automobile Club des Pilotes for the most successful British driver at Le Mans this year. Then a massage and off to bed.

Race day . . . race face but also media face and sponsor face. After warm up in the morning I will visit all three of my personal sponsors who are at this event. Graham and P & H have a load of guests coming and Jim Russell Racing Drivers School have important meetings at the track. Everyone needs the insight, the dedicated autograph, the photo, the driving tip just before I leave to go to the official Autograph session and then off to see the many Audi guests who all want to see another Audi victory, nothing like expectation!

At about 11am I will get changed into my race overalls and get my race face on, check my two helmets, grab some pasta and a drink - more of that yellow looking drink from our team doctor - before hopping into the car and taking it to the grid before the start - assuming that I'll be starting.

Another banana and then a final trip to the loo before a hand shake here, a short interview for TV or radio there and then finally with about seven minutes to go I get my radio earpieces in, my balaclava on, my helmet and HANS strapped on and then my custom made gloves and slide down into my ‘office', my private world, check the 15 knobs and switches to change the car I have on my steering wheel and then a last tighten of the seat belt to prepare for the defining moment.

Here's hoping I can add to the wins I achieved in the corresponding races at Silverstone in 2004, 2005 and 2008 for Audi.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

LE MANS ... NOW GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED

2010-07-02T09:46:00+01:00

It took a week to get back to full fitness, full strength, full feeling after Le Mans. The emotional fatigue, the pressure, everything else about that race week is quite intense. Like I said in the previous Newsletter, we then went to the Audi plants in Ingolstadt and Neckersulm to celebrate the magnificent 1-2-3 at Le Mans with the workforce.

That was another long trip, long journey but you don't mind these trips when you are successful, I have to say. But it has taken me a good 10-15 days to recover completely, where my brain is now back on song.

My next trip was back to Scotland. It was the Scottish Moto Racing Club's Speedfair which is one of their biggest events of the year at Knockhill. They had a Scotland/Ireland Formula Ford Challenge, they had a non-championship, two-driver 30-lap race for Minis, the Ferraris were up there, and also there were some historic and not so old Formula 1 cars.

James Hunt's McLaren was there but also a Cooper so there was a little bit of everything for everybody and the healthy crowd certainly had some entertainment. You know me, I am always entertained by the Minis, there is no question about it, you have really got to watch it on Motors TV. I am not going to tell you anymore but just please watch it!!

Watch out for car no23 that was certainly entertaining to say the least. But for Formula Ford event they offered the Jackie Stewart Trophy and the David Leslie Memorial Trophy and that was a really hot race as well.

It was finally decided about 2 or 3 laps from the end but until that point there were three guys that had broken away really dicing up the front. It was fantastic club racing, no question about it, and it was nice and sunny.

Then it was down to London for this year's Segrave Award. I won this prestigious title in 2009 after last year's Le Mans and this time around is was the turn of racing pilot Paul Bonhomme who picked up the award earlier this week. As Jackie Stewart told me, it'll be one of the biggest awards that you will ever get in your career.

Next stop from here, the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Saturday. Hopefully I will see you there . . .

Regards, Allan

Posted by in Allan's Blog

POST LE MANS ...

2010-06-30T14:41:00+01:00

Well, Le Mans is over, it's all settled down again now. We had quite a lot of discussions, celebrations, the in depth detail to look over but whichever way you cut it, you have to say that was a pretty intense event and also a surprise result in the fact that we had a complete clean sweep on the podium.

We went there with a clear intention, a clear idea that we had a chance, a crack at victory, but when we saw the pace of the Peugeot on the Wednesday night, personally it took me by surprise. We hit our target marks but they definitely exceeded theirs.

In fact I think it surprised their drivers as well because they didn't quite believe the lap times they were able to run but they were running them and that was a fact of life. We then focused very much on trying to get the car in the right window for the race, to make sure it was good for the race because we knew that we had to attack it in a slightly different way.

That was when, on Thursday, the hard work was really done. We knew that we had to improve in terms of our tyre durability; we knew we had to improve our car balance and ultimately our lap time speed, which we certainly did do. It came to us a little bit in the warm up when in the wet we were very quick but the warm up is a warm up and when it is wet and then drying I am always a little bit reluctant to take too much strength from it, however the car was adaptable because it was good in the wet, it was good in the damp, and it had been pretty reasonable in the Thursday night qualifying so I thought we are going in the right direction.

The start of the race, I had a little look at the Oreca Peugeot, and if I had been able to get past him, then I certainly would have had a sniff at the factory Pugs, but it was a case of him trying to defend his position. I would have had to go the long way round him but we didn't quite have the pace to be able to do that and so I settled into just keeping the pressure on and after 4 or 5 laps there was a pace car for Nigel's [Mansell] accident from Mulsanne down to Indianapolis.

It was a big surprise that the pace car just came out between us and the Peugeots, a big surprise, big frustration, big everything. However, when they are neutralising the race that's what they have to do and sometimes it swings with you and sometimes it swings against you. That broke the back of the pressure that we had on them and after that it was just a case of trying to lay down some laps.

Unfortunately, Tom, in our car, then got caught out trying to overtake Andy Priaulx who was limping back to the pits and both went for the same bit of track and ultimately that was an eight minute cost to our car. At the time, I sat there and thought that's fourth position gone and I was disappointed that so early on we had lost our crack at maybe a podium because we'd been the ‘leading' Audi at that point and had taken the charge.

As it turned out with the catastrophic failures all the way through the race of the Peugeots between ripping a suspension part out of the tub, possibly caused by running heavily over the kerbs, plus three engine failures, it really kept us on the edge of our seats and saw us creeping closer to the podium and so when we were running the last laps and it was an Audi 1,2,3, then there was still that element of complete daze about it, how did we achieve this result?

But you have to remember that not one Audi had a technical problem so three Le Mans race distances were achieved, a total of 72 hours of racing, over 16,500 km completed without a technical issue and that to me is the difference, that is the reason that we were the guys at the top of the podium and not the ones who were looking at up at it and as much as you can cut it any other way the fact is at Le Mans you have got to be the fastest guy over 24 Hours and Audi produced that.

Our car, we were happy, at the end. It wasn't a result that we expected but a result that we would take. Tom, Dindo and I would've loved to added to our victory tally but to be a part of a 1-2-3 was an amazing feeling. When the three Audi cars came down the pit lane near the end, line astern and then stopped for fuel, it was a stunning sight.

It had the element of a flashback to the ‘olden' days. But while there was a lot of focus and much tension, there was also good humour about this particular race between us and the Peugeot guys. There is obviously competition but they partied with us on the Sunday night, something I was pleased to see. I am sure they [Peugeot] will come back very strong.

‘Big Al' was much in evidence at Le Mans too, a 6ft version of Allan - as in me! Graham, one of my personal partners, had produced a 6ft version of myself for their in-store displays, so if you go to http://www.liftthelid.co.uk/ and then Where's Al? you can follow the story.

It was cool because every single driver on the grid signed this Allan McNish cardboard cut-out. There had been various photographs taken in some places I was quite surprised I appeared at! He lived a different Le Mans experience to me for sure. The cut-out was then auctioned off for Highcroft Racing's support of the charity, Malaria No More, raising over $2,000.

After Le Mans it was straight to Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm where they closed the Audi factories and we had autograph sessions and the cars drove around the inside of the Neckarsulm plant which gives you an idea how big the plant is. It was pretty cool because I think everybody was pleased, relieved and obviously proud that we had had such a fantastic Le Mans. It's not often you get a 1-2-3 in a 24 hour race although at Audi we're making a bit of a habit of doing this . . .

Speak soon . . . Allan

Posted by in Allan's Blog

BIZARRE SPA RACE . . . ENCOURAGEMENT FOR LE MANS . . . BACK TO MONACO . . .

2010-05-18T16:48:00+01:00

Heading for Spa, it seemed a long time since our previous race at Paul Ricard but in reality it was only four weeks but we'd busy in that time. We'd undertaken a 30 hour endurance test back at Ricard. It was dry and was completed without any dramas which gives us some comfort looking ahead to next month's BIG race. We've had strong endurance tests concerning reliability which is exactly the situation we would hope to be in.

At Spa we ran all three R15 ‘plus' TDI cars in full Le Mans trim, from the nose of the car to the rear wing, that was our set-up and even though it wasn't the optimum for the Belgian circuit, it was what we needed in terms of getting more experience about the car in this specification - and in a race situation.

Reflecting on the race now I think it was enlightening for us to see where we are in terms of our main competition, Peugeot, and how our car worked in traffic. So Spa, for me, ticked all of the boxes - apart from one - and that of course was not winning the race.

I would have loved to have followed up our Ricard win with another victory - as a driver that is always the No1 goal but the bigger picture was to make sure that when we arrive at Le Mans next month that we're as well prepared as possible.

It rained just before the start of the race. Tom had got baulked in qualifying so I was sitting in the Audi a little further down the grid than expected. With five minutes to go, it was cold and drizzling with rain. We knew it wasn't raining all around the circuit. On the warm-up lap, Lotterer in a ‘sister' Audi spun off on cold tyres, also a Peugeot, literally at 30mph just accelerating gently - it was like driving on an ice rink.

Lamy appeared to jump the start then spun at the first corner, we were all slipping and sliding around. With our low downforce aero settings I was struggling to get any temperature in to the tyres. But as the race progressed and the track dried, matters improved allowing Dindo, TK and I to complete some reasonable stints.

With 30mins to go TK was second, 20secs behind the lead Peugeot so we were pretty competitive. Unfortunately for us it started to rain again and we chose to pit Tom for intermediates. If it had continued to rain for another 5-10mins we'd have probably won the race. But it didn't. And we dropped down to third place right at the end. That was a little disappointing because we'd an easy second place.

However, one of the most bizarre elements of this race was when the race was red-flagged. A race can be stopped for many reasons but I cannot recall one being stopped for a power failure. The electricity in the area was cut - there was no timing, no power in the pit garages so we'd not got telemetry, nothing, and for safety reasons, the race was halted for 40mins before the power came back on.

Moments prior to the race being stopped, a Peugeot had a huge shunt. And while Dindo and the rest of the field filed in to a Parc Ferme, where working on a car is strictly prohibited, somewhat fortuitously, repairs continued on the Peugeot in the pits. I guess it's an oddity of the regulations whereby this could be undertaken without a penalty. C'est la vie.

But overall, Audi Sport left Spa encouraged that we will be in a position to challenge Peugeot for a Le Mans victory next month.

Before Spa I was over at a very cold Brands Hatch to watch Harry Tincknell in his latest Formula Renault UK races. It was so wet that organisers cancelled the first race while Race 2 was in damp conditions. He came from the back of the grid, caused by a technical problem on the first lap in qualifying, to finish sixth. A rousing run.

Immediately after Spa, I headed for Paul Ricard again - not to test or race - but to be present for Audi UK's A8 Press Launch. So not only nowadays does our racecar technology filter down to roadcars but nowadays a race driver's presence is being used more and more by manufacturers to assist in these kind of marketing/PR events. And that's cool.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

DINDO AND I SCORE DEBUT WIN FOR R15 PLUS . . . RICARD REFLECTIONS . . . NEXT STOP SPA . . .

2010-04-15T16:08:00+01:00

Well the first race is over and I don't think anyone at Audi Sport could have hoped for a better result at Paul Ricard. Giving the R15 Plus its first victory follows in the same vane as with the R8, R10 TDI and R15 TDI - Audi's fine tradition of scoring a début race win first time out with its latest sportscar.

Winning at Ricard was a positive surprise. Before arriving at Le Castellet, Dindo and I had effectively done one day of dry weather testing. So we were very early in our learning process. It was important from the drivers' point of view to get on with the job and for us and the team to start on a good and firm footing.

The competition from Peugeot, the factory-assisted ORECA squad, was quite strong - we know those French guys very well and I personally have great respect for them - I know first hand what they're capable of having driven for ORECA. So we knew we'd have strong competition from those guys never mind Aston Martin, Rebellion and some of the others.

We worked hard in practice to make the car fast but also to make the car comfortable to drive. It was an eight hour race, with just two drivers, Dindo and I, after it was agreed a few days before by Audi Sport's Dr Christian John and Tom himself that the ‘Great Dane' concentrated on his forthcoming testing commitments as opposed to racing with us at Ricard.

If it had been three drivers with ‘Tommy Boy' it would have been easier for sure. Effectively Dindo and I were having to drive the equivalent of almost three Grands Prix distances each. Ricard is a difficult track physically and that combined with the slower traffic we would encounter, it was going to be quite tough.

The R15 Plus had good straight line speed as well as good lap speed and by the time the race day arrived we'd got a good balance on the car which we were ultimately put good use. I would have loved the intensity of the first hour of the race to have continued but unfortunately it expired to a degree when the ORECA Peugeot had a problem early on.

Their problem left us on our own but we still pushed hard to learn as much about the car as possible in readiness for Le Mans. It was vital to get as much race experience of the R15 Plus as we could. We possibly missed that element last year to a degree but we've learned from that.

So sitting here at home on the Monday after the race, looking back on it, the result was a little unexpected because we didn't think we'd have that kind of performance so early on in the R15 Plus programme and for it to run so well and so reliably. But we also take back to Ingolstadt a lot of very useful information and knowledge about our new car.

I'm quite satisfied with another win for Dindo and I in the new R15 Plus. It was the best possible way to start the season.

However and with respect, we must remember that we were racing a ‘customer' Peugeot and not the latest ‘factory' Pugs. But we'll all be out in full force at Spa early next month. We'll be there with three cars as will Peugeot, plus the Le Mans Series regulars.

It's going to be an amazing pre-Le Mans race in Belgium and with just a month or so to the Big One in June, combined with a lot of testing we have planned, it'll hopefully put us in good shape to getting back the Le Mans trophy. Speak soon . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Fitness training...Tincknell impresses...Florida testing...Back racing!

2010-04-09T14:31:00+01:00

Hi everybody, it's been a month or so since I last spoke to you, and I'm now at Paul Ricard in preparation for my first race of the year and boy, oh boy, that's a great feeling. The opening round of this year's Le Mans Series is an eight hour race on Sunday which will give everyone at Audi Sport valuable information and data concerning our new R15 TDI "Plus". We've obviously been busy testing it in recent weeks but this will be our 2010 car's first real blast and will allow us see what it can do in a race environment.

Anyway, turning the clock back a few weeks, I returned from Audi Sport's annual fitness training camp realising that we were all in pretty good shape. But that week, each year, is really important as a get together with all of the Audi Sport drivers from DTM and our Sportscar programme as well as monitoring our fitness. My fitness regime through the winter was certainly a big push because not only are the cars getting more and more difficult to drive, we are having to drive them absolutely on the edge for longer. That definitely makes the old heart rate go a little bit higher, never mind the fact that you know that you are going have to be absolutely at your peak for the course of the race.

I'm also involved with a young driver named Harry Tincknell. He finished third in the opening rounds of the Formula Renault UK Championship over the Easter weekend at Thruxton. I recently attended one of his tests for the forthcoming season. It was important for me to go along because he's going through all the same learning processes that I did some 20 years ago.

He is in his second full season of single-seaters having graduated from karting and I'm trying to impart some of the basic information that I've accumulated in my career, but which is new to him, so that he is as prepared as possible. Look out for the name of Harry - I'm sure he is going to progress and be up there.

As you may recall, I'm also involved in the North America-based Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School "Future Driver Search" programme. The 2010 Driver Search winners, Gary Carlton and Alex Ellis, have been testing out in Sonoma at the Infineon Raceway or Sears Point as it was formerly known as. Both will contest the Jim Russell Championship Series this year and have been adapting to the School's impressive FJR-50. It's basically a Formula 3 chassis and pulls three G through the faster corners. They'll need to concentrate on getting the braking right, the balance of the car and their consistency.

There have been a lot of things going on in recent weeks and one was the Audi UK presentation of the R8 Spyder in London. It's just a beautiful car, absolutely stunning, and I don't think photographs do it justice. When you see it in the ‘metal', especially in white, which I'm not normally a fan of, it looks fantastic.

I was kind of jealous to be honest when I stood and watched the journalists jump into their R8 Spyders at the very swish West London Audi facility, the world's largest Audi Centre, and drive off for a week of fun with the hood down. In between two of these events for Audi UK, I was also jumping into a ‘Spyder' to have a week of fun and entertainment with the ‘hood down' but it was the R15 TDI ‘Plus'. We were at Homestead, just south of Miami, in Florida, for our first basic run with our 2010 car and it was good to actually get back in to a racecar again.

It had been over a month since we'd tested at Sebring and it was nice to get back into it and also to get back into what will hopefully earn us to some silverware this year. The Homestead test was basically a systems check, making sure that everything worked as we thought it was going to. But you know those first laps are also quite good just to give you a sense and a feel for the car.

Our goal, of course, is that we win the big trophy and not allow it to stay in France this year but last month's Sebring race confirmed Peugeot have got the same idea, so it's going to be a pretty titanic battle I've got to say.

Dindo and I were joined at Homestead by our car's fellow co-driver Tom Kristensen. "Tommy Boy" is writing a kind of ‘blog' for Audi this year in the build up to the 24 Hour race - you can read them every week on Audi UK's website (http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/experience/Motorsport/Motorsport_News.html). I read in a recent blog that he had to pay for our coffee at Starbucks. For anyone that read this particular blog I can assure you it's pure fantasy and I'll put the record straight! Take it from me, and remember that this is a Scot talking about a Dane, this ‘boy' is the ‘tightest' guy in the world. He could have swum the Atlantic with an Aspirin in his hand and it wouldn't have dissolved by the time he had arrived in New York. Buy a Starbucks? You must be joking, I don't even think he brought his wallet with him - I even searched his bag for it. Joking apart, it was good to see that TK was making a good and speedy recovery.

It was a shame we [Audi] could not race at Sebring the following weekend. Through the course of the week, I didn't think about it too much because I was busy with the testing. We were focussed and had things to do keep our minds very occupied. I was getting titbits of information about how things were going on up there but on Saturday morning, Dindo and I found a TV and watched the start of the race. It was sad not to be there but that's the way things are sometimes.

On the other side of it, it was good to see that our former sports-prototype team-mate Emanuele [Pirro] was chasing down the Peugeot early on. It was a shame for Marino [Franchitti], "Brabs" and Simon Pagenaud, that having blasted off into the lead of LMP2, the car then suffered mechanical failure. Tom, Dindo and I had a similar experience in 2008 after brake problems and you just see this big Sebring trophy disappearing to one of the other teams as you sit in the pits. That's a hard thing to take but it was good to see that Marino had immediately settled into the Highcroft team and was the star of the show putting it on pole position.

It was interesting to see the way that Peugeot ran the race. They were certainly not taking any risks. Admittedly the two cars seemed to be fighting each other and obviously there's still some areas of weakness in there with Bourdais spinning off close to the end. However, I think we are going to have to wait until Spa or maybe Le Mans to see them really stretch their legs and know what they actually can do and that's quite tough for both Audi and Peugeot to monitor each other and wonder exactly what the other's real performance level is going to be

Posted by in Allan's Blog

TESTING TIMES AND FITNESS WORK KEEPING ME BUSY

2010-02-24T16:29:00+01:00

I'm taking a break, catching my breath for a few moments. I'm at the annual Audi fitness training session this week on the German/Austrian border. I had left home in absolutely torrential rain in the south of France, certainly not Cote d'Azur sunshine as we normally associate with the region.

It's been a busy few weeks. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it. The year started out at the Autosport International in Birmingham, which is the annual ‘kick-off' of the season for me as it's turned out to be and also for a lot of racing drivers, team personnel and fans.

After that it was a quick turnaround and off to America for our first test of the year. This was at Sebring and was an endurance test predominately to get some mileage and to understand the car a little bit more and to verify some of the work we were doing with our partners, like Michelin for example.

It was very helpful to get the cobwebs dusted off for all the engineers, the mechanics, and all the drivers. It wasn't that long since our previous test but it is nice to see the New Year on the calendar and to get stuck back into it after the excesses of Christmas if you like.

But Sebring was not very kind to us in so far as the weather was a bit too Scottish at times. There was a lot of rain and it was a lot colder than what we would have expected but then I have been to Florida in January before and seen freezing temperatures, so at least this time we didn't have to have too many layers of clothing.

I was pleased with the way the test went. We had a good run and learnt a bit. It was good meeting up with the new Audi sports-prototype drivers too. New signings Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer had their first runs in the Audi R15 TDI. The car we used at Sebring was an interim model.

Lucas Luhr will be reserve driver for us at Le Mans this year while a total of five Audi prototypes will compete at Le Mans with the privateer Kolles team running their two Audi R10 TDI cars. Meanwhile Marco Werner will race the Audi R8 LMS. Congratulations are in order to Mike Rockenfeller who arrived at Sebring having just won the Daytona 24 Hours.

Fellow Scot Marino Franchitti was at Sebring having a blast in the Acura LMP2 car because he has now changed to the Highcroft Team. It was nice to see Marino diving into the hairpin and really getting on it coming through there and also into Turn 17.

Sadly we are not going to be at Sebring for the 12 Hour race next month. Previously we'd used the Sebring race and the following days endurance tests as a good set-up for Le Mans. Unfortunately this year it is changing a bit.

I've now got very few weekends at home and hardly any weeks in the coming months when I'm not travelling or testing, or doing promotional work. I'll update you on how this week went and other news very soon . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

JIM RUSSELL’S INAUGURAL FUTURE DRIVER SEARCH IS AN IMMEDIATE SUCCESS . . . RELAXING TIMES WITH FAMILY & FRIENDS . . . AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES . . .

2010-01-14T10:02:00+01:00

When I sat in front of 38 drivers that were eagerly anticipating the start of the Jim Russell Future Driver Search programme, it was a funny feeling actually, quite a frightening feeling in a way because I could see myself aged 16 in so many of these drivers faces, all waiting in anticipation for what might come their way and it was also the fact that there was a lot of emotion and talent present in the impressive Audi Forum building at the Infineon Raceway as we were going to have to try and select 38 down to ultimately only two.

I knew that job was going to be very, very difficult from a pure technical point of view and also on an emotional one because ultimately you could be effectively changing the course of someone's career. Invariably they are the ones that change it themselves, but you are influencing it or have a factor to play in it. So therefore it was very important from the whole Jim Russell Racing Drivers School ethos point of view as well as personally from myself that we made the right decisions and to try and take into account so many different factors, whether it be their experience, their age, whether it be just generally what they have been able to do in their lives up to that point in and out of racing.

We decided it was good to do two things. One to test them but also to give them learning as well and to give them some experience out of it and so we had various different things that we were checking them on. For example, we had a big strong karting section which is very strong at Jim Russell actually with one of the best kart tracks in North America. The skid school using the FJR-50 single-seater enabled us to see how they handled the car and some of these guys had never actually done a car race or anything like that having purely done karting.

To give them an understanding of it we had the Mitsubishi Evo on hand to see how they handled a heavy saloon car, how they reacted and adapted to it in a comfortable and controlled environment. We also had media and fitness training prior to them getting on to the magnificent Infineon track - initially on lead/follow to get them used to the circuit for the ones who didn't know it and then let them out on their own in small batches in the FJR-50 ‘school' car.

And when we say ‘school' car we were actually running it at its full horsepower settings so effectively over 300 bhp so this was certainly in full championship trim. It was really impressive to see because we had two Heats in the karting and then a Final - the latter was like a World Championship event!

In fact we had a couple of drivers that are at the top of their game in world level in karting and never mind drivers that have dominated their national championships whether it be in Germany, Australia, Switzerland or North America - it was really, really impressive to the point where I actually phoned my dad and said this is like a blast from 1986 when I was karting. When they got the FJR-50 out onto the circuit, I have to say it was a very difficult situation because the weather was so un- Californian.

It was drizzly and cold in the mornings. In fact at one point some of the drivers had to acquaint themselves with a new car [FJR-50] and a new track in very changeable conditions, the worst scenario you could possibly have. Sometimes not damp nor wet but a greasy ‘in between' stage and that was a very interesting factor for me to see how they would cope with those extreme circumstances - elements you get the further up the ladder you go.

Race conditions change. Sometimes you start in the wet, sometimes it becomes dry, sometimes it's the other way round and you have got to be able to adapt and understand and that's a natural feeling. You can develop some of the skills but some of it is purely natural and that was something that showed through.

Unfortunately some of the drivers ruled themselves out of the proceedings by crashing which was a pity. But that's the case in a race as well. If you crash in a race you don't make it to the end. If you don't make it to the end you don't win. So it was a really hard job to bring it down to 20 drivers after two days and then down to six for the final day which was a very tough decision.

We sat in a room debating for three hours on the merits of the different drivers and all the different things they had done. Their experiences and everything else we pondered over in our minds. What was very important for us was that we didn't just say ‘thank-you, you weren't selected, good-bye', we actually sat down with each of the drivers on a one-to-one basis. We showed them their data and information and all of the reasons why they weren't necessarily progressing.

Jim Russell is a Racing School and is there to develop drivers. Part of that is feedback and constructive criticism and to make sure that we can assist them in the early part of their career not just through the school but also a little bit of advice like career management on what they need to work on so that they can become racing drivers in their own right even though they weren't successful on this particular day.

Bringing it down to the last six, then to the two ultimate winners was probably one of the toughest jobs that I have to do in the last few years. I think it was one of the most emotional jobs as well. So many of these drivers was like a reflection of me at a similar age and they were all hoping for success but unfortunately we could only pick two but I'm very sure the guys we chose, Alex Ellis and Gary Carlton, are two real quality drivers.

Gary automatically put himself into one of the fully-funded 2010 Jim Russell Championship Series "seats" on offer by being the fastest on the final day with his raw talent. It was interesting because he came straight from karting. He is one of the best in the world in karting and the telephone calls I made only confirmed that he was an exceptional talent and an extremely nice guy plus a hard, hard worker. He didn't have any real car experience but he was quick and never made any mistakes.

Alex meanwhile had a fantastically bubbly personality. He was someone that was able to jump into a car even after a bad session when it hadn't run well for him and just forgot about it and got on with the next one. He was very positive and had a unique feel in wet and damp conditions that you do not see very often in a car with someone with such limited experience and so that's not to say that the other drivers weren't of that level.

There were eight to 10 drivers that could easily have slotted into those two seats and who were going to have a very strong career and move their way up the motor racing ladder. But with Gary and Alex, I'm very proud that they are the two that were chosen. We'll be able to work with them and develop them as racing drivers through the School and to give them that opportunity in the Championship that they wouldn't necessarily have had.

It's good to do that at some point in your career and also I've been very fortunate that I've been able to realise my talent and to achieve my goals and I was proud that with Jim Russell we were able to do that for some of these aspiring racing drivers coming through.

Returning from the Jim Russell event just before Christmas meant my ‘season' was finally over. 2009 was a hard, tough year - there's no question about it. We have had a lot of hard fights with Peugeot. In my Audi programme we have had a lot of testing, a lot of development, a lot of PR commitments with it being the 100^th anniversary of Audi. Also the launch of the Audi R8 V10.

It was a hectic schedule for the season. Even though I only did three races I actually did the same amount of travelling hours that I did in 2008 and 2007. I spent almost 30 full days travelling to events so it was definitely a busy one. It was therefore nice just to get home and relax and have Christmas to switch off, unwind and recharge the batteries.

I also had a birthday in between Christmas and the New Year with my wife, Kelly, and family organising a surprise birthday party which was really cool, in Dumfries. It was so nice to see people that I hadn't seen for a long time from home in Scotland although some had flown in especially. That was a real nice link into New Year or Hogmany as we call it in Scotland.

But now I'm eagerly looking forward to next weekend's Autosport International Show in Birmingham which always kick-starts the New Year into action. It's one of the world's biggest motorsport shows and certainly it's got a very strong karting presence to it.

Karting has been a very important part of my career but also I think an extremely important part of the fabric of racing and my old chum David Brabham has been very instrumental in creating a charity karting challenge at the NEC.

This year's race will be hard fought. An Audi Sport UK team features EP [Emanuele Pirro], Katherine Legge plus Alex Premat. We all know it's only for fun but as soon as the visor goes down then all that's to the side and you pick up exactly where you left off from the last race when you were fighting for the Le Mans victory or an ALMS championship or Petit Le Mans or something and I'm very much looking forward to getting into that.

I'm also looking forward to the testing programme with Audi and to hopefully a very strong and winning season in 2010. So I would like to just finish by wishing everybody a very, very Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings everything that you want and I look forward to seeing you in the pit lane soon if it's not at Autosport International.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

STILL HECTIC DESPITE LACK OF RACES . . . TESTING . . . STAG WEEKEND & WEDDING . . . AUDI FUNCTIONS . . . SMRC AWARDS . . . NOW OFF TO THE STATES . . .

2009-12-22T05:58:00+01:00

STILL HECTIC DESPITE LACK OF RACES . . . TESTING . . . STAG WEEKEND & WEDDING . . . AUDI FUNCTIONS . . . SMRC AWARDS . . . NOW OFF TO THE STATES . . .

Well, it has been quite a busy time since the Petit Le Mans race even though there’s not been any racing - I actually look back at the calendar and see that, to be honest with you, up until now it’s been no different to any other year in terms of travelling and various other things we have been pretty flat out.

I’ve been testing the R15 TDI in readiness for 2010. A big Michelin tyre test in Misano where there was pretty much all the important runners from the top categories that are running with Michelin. It was quite interesting because we could see Peugeot and have a little look to see how competitive we were in those conditions against them which seemed to be following on from Petit Le Mans pretty strong.

But during that time there has been a lot of social activities going on. A very good friend of mine, in fact I have known him since he was a young boy, Marino Franchitti, got married and before every marriage there is also a stag night. However this turned into a complete weekend up in Scotland. It also happened to be the weekend of the Scottish Rally so there was a lot of fun had by all, but certainly I don’t think it would be appropriate to be telling you too many details on this forum.

His wedding was superb. It was really cool because, like I said, I have known Marino since he was about five-years-old and obviously seen his career develop as well to the point where he is certainly marked out as someone I reckon will be going for championships in the next year or two in the American Le Mans Series.

The Audi programme also has been pretty extensive on the party front too. I had the Audi Finale which is where the 2010 plans were announced but also a time when we can look back at this year for all the members of Audi and some of the suppliers and partners.

As for 2010, I’m very pleased we’ll be doing the Spa 1000klms as a lead up to Le Mans 24 Hours and then after that the new Intercontinental Cup which is going to take in the Silverstone 1000km, Petit Le Mans and also a race in Asia at a venue still to be defined.

This Intercontinental Cup idea is a very strong one and I look forward to see the evolution of that in 2011 when I know the ACO are intending it to be much wider and stronger. So I would expect that all the challengers will be at all those races as well so I can see some pretty tough events coming up in next season. This is not video (thankfully for you!) it’s an audio blog but if only you could see the smile on my face as we speak about these races, I’m really up for that one.

Also the SMRC (Scottish Motor Racing Club), of which I’m President, has got a tremendous history. As you know, not just necessarily concerning only car drivers but motorcycle riders, engineers, and mechanics – we have strength in depth North of the Border.

It was really cool to see the current crop of guys coming up to support the dinner with David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti, myself and Paul De Resta in attendance. The only one I would say was missing, and who had a good excuse because he was on his honeymoon, was Marino. It was a very nice night with about 260 people present and if you think about it, when the rest of the world is in such a slump and economic struggles, the SMRC has been able to have full grids pretty much every single race and the actual annual dinner as well has increased in numbers by about 10% every year so they [SMRC] certainly must be doing something right.

I now have one little task to do which is going towards the Jim Russell Future Driver programme and I’m literally just leaving from Jewson, one of my personal sponsors events, to go straight across to the United States and look at 40 young drivers that I think we are going to be able to have a tough job of finding two candidates for the Jim Russell Future Driver Search programme that will lead them into two free seats in the Jim Russell championship in 2010.

When looking through the CV’s last night I can tell you there are some pretty quick kids in there and so I’m looking forward to seeing them get out on track at the Infineon Raceway north of San Francisco. But enough of that from me for now.

I look forward to speaking to you just before Christmas. I will give an update on how things are going but certainly the last few weeks have been pretty much a whistle-stop tour of Europe and I’m looking forward to a relaxing Christmas when it comes. See yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

JIM RUSSELL RACING DRIVERS SCHOOL . . .

2009-10-12T14:30:00+01:00

A racing driver's job is full-on and non-stop but nevertheless very enjoyable, and immediately after the Petit Le Mans race in Georgia I flew to California and the Infineon Raceway north of San Francisco for the Audi Sportscar Experience.

It's a programme organised by the Jim Russell Racing Drivers School which I'm also directly involved with. It was a five-day event at one of the most legendary tracks in North America. The guest list was very exclusive and it was basically about giving a masterclass and driving around the track in the excellent R8 V10 - arguably the best Audi roadcar.

Bringing you up to speed with my involvement with Jim Russell, the Future Driver programme has recently been launched. The aim is simple: to find a talented future driver. There is a run-off at the end of December where drivers will be assessed on every parameter of being a racing driver.

At the end of those four days, two drivers will be chosen. The theory is that one of them will be the more ‘complete' driver, in terms of ability, understanding the car, the feel of it after set-up changes for qualifying and in race conditions, race finishing positions over the four days, mechanical sympathy, integrating with the team and presentability as a young man or woman.

The second ‘seat' available is for purely and simply the fastest driver in the Final. Sometimes, and I've seen it through my career, a driver may not be particularly polished in all areas because of never having the experience, what I'd classify as a rough diamond, a driver that has natural feel and they just drive.

Then in 2010, those two guys get a free ‘seat' in to a 16-race championship. That will give them both the opportunity to develop and hone their skills. At the end of next season they'll have done a detailed and very specific job alongside the other drivers in the series.

The car (the Jim Russell FJR-50) has been purpose-built to be the ideal learning platform for drivers. It's based on the Lola B06-30 championship winning Formula 3 car and has up to 300bhp.

I certainly believe that we must adapt our education, if you'd like to call it, of young drivers. Right now there are certain countries in danger of losing out on the race grids of the future. In North America, there is a very, very good talent base but those guys, in the past, may not have been developed enough in their early years so that's why the Jim Russell initiative has been proactive in this particular structure.

Having said that, it's not just for American drivers - far from it. The initiative is open to everyone around the world. It's a programme I'm looking forward to being involved with and the nitty gritty of it. You can find more information and application forms are available at:

http://www.jimrussellusa.com/programs/championship-series/future-driver

See ya soon . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

BACK TO THE DAY JOB . . . CHARACTER-BUILDING TIMES AT PETIT . . .

2009-09-29T16:32:00+01:00

After making various trips around the world in conjunction with Audi celebrating their 100 year anniversary and also the launch of the R8 V10, it was back to my "day job". Prior to heading to America for the Petit Le Mans race, we had a three-day test at Vallelunga in Italy.

It was really cool to get back in the Audi R15 TDI. I hadn't physically sat in the car since the Le Mans 24 Hour race in June! So it was a case of jumping in and dusting myself off. Dindo and I completed three days of testing, trying to improve and understand the R15 TDI a little bit more so that when we arrived at Road Atlanta, we had the best car possible.

So at Petit, immediately before qualifying, we were very happy. However, when we got into qualifying, Peugeot took 1.2secs out of us and that was a shock and a big disappointment. It proved that as much as we'd moved forward, they'd moved forward as well, competition wasn't standing still. Acura had also made big strides since our last encounter with them at Sebring.

When the heavens opened on raceday, we weren't really sure whether it would play into our hands or there hands. Unfortunately we're not allowed quattro - if Audi's four-wheel-drive system had been eligible we'd have been singing and dancing. But the adaptability of the V10 TDI, the chassis and our traction control, meant that when it was wet in varying degrees, or on a drying track, we were in a very good position and be able to pull away from the Peugeot.

In fact, I was agonisingly within two metres of putting the second-placed Peugeot down one complete lap after just 1hr 30mins. However a full course yellow came out just as I was about to challenge him, for the re-start he was allowed to come all the way back around behind the safety Car so our advantage had been lost. We were then playing nip and tuck with them. Dindo had a very good stint after my opening stint and it was a real fight with our car and the two Peugeots with Marco {Werner] and Lucas [Luhr] a lap down in fourth in the "sister" R15 TDI.

The race had started on a very wet track which gradually dried through my stint and for Dindo. When I was back in the car just after the four hour mark we had some light rain which made the track surface very greasy. There was an incident bringing out another Safety Car period, there were seven in all, and I was trying to get some temperature into the tyres. It was a lot colder than normal, and the tyres were losing grip because of the slow speed we were doing. Unfortunately I looped it behind the Safety Car, a quick spin, nothing serious, didn't hit anything and continued in third place behind the two Peugeots when the race re-started.

The rain intensified so we all pitted, Audi before Peugeot, I was back up to second place, moments before I spun down to third again - by this time the rain was torrential. After a while under full course caution conditions, the race was red-flagged. Organisers had hoped to re-start the race but the rain just kept coming down for the next four hours while we kicked our heels in the Audi transporter and so it was ultimately called off with the positions remaining the same as at the point of the very last caution period - we were third!

It was the correct decision - it would have been unsafe to re-start - but an innocuous spin had cost us the win and left me feeling very, very frustrated. We had a car capable of winning, Audi Sport Team Joest were capable of doing the job, while Dindo and I had been running at the front. In normal circumstances we'd have fought our way back to the front I have no doubt and we may have seen a different result. But as they say that's racing, that's character-building.

Looking back on it, the race still gave us a lot of information on us, and also we were able to watch closely our main opposition. To see where they had an advantage, compared to where we were strong. We can go away and work on our weaknesses, and then try to reduce their strengths in readiness for Le Mans 2010. That's our key goal. However, we've a lot of testing and development to do before next June comes around.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

PETIT RACE IS CONFIRMED . . . SEARS POINT RE-VISITED . . .

2009-08-27T16:21:00+01:00

"I'm very pleased to announce Audi and myself will be returning to the Petit Le Mans race next month. Dindo [Capello] and I will be in one R15 TDI with Lucas [Luhr] and Marco [Werner] in a ‘sister' Audi Sport Team Joest machine to take on the might of Peugeot, Acura, Oreca and the others who are heading over to Georgia for this classic event.

Petit Le Mans wasn't on our calendar which had been restricted to Sebring and Le Mans this year. However, Audi Sport has been very strong in us continuing our race programme and indeed increasing it for this year.

We'll be looking to defend our Petit ‘crown' while at the same time looking towards the development of the Audi R15 TDI for Le Mans next year. It's clear that the competition has moved on a lot from Sebring. Acura has been developing its concept of their LM P1 sports-prototype so that car will be significantly more competitive than what we saw at Sebring in March. We can see by their race pace in recent ALMS races that it'll be a battle with them. Reliability could be a factor but I don't recall them breaking down in an ALMS race so that element is also impressive.

Peugeot will definitely be looking to redeem themselves after our very narrow victory at Road Atlanta last year. But we also want revenge. We're looking to redeem ourselves after our Le Mans podium. Third place was a fantastic result to achieve with our new R15 TDI, following our win at Sebring, but we always want more and on this occasion in France, we weren't in a position to do anything about it.

The Petit race will be great motivation for Audi Sport and Team Joest concerning the development of the R15 TDI. From a driver's viewpoint, we can dust off the cobwebs from the last couple of months of inactivity. But it also gives everyone a reminder that we are a racing team and that is what we do best. I'm really excited and pretty pumped up already about getting stuck in to the event.

After the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the PR trip to Japan and getting the Segrave Trophy in London which I spoke about in the my last newsletter to you, I went to Ingolstadt for Audi's 100 year Centenary celebrations. It was a massive event, lots of parties with major dignitaries attending including the German Prime Minister, Angela Merkel - voted by Forbes Magazine as the most influential woman in the world. She stood up and announced that her ‘private' car is an Audi - that was pretty cool. Not surprisingly Audi rolled out some very impressive past and present machinery.

But I'm now in California for Audi North America for the US launch of the Audi R8 V10. I'm at the Infineon Raceway and am looking forward to having another blast in the R8 - it's a stunning sportscar. It'll also give me the opportunity to look around the Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School facility here in Sonoma which I'm also involved with. The Infineon Raceway, or Sears Point as it was known, was the venue I scored my first win for Audi. Back in 2000. Driving an Audi R8.

All of these trips, functions, events have kept me very busy in July and August. But I'm really, really looking forward to getting back here to the States next month . . . as I think you can tell!

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Allan's Post Sebring Blog

2009-04-06T16:18:00+01:00

With the 12 Hours of Sebring just behind me, I must say that it's fantastic to finally get the 2009 racing season underway. It's been quite a long time since Petit Le Mans 2008, and since then we've been busy testing in Europe with the new Audi R15 TDI but also just planning our 2009 season.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Allan McNish Returns to Motor Racing Legends Dinner

2009-02-24T12:26:00+01:00

The Motor Racing Legends Annual Dinner, on Friday 13th February at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, saw the return of Allan McNish as guest speaker. McNish gave a thrilling from-the-cockpit account of Audi’s victory in the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours. The roomful of guests was held spellbound as McNish described the challenge faced by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and McNish himself – along with the whole Audi team – in setting their three-year-old Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype against the might of Peugeot. “At the Test Day,” he explained, “Peugeot turned up with a beautiful, slick new aero package and, in a nutshell, they were five seconds a lap faster. So we thought about it laterally: we had to try to wear them down over the course of 24 hours. “For the race itself, I qualified fourth on the grid, with three Peugeots ahead of me. At the start, I took a big risk because I had to be ahead of at least one of them by the start of the Mulsanne – for no other reason than to put down the marker: to say that for 24 hours we’re going to be here, we’re going to be nagging at your heels…” In a dialogue with Master of Ceremonies, Tony Dron, McNish described the early hours of the race, when one Peugeot had a problem, then another dropped out. “In Hour 3, I saw the pit board: P1 + 20. I thought then that if we did everything perfectly – 100% spot-on – every pit stop, every driver change, every decision, then we’d be in with a shout. At 4am, my rain dance finally worked and that’s when we had them. Because that was Peugeot’s one weakness; whatever they did to make that car fantastically quick in the dry, in the wet it didn’t work.” Genuinely modest, McNish played down his role during that wet spell, though he admits that his driving stint from 6am to 9.20am was “one of the hardest drives of my life”. And then, 15 minutes before the end of the race [McNish was now in the pits], “The heavens opened again and Peugeot made the wrong call…When the chequered flag fell, we had beaten the faster car with a clever strategy and good teamwork.” “And some really amazing driving…,” added Tony Dron. The Motor Racing Legends Annual Dinner has a history of fascinating and high-profile guest speakers, but this was the first time that the previous year’s Le Mans-winning driver shared his story. It was a great privilege and pleasure for everyone who attended. We wish Allan – and the new Audi R15 TDI – the very best for Le Mans 2009. New Motor Racing Legends Identity The annual black-tie dinner is always a highlight of Motor Racing Legends’ year and, as well as welcoming such a prestigious, fascinating – and remarkably modest – guest speaker, the evening gave Duncan Wiltshire the chance to share the latest news of the 2009 historic racing calendar. To mark the occasion, he was able officially to launch the new Motor Racing Legends brand ‘identity’. “Motor Racing Legends has come a long way since its origins in 1982,” explained Wiltshire, “and especially in the last seven or eight years. Our new, fresh identity reflects those changes and sets us up for the future; but, identity aside, there will be no changes to the way we operate, our dedication to the service we provide nor our enthusiasm for historic motor racing.”

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Season's Greetings

2008-12-20T10:00:00+01:00

Hi,

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Busy, Busy, Busy Since Petit Victory...

2008-11-28T16:34:00+01:00

I’ve been pretty busy since my final race of the season in Atlanta. I headed back to the US to be a part of the Audi Mileage Marathon two weeks after Petit, a two-week, 4,800-mile cross-country diesel challenge which saw over 20 diesel-powered Audis zigzag the US from New York to Los Angeles.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Petit Le mans Part 3 - The End!

2008-11-10T12:42:00+01:00

So I got back into the car when it turned dark with a couple of hours to go and at this point it was just a run to the chequered flag. We had basically two full stints to run and that was it for the 1,000 miles duration of this race. Peugeot were still out front with our sister car second. Then there was an almighty crash at a restart and I was able to get through it, but just through luck, not judgement at all. There were cars going in all directions and we came through and after that restart it was the most bizarre thing. Over the pit-to-car radio they gave me the race order: first it’s Werner, second is the Peugeot, third is Porsche, fourth is Porsche, and you’re fifth Allan!

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Petit Le Mans Part 2

2008-11-04T14:22:00+01:00

Race warm-up at 8am on Saturday morning was good. The car was quite nice if a little tricky in the opening laps. Then came the big hammer blow... That’s the only way to put it. When you’re feeling good, when you think that everything is going well for you, when you’re confident about your racing, suddenly motorsport can bring you straight back down to earth. It reminds you that it is the boss – I crashed the car on the way to the grid.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

PETIT LE MANS – PART ONE

2008-10-28T16:11:00+01:00

Sorry for the delay from my last newsletter but I’m still having to pinch myself after another big, big roller coaster ride that brought an end to my 2008 season...

Posted by in Allan's Blog

A SWEET, SWEET LE MANS SERIES VICTORY ON HOME SOIL... AUDI TAKE DESERVED CHAMPIONSHIP TITLES...

2008-09-22T15:53:00+01:00

Well it has taken me a week or so to gather my thoughts after the last round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone which was absolutely unbelievable. I don’t think anyone would have thought anything other than a Peugeot 1-2. I don’t think anyone would have not believed Marc Gene and Nic Minassian were going to win the Driver’s title and Peugeot to win the Manufacturers’. Let’s be honest, they’ve had a very, very fast car with Peugeot heading to Silverstone having won four out of four LMS races. So going into the final round we knew we had nothing to lose. But we also knew that while we weren’t the bookie’s favourites to take any title never mind a race victory.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Great Britain’s Olympic Games heroes... Nurburgring disappointment... Roll on Silverstone...

2008-08-26T17:20:00+01:00

Hello everybody and I hope you enjoyed the Olympics, and the 47 medals, including 19 Golds, that Great Britain brought home. It is a fantastic effort by everybody and shows all the hard work that UK Sport did in the past with the Elite Coach programme for example, who are really starting to reap rewards which bodes really well for 2012.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Busy, busy, busy... Nurburgring prospects... Dindo & I determined to claim LMS win...

2008-07-30T14:13:00+01:00

You may have thought I've been sitting at home since Le Mans with my feet up waiting for my next race at the Nürburgring. We'll you'd be wrong - big time.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

AT LAST MY SECOND LE MANS VICTORY IN WHAT WAS A TRUE “CLASSIC” RACE

2008-06-24T21:51:00+01:00

Sorry for the delay in sending this out but hopefully you will understand that since winning the Le Mans 24 Hours, it’s been pretty hectic. I think that anyone who witnessed this year’s Le Mans race, either trackside, watching it on Eurosport or listening to it on Radio Le Mans, will agree that it was one of the best races in the history of the race and motor racing in general, although I’m biased, it was a titanic battle for 24 hours between two big guns in sportscar racing.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

My thoughts of Ove Andersson

2008-06-13T17:10:00+01:00

Obviously the passing of Ove Andersson is very sad. He was really the stalwart behind Toyota’s racing programmes both

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Le Mans Test Wash Out... Imterviews & More Interviews... Whistle-stop to visit Scotland and Monaco... Race Thoughts...

2008-06-06T15:09:00+01:00

The Le Mans test day was a bit of a wash out. It was more like a January day at Croft rather than a June day at Le Mans. The weather from the first moment we got there looked very overcast, drizzly and rainy and then on Sunday itself, it effectively rained either lightly, medium or extremely heavily all day apart from a little period during lunchtime and for a 10-15 minute part of the beginning of the afternoon session where the circuit was predominately dry then it immediately rained again.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Testing times at Ricard... More LMS misery at Spa... Looking ahead to Le Mans test...

2008-05-19T11:36:00+01:00

We went directly to Paul Ricard after the Monza LMS race for a 30 hour endurance test where we simulated a complete Le Mans race. That’s quite hard because you’re working and pushing for that level of time but also because we’re the only people on the track so from that point of view we’re racing against ourselves – whether it be day or night. It’s also mentally draining for everyone and is possibly one of the least glamorous parts of our programme. However, it’s also one of the most important elements because this type of endurance testing reinforces our reliability and shows up any weaknesses that we may have that can be rectified in time for next month’s big race. Thankfully the test went well with no issues which was a relief to us all. Personally, my “issue” was that the first time I sat in the car was at midnight! Doing over 200mph down the straight at Ricard in complete darkness certainly wakes you up.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

DINDO AND STÉPHANE GET LUCKY... ANOTHER “RECOVERY” DRIVE FOR US... “SISTER” CAR ALMOST SNATCHES VICTORY...

2008-05-02T16:12:00+01:00

he second round of the Le Mans Series was at Monza and it’s a fantastic place to come to. To be honest Monza is a great circuit steeped in history and I enjoy coming here every single time. I don’t think you ever have a bad race at Monza just because of the nature of the place. In the respect of our race, though, it was definitely a little frustrating. We know the Peugeot is quicker. We know the Aston Martin is nipping at our heels and we know that the Courage, run by Oreca, is going to be very strong and certainly this race proved that it is getting there.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Disappointment in LMS Opener... Strong Competition.... LMS is bigger and better...

2008-04-09T09:37:00+01:00

Well, we’ve have the first round of the Le Mans Series in Barcelona. Everyone at Audi Sport and certainly us drivers just wanted to get on with it having known about this confirmed programme for a good while now. Dindo and I were especially looking forward to a new challenge after two championship winning seasons in the American Le Mans Series.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Sebring Misery...

2008-03-20T13:21:00+01:00

We knew that this year’s Sebring 12 Hours was going to be one of the hardest fought in recent years and so it proved. There were probably eight or nine cars, representing four different manufacturers, that had a chance of victory with Dindo, Tom and I being one of the candidates with us starting from pole-position. We had got pole in bizarre circumstances after qualifying was stopped after eight minutes or so following a big accident then ultimately the remaining time in the session was cancelled. Organisers then annulled the opening eight minutes of qualifying and took each car’s best time set in either practice 1, 2 or 3. My feeling is that everyone had an opportunity in those eight minutes of qualifying. Anyone that decided to wait, that was their problem if they hadn’t registered a time. Just the same as if by waiting, and the session had ran its course, they had set the faster times, then so be it. But that’s the way it was decided by IMSA and so despite being second fastest to the Peugeot at the time of the Red Flag, our #1 Audi ultimately was given pole for the time that I’d set in Practice 3. From the start of the race just after 10am, the pace was pretty fast and furious. The Peugeots were very fast, which we knew, but we were helped when they ran into reliability issues. So they still seem to have their little teething problems from Le Mans last year. They were very fast when they were on track, exceedingly fast at times, but they had reliability problems and long may that continue. Acura was also very strong throughout the race as were the similar LM P2 class Porsches. And us? Both R10 TDIs spent a lot of time in the opening seven hours at the front. Our car had a problem with the front right suspension which required a lengthy pit-stop to fix but importantly the car had been getting slower and slower caused by this problem in the couple of stints beforehand. It was hitting the ground. And around the bumpy Sebring track, that is the worst possible scenario making it tricky to drive. But after that, and the thing that really put the nail in our coffin was we had to change the front brake discs. I’ve been driving for Audi for a number of years, and in no time in my Audi career have we previously ever changed discs. So Audi Sport has returned to Germany this week to analyse why this should have happened. We’ll be looking at what happened and why. I think everyone in the team made mistakes at one time or another at Sebring – including myself. And now with the competition so strong and so stiff, both in America and of course in Europe with over 20 LM P1 cars, we cannot afford to make any mistakes at all – we have to be 100% all of the time or we’ll trip up. We’ve won a lot of races at Audi Sport simply because we have been 100% and because the car has been so reliable when others haven’t so we shouldn’t forget that particular fact. We lost over three laps on the leading Porsche due to the brake change. During the last part of daylight, into the evening and then darkness of the night we fought like mad to claw back the time. With cute work in the pits and some very quick laps by all three of us, we pulled ourselves back on to the lead lap but ultimately ran out of time to challenge the Porsche. We needed a full course caution to close up the field but it didn’t come along for us on this occasion. So it was another LM P1 class win and fourth overall at the chequered flag which became third when the second placed Acura was disqualified for a technical infringement. The #2 Audi lost time with a turbo change and also a brake disc change. Porsche scored a 1-2 and the second placed Dyson Spyder was driven in part by Marino Franchitti. It was Marino’s first race with Dyson and while I hate to be beaten by anyone, I’m very happy for Marino who drove very, very well. That’s an excellent result for him and I think proves Porsche made the right decision in suggesting to Rob Dyson they should recruit him. Looking ahead, we’ve got the next round of the Audi – Peugeot battle at the opening round of the Le Mans Series in Barcelona early next month. I’m really looking forward to it and can see we have a big fight on our hands. It’s going to be 1,000kms of full on attack. Barcelona is a great circuit. I think it’ll suit our Audi for half of the track and the Peugeot for the other half. They’ll also be a Pescarolo in the mix plus an Oreca Courage also up there fighting while I think the LM P2 cars will also go well there. Let battle commence for round two...

