Since it's 2006 debut, the Audi R10 TDI has raced exclusively in the American Le Mans Series except for the annual June trek to France for the big all-day race. This past weekend a pair of R10s campaigned by the Joest team made their first run in the European Le Mans series with a second place finish in season opener at Barcelona. The Audis were again competing against the pair of Peugeot 908 HDi coupes which won the European championship last year. The Audi of Dindo Capello and Allan McNish finished second to the Peugeot of Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gené. The second Audi and Peugeot finished 5th and 6th respectively. The Barcelona race, like most of the European races, was more of an endurance run with a length of 1,000km compared to the 2-3 hour sprints that make up most of the American series. Audi is planning to run both the full European and American seasons this year with Joest handling the duties overseas while Champion Racing campaigns the cars in the ALMS. Unfortunately, it appears that we won't be seeing the Peugeots stateside again this year. Hopefully they will at least come over to participate in the Petite Le Mans at Road Atlanta in the fall.

[Source: Audi]

After struggling somewhat in recent street races in the American Le Mans Series, the diesel-powered Audi R10 finally got back to the top of the podium on Saturday in St. Petersburg, FL. In spite of setting the fastest lap of the race early on, mechanical issues forced out the #1 Audi after 63 laps. The #2 car in the hands of Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr soldiered on and managed to cross the line just over eight-tenths of a second ahead of the Porsche driven by Romain Dumas. David Brabham brought the Acura ARX-01B that he shares with Scott Sharp home another five seconds back to take the third spot on the podium. The C6R Corvettes both completed their first race running on cellulosic E85 to take the first two spots in the GT1 class.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

Earlier this year when Audi announced their 2008 racing plans, they declined to commit to the American Le Mans Series beyond the opener at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Thankfully, just before this weekend's race, Audi confirmed that they will indeed run the full ALMS season with two of their diesel powered R10 TDIs. Audi has made clear that they are racing in spite of the fact that ALMS rules adjustments have given the smaller LMP2 cars an advantage over the LMP1s like the R10 and the Peugeot 908. Nonetheless, With Audi preparing to make a major push for their U.S.-market TDIs late this year, and the ALMS actively encouraging alternative fuels, they've decided to stick around in the U.S. series. Now, if Peugeot would just agree to leave the 908 here to run against the Audis we'd have some amazing races.

[Source: Audi]

When the American Le Mans Series held their annual winter open test session at Sebring last week a newcomer showed up for the party. Peugeot brought over one of the 908 HDi diesel race cars that dominated the Le Mans racing series in Europe in 2007. Peugeot is apparently testing the waters to determine if they want to take on the Audi R10s on US tracks. While nothing is official yet, things are looking promising. Peugeot managed to set the fastest overall lap time of the three-day test session at 1m 42.801s, over eight-tenths of a second faster than the Audi. Peugeot will be making an announcement on February 15 about what their 2008 racing plans will be and whether that will include the full ALMS series.

[Source: Peugeot]

After some earlier speculation that Audi might scale back their 2008 race program for the R10 TDI, the Ingolstadt brand has just announced their plans for next year. The R10 has been lacking in competition in the LMP1 category although the LMP2 Porsches and Acuras have given them a serious run this year including multiple overall victories in the ALMS. The fans' worries were all for naught. The R10s will be back for a third full season in the American Le Mans Series and will also contest the Le Mans Series in Europe. In addition, three of the R10s will show up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. This will give the Audis the opportunity to run the full European racing series against the Peugeot 908 HDis.

[Source: Audi]