[[email protected]]

Not surprisingly Audi won. They have a ridiculously strong car and team and won their third LeMans in a row (with the same driver team, a first ever.). <P>Rickard Rydell was there in a Prodrive built Ferrari. He managed pole position for his class and was leading his class when he was forced to retire due to mechanical issues with the car.

 

[Carl Sims]

I saw most of the Speedvision action. Audi really is in a league of their own right now with the R8. I hear that they won't run factory teams after this year and VW will turn their attention to the Bentley entry. It will interesting to see how or if they can catch up.<P>I was disappointed to see the Prodrive entry fail. They were clearly the quickest car in GTS and would have beaten the C5s by a large margin save the electrical problems. Hopefully they can get control of the gremlins and get a win or two. Those 550s are awesome looking cars.

 

[[email protected]]

Between Audi and Joest, they definitely have the best game in sports car racing. I've heard the same rumors, but I've spoken to Len Hunt (VP of Audi America, the main funder of the R8 program except for Le Mans), and he said they're VERY positive about sports car and supporting the ALMS. Now that could just be hinting at supporting a strong independent program, but you have to wonder.... at least for Le Mans, I wonder...has any manufacturer ever won four in a row? I could see Audi trying to do that.<P>There's always Formula 1 also, but I don't think the VW Group cares to drop that kind of cash right now.

 

[Carl Sims]

I remembered reading in the past that Bentley had won four in a row when the series began, but according to <A HREF="http://www.lemansclassic.com" TARGET=_blank>www.lemansclassic.com</A> , Bently won the first five.<P>Do you think that VW would want to leave this record intact now that they own Bentley?<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by [email protected]:<BR><B>Between Audi and Joest, they definitely have the best game in sports car racing. I've heard the same rumors, but I've spoken to Len Hunt (VP of Audi America, the main funder of the R8 program except for Le Mans), and he said they're VERY positive about sports car and supporting the ALMS. Now that could just be hinting at supporting a strong independent program, but you have to wonder.... at least for Le Mans, I wonder...has any manufacturer ever won four in a row? I could see Audi trying to do that.<P>There's always Formula 1 also, but I don't think the VW Group cares to drop that kind of cash right now.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><p>[This message has been edited by Carl Sims (edited 07-13-2002).]