Posted by in Allan's Blog

12 Hours of Sebring Live on MotorsTV

2008-03-12T15:39:00+01:00

Motors TV is the channel to watch for European sportscar racing fans this weekend, and for much of the year, beginning with live coverage of the 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Fitness training is snow joke in Germany... Mass Legend... Good to be back in Europe... Sebring starts the race season...

2008-03-10T10:40:00+01:00

The last time we spoke it was just after Audi’s test at Sebring and soon after getting home, it was a case of packing the bags again and heading to Audi Sport’s Annual Fitness Training Camp. I thought it was tougher than previous years with us starting at 7.30am and finishing around 6pm. We were in Southern Germany, on the Austrian border, but there wasn’t a lot of snow about this year. Normally we’ll do cross country skiing from directly opposite our hotel but the lack of the white stuff forced us to drive 40mins, in to Austria, from the hotel to get some nice snow to ski on. The daily journey was a thrill a minute because I chose to ride with Audi’s DTM driver Martin Tomczyk, the best placed German driver in the 2007 DTM. The ‘problem’ was I think he felt he should have been a rally driver and attempted to emulate the likes of Hannu Mikkola each day! But that’s just another part of the team building.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Daytona disappointment... Wheels Down at Sebring... Europe confirmed...

2008-01-30T17:40:00+01:00

Daytona was ultimately a disappointment. We had a really good driver line-up and that combined with the SAMAX run Riley-Pontiac, should have allowed us to challenge for victory. We suffered bad luck in qualifying, Mike [Rockenfeller] suffering a broken throttle cable almost immediately. That stranded him out on the track and he had to repair it himself, which he did, but that only left time for a couple of flying laps right at the end.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Daytona confirmation sees in the New Year perfectly... Testing times in Florida... Autosport Show as enjoyable as ever

2008-01-14T19:12:00+01:00

My first newsletter of the year is being written in a Chinese restaurant near London Heathrow airport. I’m on my way back home to Monaco after spending the past couple of days at the Autosport International Show at the NEC near Birmingham.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Busy, busy, busy...

2008-01-03T12:02:00+01:00

Firstly, I trust you had a Happy Christmas and, as we say in Scotland, enjoyed a Happy Hogmanay . . . I hope I can look forward to your continued support in 2008.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

2007 Reflections... The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...

2007-11-30T15:24:00+01:00

Looking back at the 2007 season as a whole, I have to say that it’s been a difficult one in some respects but an extremely satisfying one in other ways. With the regulations for the LM P2 cars in America, on American circuits, and the might of Penske and Porsche, those elements combined to make it difficult for us (Audi) at times.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Always on the go...

2007-11-12T14:21:00+01:00

I head contented in to the winter months having wrapped up another ALMS title, having won the last two races outright, but also knowing that the opposition are not going to lie down during the close season which means we (Audi) must come out fighting in 2008.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

A Great Way to end a Title winning season

2007-10-22T11:40:00+01:00

I'm standing on the hotel patio here in Monterey, a few miles from Laguna Seca, the scene of our latest triumph when Dindo and I managed to pull it out of the bag again. Audi Sport North America is holding an end-of-season party, with a nautical theme, hence the Pirate outfit if you check my gallery!

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Petit Win, Title Success, Laguna will be tough, Colin McRae RIP

2007-10-09T09:41:00+01:00

Between the Detroit and Road Atlanta races, Dindo and I tested at the track in Georgia primarily for Michelin in terms of tyres for the 2008 season. But it enabled us to get onto the Atlanta track prior to the Petit Le Mans race which was beneficial because they’ve resurfaced it which has changed its characteristics significantly and I’m sure, looking back now a day or so after the race itself, that experience allowed us to attack on Saturday. The Petit Le Mans event was washed out at times, with heavy rain affecting the area – the locals enjoying the rare sight of rain after an extremely dry and hot summer apparently. Because of the rain disruptions in practice, it meant we entered the race not 100% sure of the right set-up we were attempting to achieve – or even how to achieve it more to the point. We started off in the 1,000-mile race with a car that didn’t handle particularly well – with a lot of overseer around the 2.54-mile track which features some very fast corners – and we needed to dial that out during the race. Despite this handling imbalance, we were always in contention, Dindo having started from the front row and then grabbing the lead going into the first corner on the opening lap. With some good work from our engineers and Michelin, we achieved a better balance – we dropped the tyre pressures a little and adjusted the aero balance of the Audi. By mid-distance it was nice to drive enabling us to attack and open up a gap over the chasing Porsche. But each time we’d built up a gap, something would happen – a full course caution or something – which would close up the field and often meant, due to the pit stop strategies, meant we were chasing them down. After seven hours, after some great driving in a previous stint by Dindo, I managed to hand the Audi over to him again with a one lap lead. But soon after Dindo rejoined the race, having retained the lead by around 21secs, another full course caution allowed the Porsche to make its pit-stop under yellows and get back on the lead lap again. When Dindo got in for the last time, I thought to myself that this was going to be a tight finish. After his final pit-stop, with both the Porsche and Audi fuelled to the finish and with only 91 miles to run to the chequered flag, Dindo trailed by 29.6 secs. That increased to 35secs before his tyres came up to temperature before he started to close the gap with every lap. But there was still time for more drama when a final full course caution closed the Porsche and Audi up leaving a 55-mile sprint to the flag. Sometimes a yellow goes for you, sometimes against you. We’d had three or four go against us but this one was certainly for us. When Dindo overtook the Porsche with 15-laps to run having chased him down, there was a lot of emotion and relief in the Audi Sport North America pit – most of it inside me! Despite getting ahead, Dumas in the Porsche remained with Dindo for what seemed like an eternity – threatening to get back ahead a couple of times. But at the chequer Dindo beat the Porsche by less than one second – after 1,000 miles and over nine hours of racing – unbelievable. It was an incredible race and one fitting of the 10th running of the Petit Le Mans. There could not have been a better race put on for the 100,000 crowd congregated at the undulating course. Dindo and I are both immensely proud to have scored another outright win for Audi in the Petit race – especially as we’ve been off the top step of the rostrum since the end of March – when Dindo and I won at St Petersburg. We’d been close in the last couple of races but for various reasons they’d gone away from us, but we nailed this one down. Petit is a massive event and there was no better way for Dindo and I to wrap-up our second consecutive American Le Mans Series Drivers’ title. My wife Kelly attended her first ALMS race of the season and now we’ll have some time back in Monaco before I head out to the west coast for the 12th and final round of the series at Laguna Seca next Tuesday. But we’ll start that four hour race with no pressure whatsoever on us. We’ve got absolutely nothing to lose with both Dindo and myself knowing we can both be very aggressive and also in terms of our car set-up strategy – it would be nice to go out on a high in 2007 – just as we did in 2006 for that matter. I’m sure this time around it’s going to be harder than 12 months ago. The LM P2 cars are going to be extremely fast around Laguna. I must end on a very sad note regarding the passing away of Colin McRae. Colin was a sporting hero in Scotland and throughout the world for that matter and to succumb to an untimely helicopter accident, especially one that also claimed the lives of his son and two friends, is absolutely tragic. It has certainly shaken us drivers and everyone within motorsport. His 100% attack attitude is something I can personally relate to very well. Colin will be sadly missed for sure. I attended the Memorial Service just before I flew out to Atlanta and could see first hand on the faces of those present just how much he meant to many of those present - not just those involved in motorsport but those from the Lanark community. Colin, you’ll be sadly missed but certainly not forgotten. Log on to http://www.allanmcnish.com/output/podcasts.asp for Allan's Audio Blog

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Not such a bad weekend afterall...

2007-09-03T10:13:00+01:00

Having visited the Detroit track a month or so ago, I knew our race this weekend would be tough. The concrete surface was very bumpy and many of the corners were pretty slow second or third gear ones – and first gear at times come to that – and that was never going to be the ideal scenario for an LM P1 car. And that’s irrelevant as to whether it’s a petrol or diesel engined LM P1 car. 925kg is a heavy weight to try to manoeuvre around – a bit like trying to ride a bike in your living room – basically a difficult situation and one I’d not recommend you try at home!

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Happy memories of Mosport . . . Big Scottish contingent . . . Road America heartache . . .

2007-08-23T20:19:00+01:00

Having come so close in the previous race, my mission for Mosport on Sunday, as usual, is to score an outright victory.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Visit to Detroit...

2007-08-09T17:51:00+01:00

Just a quick note before the next round of the ALMS in Elkhart Lake this weekend (11th August) about the Detroit Belle Isle Circuit.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Champagne put on hold after first lap drama at Mid-Ohio . . . I love Road America . . . I am gunning for victory

2007-08-09T10:16:00+01:00

The last time we spoke prior to Mid-Ohio, I told you that I’d hoped to be spraying the champagne after the race but unfortunately things didn’t work out. Certainly we were more competitive there than in the previous races compared to the LM P2 cars and I believed that our race pace would allow us to fight for the overall victory.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Lime Rock . . . not an ideal Le Mans tonic

2007-07-20T09:21:00+01:00

Dindo and I were unable to achieve the result we'd longed for after our Le Mans disappointment but in hindsight, it wasn't a big shock to us. The longer wheelbase and heavy Audi R10 TDI around Lime Rock was a totally different animal to the Audi R8 Dindo and I took to its last ever victory there 12 months ago, while at the same time, the competition has moved on leaps and bounds over the past year.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Pit Stop Practice

2007-07-17T13:09:00+01:00

Thought you might like this ...

Posted by Allan in Allan's Blog

Apologies... Apologies... Apologies...

2007-06-30T06:40:00+01:00

I'm afraid this is a rather short, delayed newsletter and one full of apologies so here goes . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

SUCCESSFUL LE MANS TEST . . . BRING ON THE BIG ONE – I WANT IT !

2007-06-11T11:20:00+01:00

The Le Mans Test Day is always a very important one because it’s the only time you can get onto the full circuit before race week itself. It’s such a unique track with very long straights meaning the engine works very hard. This year, Tertre Rouge has been slightly modified. This right-hand corner leads onto the famous Mulsanne Straight and now it’s significantly faster and is one gear higher which means we have a higher terminal speed which means it changes the characteristics and set-up of the car, the very latest 2007 spec R10 TDI, so this year’s recent Test Day was doubly important.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Monaco, Knockhill, London, Monaco...The build-up to Le Mans Begins

2007-05-29T11:25:00+01:00

I’ll bring you up to date with a few non racing activities I’ve been involved with in recent weeks before I start getting all intense and serious about Le Mans.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

MIXED EMOTIONS IN SALT LAKE . . . AN ALMOST PERFECT DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE RACE IN FRANCE . . .

2007-05-21T10:33:00+01:00

Heading to Salt Lake City was like coming back to a 'normal' track again which I think everyone was pleased about after three consecutive non permanent street races - and not just those of us connected with Audi Sport. Last year's race was after Le Mans in July. Dindo and I led until the final 20 minutes when Dindo collected a puncture which dropped us to fourth with EP and Frank (Biela) inheriting our win, so from that point of view we were looking forward to it. Computer simulations back at Audi Sport's facility in Ingolstadt suggested the LM P2 Porsches and Acuras would be very strong around the impressive 4.5-mile Miller Motorsports Park. There is a 0.5-mile start-finish straight and because of this fact, the general perception was that it would be Audi R10 TDI territory. But the track features 24 corners, many of which are slow, so you can see why it favoured the lighter LM P2 cars once again.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Reflections on Houston

2007-04-23T11:03:00+01:00

Writing this the morning after the Houston race, I have both a positive and negative feeling of equal balance. I’m positive because we were ultimately significantly more competitive on the bumpy and twisty Houston street circuit than we’d expected. My negative thoughts are because we should have won the race outright, rather than finishing third overall and first in class which means we’ve extended our championship lead.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Long Beach Reflections . . . A little R & R in Las Vegas . . . We have lift off for Houston

2007-04-20T17:45:00+01:00

Looking back at Long Beach I think the writing was on the wall quite early on during the race meeting in so much as it was going to be a very hard race for us. The last corner on the circuit there is more than likely the tightest and therefore slowest bend on any circuit that we race at in the US and effectively the Audi R10 TDI was designed primarily for Le Mans, with top speeds of top speeds of 215mph and average lap speeds of around 140mph, and that is the direct opposite of what Long Beach was all about.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

LONG BEACH AWAITS . . . REFLECTIONS FROM ST PETE’S

2007-04-11T12:49:00+01:00

I hope you had a good Easter. I managed to get some relaxation.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

MIXED EMOTIONS AT SEBRING . . . ST PETE'S WILL BE TOUGH - VERY TOUGH!

2007-03-28T10:35:00+01:00

Sebring, as I’d expected, was a fast and furious race. The performance of our competitors confirmed that a very tough challenge lies ahead this season from two angles; our Audi Sport North America team-mates are very strong as are the Porsche and Acura LM P2 cars.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Back in the office! my ALMS title defence begins on Saturday...

2007-03-13T09:47:00+01:00

By the time you read this on Tuesday I'll have my backside in the Audi R10 TDI getting some laps under my belt at Sebring ready for Saturday's American Le Mans Series season-opening 12 Hour race. I flew over yesterday and to say I'm excited and can't wait to get in the car again is an understatement.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

THE YEAR STARTS TO GET BUSY . . . THE FIRST TWO MONTHS IN REVIEW

2007-03-05T12:38:00+01:00

The start to this year has been a wee bit more relaxed than previous ones, for sure compared to 2006 when we had the new R10 TDI coming which made this time last year quite hectic. I guess the year got underway for me, in motorsport terms, when I attended the Autosport Show in January which I’ve mentioned in a previous news letter. It’s a good way to kick off a new season – it’s a great adrenalin kick – and always reminds me why I’m involved in motorsport.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Concluding my reflections on the 2006 season...

2007-02-19T12:36:00+01:00

Before I continue my concluding 2006 reflection story, I ought to point out that I’m coming “home” next weekend. I’m attending the Scottish Motorsport Show staged in Lanark on Sunday. The Audi R8 I raced in 2004 and occasionally in 2005 will be on static display in Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx colours.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Mosport Victory Earns ALMS Title . . . New TT Launch in France . . . Petit Le Mans Win Brings Back Alboreto Memories

2007-02-12T12:35:00+01:00

We arrived for the next race in Mosport, a circuit north of Toronto which is the fastest on the ALMS calendar, knowing that if we won and the James Weaver Dyson Lola was third or lower, Dindo and I would secure the Drivers’ title although we were fully aware that the Lola of Leitzinger/Weaver had won there for the previous two years. Due to Scottish weather, i.e. very heavy, persistent rain, the 20 minute qualifying on Saturday was cancelled so the starting grid took into account each car’s best lap time achieved in any of the three free practice sessions on Friday and Saturday which meant Dindo would start second.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Comfortable win in Portland... extraordinary powerboat experience with Jackie Hunt... Lap record and second position in Road America..

2007-02-05T12:34:00+01:00

I knew the Portland race would be difficult. The Dyson team had sorted the early teething problems of their new Lola while Porsche were fully on song while further rule adjustments meant that our LM P1 rivals were now 65 kilograms (143 pounds) lighter than us which would make our jobs even tougher. And qualifying confirmed our fears as for the first time since its début at Sebring in March, our revolutionary diesel sportscar would not start from pole-position. Dindo qualified third and EP fifth on the grid. But because the weight reduction change had not been given the mandatory 14-day notification, IMSA and the Dyson team agreed on a compromise which saw the two Lolas start the race with a minimum weight of 880kg – a net reduction of 20kgs.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

SALT LAKE DISAPPOINTMENT . .. R & R ON A HARLEY DAVIDSON

2007-01-29T12:32:00+01:00

A shorter diary piece from me this week as I was busy every day last week attending Audi Sport’s annual Winter Training Camp in Germany. So despite a few aches and pains, here goes . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

No Title

2007-01-22T00:00:00+01:00

Dindo and I went to Lime Rock with a little bit to make up for, in not winning at Mid-Ohio and of course at Le Mans, but determined to sign off the R8 with a win – no other result would have been worthy for one of the most successful modern day sports-prototypes. On reflection now, I think both Dindo and I pulled off some of the best laps and overtaking manoeuvres of the entire 2006 ALMS season in that particular race combined with some remarkable pit-stops – everything slotted perfectly into place to give the ‘Old Girl’ win number 63 from 80 starts. It was far from an easy win, we came from behind twice to secure one of my hardest fought victories. The Audi R8 has been intrinsic in my career, and for that matter for Dindo and also TK, Frankie, Emanuele and many, many others, a car that has taken us to a lot of race wins and also saved our lives on occasions so for me it was an emotional last lap at Lime Rock – anything but a victory would have been a huge disappointment for me.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Audi Confirms ALMS Title Defence . . . 2006 Le Mans Reflections . . .

2007-01-17T00:00:00+01:00

Just before I jumped on a ‘plane from Nice to Birmingham last Friday to attend the Autosport Show, I received confirmation from Audi Sport that I’d have the opportunity to defend my ALMS title with Dindo which is really great news.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Hot Houston Victory In The “Old Girl” But We Get The Cold Shoulder In Mid-Ohio

2007-01-08T00:00:00+01:00

I’ll be having a sentimental look at the Audi R8 on the BEN/MotorSport stand at the Autosport Show this coming weekend. It’s the actual car I raced in the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series and at Le Mans that year but also in which I scored a win at Silverstone in 2005. However, my last R8 races were actually last season – an incredible six years since my first R8 race.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Autosport Show Looms . . . Sebring Reflections . . . History Is Made

2007-01-03T00:00:00+01:00

Hope Christmas and the New Year went well for you. After all of the festivities, I’m eagerly looking forward to heading to Birmingham at the end of next week for the Autosport Show where I’ll be looking to catch up on the latest news and gossip. I managed to grab a few moments over the holiday period reflecting on last season as I want to get the first instalments of the 2006 review out to you so here goes . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

End To An Ultra-Successful And Enjoyable If Very Tiring Season

2006-12-21T00:00:00+01:00

Firstly, let’s get the formalities out of the way . . . may I wish you a Happy Christmas and hope you have a good Hogmanay . . .

