Audi RS 6 wins Manufacturer's Championship!!

[jimmy94507]

Randy Pobst and Michael Galatti just finished 1st & 2nd in the SCCA Speed World GT race in Puerto Rico. In doing so, Randy wins the driver's Championship and Audi wins the manufacturer's Championship. What a success story for a new car and a tremendous effort and commitment from Champion Racing!!

Regards, Jim

[Erik]

Puerto Rico: Sunday Race Report - Sunday, October 26, 2003 at 10:30
Randy Pobst and Audi claimed the Driver’s and Manufacturers’ 2003 Speed GT World Challenge titles in magnificent style today (26 Oct).

Pobst started his Audi RS 6 Competition from pole-position and led the series concluding 36-lap race in Puerto Rico from start to finish.

Meanwhile outgoing champion Michael Galati brought his similar Audi Sport North America supported RS 6 home a season-equaling best second place, 1.324-secs behind his Champion Racing team-mate at the checkered flag in the 45-minute race.

Pobst had scored the Audi RS 6 Competition’s first race win at Road Atlanta in the previous round and arrived at the temporary 1.6-mile, 10-turn Isla Grande Airport circuit knowing fourth place or better would earn him title honors.

An additional point from his third “pole” start in the 10-race series meant Randy needed only a fifth place finish to beat BMW rival Bill Auberlen to the Driver’s “crown” as the cars lined-up on the 20-car grid in cloudy but hot (81°F) weather conditions.

But all these calculations proved academic when “Randy the Rocket” blasted in to the lead and duly swept serenely toward a second consecutive, text book victory to wrap up the championship with Auberlen a distant fifth - 9.5-secs behind winner Pobst who also set the fastest race lap for a “clean sweep”, prefect weekend.

Galati, third on the grid, also used his all-wheel-drive quattro traction at the standing start to spear in to second place before Turn 1. Never more than three seconds behind his team-mate, 2000 and ’02 GT champion Michael finished the year off in good form after suffering from early season plain bad luck.

The Champion Racing team, supported by local Puerto Rican Audi dealership, Gomez Hermanos Kennedy for this race, switched from the ultra-successful S4 sedan - which earned Galati two Speed GT Driver’s titles and Audi a Manufacturers’ championship title between 2000-2 - to the much larger RS 6 sedan for this season.

Despite a mere 15-week racecar build last fall and hardly any pre-season testing, the all-wheel-drive, 4.2-liter V8 bi-turbo Audis have proven to be a worthy successor to the S4 Competition model. Between them, Randy and Michael achieved two wins; three seconds; six thirds, and 13 top-10 race finishes in total from 11 front row race starts.

[Erik]

That calls for some new pictures from Puerto Rico.

Looks like a hot place...

http://www.rs6.com/pics/Various/Champion-RS6-30.jpg

http://www.rs6.com/pics/Various/Champion-RS6-31.jpg

http://www.rs6.com/pics/Various/Champion-RS6-32.jpg

http://www.rs6.com/pics/Various/Champion-RS6-33.jpg

[Bauer]

AHHHHHHH some nice braggin rights:D :D

A four door sedan that beats "performance" car in their race set up. You gotta love it:cheers: :addict:

[nene]

That is way too cool.

Thanks for the write up and the pix.

[iconcls]

Really awesome.

[ZCD2.7T]

W00T!!!!! :cheers: :addict: :race:

It's really great to be able to share in the fun of watching (well, following online, anway) the march of Champion and the RS 6 to the respective titles. I'm glad I'm not the only one who checked world-challenge.com for details as soon as I could get to my computer this morning.

I'm only bummed that I don't get Speed Channel (thanks for nothin', Comcast) and that the race won't be broadcast until 11/15 @ 5:00pm. I guess I'll have to continue to research my soon-to-be Big Screen TV @ Circuit City when the broadcast is on, so I can watch the whole thing on HDnet, too!!

MAJOR kudos to Champion for putting together such a competitive car in such a short time, and to Pobst, who was the model of consistency all year!

Won't it be great for all you RS 6 owners to gloat when speaking to BMW/Vette/Viper/Saleen owners!?!?

Tomorrow's RS6.com Headline:
"Big pig of a sedan whomps 'em all!!" ;)

Great stuff!!

[Benman]

A MAJOR congratulations to Champion Audi for their victory!!!:cheers: It is almost unbelievable that dispite some bad luck they were able to come back a clinch the championship!!! WOW, that a big 4 door with only weeks of development versus cars like Porsche and Corvette (not to mention the Vipers!) who were BUILT to race, could pull it off... Again awesome job Champion. Their name is definately MOST fitting!!!:cheers:

Ben:addict: :addict: (And YES, let the bragging BEGIN!!!:cheers: )

[milkandjuice]

This may seem like a weird question, but are they running manual boxes in those beasts or modified standard. It's just I'm in Oz and hard to follow those competitions thats all.

Thanks

[Bauer]

Manual in the race cars

[Finnus]

:cheers: Cheers to Champion Motors and Randy Pobst!!! :cheers: These guys really came through. It's too bad about Galati's string of bad luck...

Finnus
:addict: :addict: :addict: