Audi R8 Grand Am Debuts at Daytona 24 Hours

The Audi R8 LMS has been a force in European GT3 racing since its inception in 2009. Now it is finally moving across the pond to compete in the US in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The R8 Grand Am will compete for the first time at the 24 Hours of Daytona on January 28. The cars will be campaigned by two teams: APR Motorsports and Oryx Racing. 

Some changes had to be made to the R8 LMS to make it qualify for Grand Am racing. Power is cut from 493hp in the R8 LMS to 470hp or less because of the mandated air restrictor that the Grand Am series uses. The anti-lock brakes and traction control were also removed by Audi Motorsport because they are considered drivers' aids by Grand Am. There are also some minor aerodynamic changes to the front and rear diffusers, and there is a Grand Am mandated rear wing. 

While APR Motorsports and Oryx Racing are the first two customer teams in the US to buy the car, Audi says that it is already in negotions with other teams to sell more R8s in the US. The R8 Grand Am will compete in all 13 rounds of the series this year. 

"We’re looking forward to the Audi R8 GRAND-AM with huge anticipation, our customers and fans are really excited and since the ‘Roar before the 24’ test we’ve just been dying for the 24-hour race to start," said Stephen Hooks, President of APR. 

APR Motorsports will field Ian Baas, Dr. Jim Norman, Nelson Canache, Dion von Moltke and former Audi factory driver Emanuele Pirro as the team's drivers. Oryx Racing will use Humaid Al Masaood, Saeed Al and Steven Kane as drivers. 

Qualifying for the 24 Hours of Daytona begins on Thursday, January 26, and the 24 hours race will begin at 3:30pm Eastern Time on Saturday January 28. 

To clarify there are two sports car racing series in the US. There is the Grand Am Series that is owned by the France family who also control Nascar. The series highest class of cars are called Daytona Prototypes, which are based on a spec chassis and teams can put in a variety of engines. They race simultaneously with GT cars like the R8. 

The other sports car racing series is the American Le Mans Series, which is owned by Don Panoz who also creates the Panoz sports cars. This series uses the same rules as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a class win in the ALMS series grants teams an automatic invite to Le Mans. 

Source for car specs: Top Speed