What better way to bring out a new generation of car than a win at one of the most prestigious races in North America? Audi did just that by winning the GT Daytona class at the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona with only a 3.048 second margin over the second place car. In one of the most exciting and close cut finishes I’ve ever personally watched, the #44 Magnus Racing LMS R8 danced with the race car gods in what some call luck and some call excellent strategy. Coming out of the famous “bus stop” turn and into the high NASCAR banking the car started to sputter and lose speed, the crews look of despair showing that they weren’t sure what was going to happen. Once the R8 came around the banking and regained level ground, driver Rene Rast was able to power the car through the final straight and claim the class victory.
Unfortunately the other new R8’s didn’t do quite as well. The #9 Stevenson Motorsports LMS R8 started dead last and clawed their way back to a respectable #8 finish. Its sister #6 car was able to hold the lead in the GTD class at several points, unfortunately it was plagued with a few issues and was only able to manage a #14 finish in its class. The #45 Flying Lizard Motorsport/Krohn Racing R8 met its fate late into the race, around the 20 hour mark it was hit by a prototype class car, pulling the car from the race.
If you want to see more of these cars be sure to check out our photo gallery and be sure to watch them duke it out again at the 12 hours of Sebring on March 19th. If photos don’t satisfy your thirst for the new R8, head to your local Audi showroom where you can purchase the street car version of these impressive masterpieces which happen to share roughly 50% of the parts with each other.