Posted by in Allan's Blog

2005 - A Retrospective (Third and final part)

2006-02-09T00:00:00+01:00

After Lausitzring, Istanbul was next... A new track to everyone but we had all watched the GP and also got information from teams and drivers who had been there. The circuit is very good and for a new track, it has some nice quick corners and long straights, but it did not ideally suit our A4 DTM and we all struggled to get a quick car balance. In qualifying I made a stupid mistake and pushed too hard into the adverse camber first corner. Two wheels on the grass for 100 metres was the result and a 15th grid slot.Pity as the rest of the lap was mega but you pay the price for mistakes in this category. The race was wet with a major downpour on the grid and cars were flying off everywhere. So with a low starting slot I decided to pit early and came out on a clear track. This gave me the space to be the quickest Audi on track and a top 6 was on the cards. But when myself and Ekstrom pitted 8 laps from home for our last set something bizarre happened and this set of tyres had no grip, zero, and were 5 seconds off the pace of the previous sets, we dropped well out of the points. With Merc dominating the top positions, it was a real shame as we effectively lost the drivers, teams and manufacturers title right there. Personally, my goal of top 6 in the final standings went out of the window with my main opposition in this race scoring big points to my zero.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

2005 - A retrospective (Part 2)

2006-02-08T00:00:00+01:00

Back to DTM and Oschersleben... A circuit I knew from FIA GT in 1998 but somehow it seemed bigger and faster then. In reality, it is very slow and tight, a big karting track. Again, we were able to build on the strong run in Brno and qualify again at the front. The start was tight and after all the pit stops I ceded 5th position to my team mate Tom Kristensen who had stalled on the grid but was still in contention for the championship. Another strong points finish and things were going well.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

2005 - A retrospective

2006-02-07T00:00:00+01:00

Well as we go into 2006, I thought we should have a quick look back at 2005. In the end, it was an extremely busy year, between Sebring, Le Mans, DTM and finally the Le Mans Endurance Series, I did 16 races. That coupled with other commitments mainly with sponsors Jewson and Alexandre, continued UK Sport events, an amazing Autosport desert test with the Dakar VW Touerag and last, but certainly not least, the birth of our son, it was, well, hectic to say the very least…

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Get ready for the season

2005-03-15T00:00:00+01:00

At the end of the month Audi announced that Audi UK in conjunction with Audi North America Champion Racing they were going to be running two cars in the American Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hours, this meant that Tom Kristensen and I would join for the two long races which gives me a chance to defend my 2004 Sebring 12 Hours and to try and stop Tom defending his Le Mans crown, he sees it the other way about for some reason. So it was off to the USA for a test with the R8 in preparation for the Sebring 12 Hours.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Welcome to the 2005 diary

2005-03-10T00:00:00+01:00

I am sure like me, you are thankful that the long winter wait for the first race is over, for me winter has probably been one of the longest and I am glad to be sitting on an plane going to Sebring for the first race to try and repeat my 2004 victory.

Posted by in Allan's Blog

Goodbye 2004!

2004-12-28T00:00:00+01:00

I think in all sports the off season is the time of year for many awards ceremonies and the beginning of December is always very lively in the British Motorsport calendar. Firstly, the Scottish Motor Racing Club’s Annual Dinner, or “Bun Fight” as it is better known, took place in Edinburgh. Pretty much all past and present drivers go at this event, and this year it ranged from Jimmy Stewart, Jackie’s reputedly faster brother, to a young Sarah Playfair who has shown immense skill and determination both north and south of the border in Formula Ford. As you can imagine, it was one of the more “relaxed” awards evenings with the main speaker being a comedian - a breath of fresh air. I always try to make it up for this one because motorsport is building north of the border thanks to the efforts of the SMRC club, Knockhill Circuit and many individuals like High McCaig from Ecurie Ecosse who helped to sponsor my early career. However, I was surprised and I have to say quite touched when they called me up to receive Honorary Membership at the start of the night. Later in the evening it became very special when Sir Jackie Stewart awarded me with a Stewart Medal for Services to Scottish Motor Racing. There have been only two others given out and I am the only driver, so as you can imagine it will be cherished with great pride.

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New Challenge in the Bag for Next Year

2004-12-03T00:00:00+01:00

It is official; I am going to be with Audi again but this time in the DTM championship. It is something we have been working towards for a little while but was actually finalised quite quickly. Now I can just concentrate and prepare for the future and a change of category. I am really looking forward to this one. It will be a good challenge racing against some of my old friends and rivals like Mika Hakkinen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jean Alesi, Tom Kristensen , Dindo Capello, Laurent Aiello and Bernd Schneider, bit of an all star cast really.

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End of Season Travels

2004-11-16T00:00:00+01:00

After going back to Monaco and licking my wounds after Spa, which took a couple of days, I was off to London for Unipart’s famous Calendar re-launch. From the 70’s through to the 90’s it had been produced annually and became a collectors item. Now in 2004, Unipart felt it was time to link the old Unipart history with the new Unipart of today by, as John Neill described it, “growing new vines on old roots”. And with motorsport being so much of their past with the likes of McLaren in F1 through to rally with British Leyland, part of their presentation of the future was our sponsorship links which started this year at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

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End of Season

2004-10-04T00:00:00+01:00

It was a trip back in time after the win at Silverstone when I was asked to join the Toyota Motorsport Weekend in their European hometown, Cologne. The event was to celebrate Toyota’s involvement in motorsport through the years and all the various formulae’s - from Rally through Le Mans to F1 - that have been raced or rallied since Ove Andersson won the marques first world championship rally. I was driving my old 1999 GT1 Le Mans car that really moved the bar one level higher when it first came out.

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August, Not A Washout For Me!

2004-08-20T00:00:00+01:00

By this time of year usually everyone is very happy for the small holiday between races. In F1 there is a testing ban and a 3 week gap between events and the relief on the faces is evident. With a shorter programme in Sportscars and the mandatory reduction in testing I did not feel the annual desire to sleep for a couple of weeks. However, I took the chance anyway and went away.

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A good catch up is in order (part 1)

2004-08-02T00:00:00+01:00

Firstly, I want to apologize for my lateness with this diary piece. After Le Mans and the accident I had, I just wanted and needed to rest - after all it was a pretty big knock. Then just before Nurburgring my computer lost all my data - obviously I had not backed it up as often as I should have done so I lost everything!! Fun times!!!!!!

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A good catch up is in order (part 2)

2004-08-02T00:00:00+01:00

The following Monday, it was down to serious business again as the next LMES race was coming up. I had to go for examinations to check that I was fit enough to drive. I felt I was, but the doctors always have the final word. I had an afternoon of tests and then a further one that is being incorporated by F1 to try to get a baseline - so if someone has an injury they know where they are in comparison. I passed - thankfully - otherwise I would not have been able to race in Germany. It was quite nerve-racking waiting for the results, a bit like a school test…

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Another hectic month goes by...

2004-05-28T00:00:00+01:00

It has been a bit busy since my previous diary entry. It started with Monza for the first round of the new LMES championship. Monza is not so far from Monaco so some of my friends decided to take the trip up there. One of them, a certain Mr Stewart Davidson, asked for directions. I told him to “follow signs for Milan and then for Linate Airport and you will pick up the circuit signs from there”. He did follow them but a little too much to the letter as I received telephone call with the words “I am in Departures at Linate Airport, where do I go from here!! He did eventually reach the circuit and saw the race…

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En route for the next round!

2004-05-06T00:00:00+01:00

To carry on where I left off in my last diary piece after the Paul Ricard test, I took some time to relax in Monaco for a week or so, just training and catching up with a few things before going back to the UK for a short visit over the weekend. Then it was all thoughts on Le Mans and the pre qualifying test day the following week.

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No rest for the wicked!

2004-04-23T00:00:00+01:00

It was nice to be back winning races and I must thank all of you who wrote in with your notes of congratulations, they were all much appreciated. Straight after getting off the flight from Sebring it was back to work, well of sorts. I had to go into London and sign 70 books for a function I was going to at the Bahrain GP. I was then off to attend a Press Day for the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed which is on 25th, 26th and 27th June. There was a dinner in the evening, a long night’s sleep and then some fun driving up the hill the next day.

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Start as you mean to go on

2004-03-30T00:00:00+01:00

After Altlanta, I went straight to Sebring for my first race which was in the centre of Florida. It is always hot and humid and we expected temperatures of 30 degrees C with up to 80% humidity which is hard on the driver, car and tyres. The circuit is based on an old airfield and still uses one small part of the concrete runway which is very bumpy, the rest of the track has a great variety of corners and is one of the best tests for Le Mans for everyone. As an event, it is right up there with all the legendary drivers having raced there.

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Back on Track

2004-03-10T00:00:00+01:00

In my last diary I was impatient to get back behind the wheel for my first test session with Audi this year in Atlanta. Well, Atlanta was very cold with snow flurries. Nevertheless I enjoyed the track, Road Altanta is what I call a “real track” with fast corners, blind rises; everything a driver is looking for in a track to get some challenge and avoid an easy and boring drive. It is not an easy place to get back into the rhythm for a first test in the Audi, but I enjoyed the test session immensely.

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New Year new signing

2004-02-25T00:00:00+01:00

Firstly I want to apologise about not being more in touch since the New Year. I have been busy with many things, not least finalising my racing programme for 2004 but more of that later.

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December's Frenzy

2003-12-23T00:00:00+01:00

I cannot believe that the end of December is looming! Time flies … I am still as busy as ever and December is no exception to this. After my trip to Manila and to the UK to fulfil the last of my duties for Renault, I spent some time back in Monaco for some more training prior to the various parties. December officially starts the social Christmas season and this is the best season of all!

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Here, There and Everywhere!

2003-12-17T00:00:00+01:00

After completing a busy schedule of karting in Vienna and attending the Formula Renault UK Winter Championship at Donington in October, amongst other things, November proved to be equally eventful. I fulfilled some PR duties on behalf of Renault F1's title sponsor Mild Seven in the Philippines. It was an open-air Formula One exhibition in Manila which was held over a whole weekend.

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Season's End!

2003-10-29T00:00:00+01:00

Every time I head back to Japan it seems to be a little more â€˜westernised', which personally I find a little disappointing. The country has a unique quality second to none! Usually when I go there I have no hope of reading or understanding any signs and as a foreign visitor you simply have to fit in to the Japanese culture. When I flew in for the Japanese Grand Prix my first shock was seeing a Starbucks at the airport, the U.S. influence creeping in more and more! Not only was I amazed to see this establishment I was more astounded by the fact that it sold curried doughnuts!!!

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Jet Setting!

2003-10-10T00:00:00+01:00

At the start of September I attended the F1 test at Monza. It was a pre-Italian Grand Prix test and I didn’t drive but as it’s only a three-hour drive I went along to see Jarno and Fernando in action in the Renault. The team focused on tyre testing and with just two hours of running on the Friday I wanted to be sure I was up to date on everything prior to my running on the Grand Prix weekend.

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Hard work paying dividends

2003-08-29T00:00:00+01:00

The German Grand Prix was the usual hot and humid event! The temperatures tend to sit around the mid-thirties and as a race it’s pretty physical for the driver and hard on the car. We saw in last year’s race that Montoya had a longer pit-stop than normal and his engine boiled, ultimately costing him victory over his team-mate.

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Busy time back in Britain

2003-08-01T00:00:00+01:00

Having enjoyed a great time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed I took the opportunity while being in the country to catch up with a few friends and schedule some meetings. I then headed to Silverstone on the Wednesday night for pre-British Grand Prix preparations.

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Lapping up Barcelona

2003-07-22T00:00:00+01:00

I headed to Cologne on the way to the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring to catch up with some of the guys from Toyota who I worked with last season. It was good to see them again but it was back to work on the Friday morning in the two-hour test session.

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