Audi UK First to the Flag at Silverstone
1000kms
16 August
2004
The Audi Sport UK R8 of Allan McNish and Pierre Kaffer took
a comfortable win in the 1000km of Silverstone, the third round of
the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series, on Saturday 14th August. It was
the pair's second win of the season giving them the lead in the drivers
chamionship. This despite qualifying behind the Zytek 04S of Robbie
Kerr and Chris Dyson which looked like being the stronger car at the
Northamptonshire circuit.
The stealthy black Zytek qualified a clear 1.7 seconds ahead of the
#88 car of Johnny Herbert and Jamie Davies, which in turn led
the McNish/Kaffer #8 by half a second. The early promise of the Zytek's
lead lasted the first hour, dropping to second position after its initial
pit stop.
A move by Kerr around the outside of Kaffer in the Audi regained
the lead, but the car then suffered a collision with the Lister Storm
being driven by Justin Keen. Dyson then took over the car, only to
be involved in another incident, leaving them to finish fourth, ten
clear laps ahead of the dayglo Nasamax Judd in fifth, and the seconf
Zytek in sixth place. The unfaltering reliability of the R8s provided
an all-Audi podium at the end of six hours racing, Kaffer and McNish
finishing a lap ahead
of the Team Goh R8 of Seiji Ara and Rinaldo Capello. Davies and Herbert
took the bottom step a further lap down after a late pit-stop for
tyres dropped the UK car from second place.
In LMP2, the Courage C65 AER of Jean-Marc Gounon, Alexander Frei and
Sam Hancock finished seventh overall for their second class win of
the year. The Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 driven by Pedro Lamy,
Christophe Bouchut and Steve Zacchia came in ninth to continue their
100% class-win run in GTS, with Stephane Doudi and Rman Rusinov heading
the GT class in their black Ferrari 360.
The closing round of the Le Mans Endurance Series is the 1000km de
Spa in Belgium on 10-12 September.
See series
calendar for the Le
Mans Endurance Series 2004
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