Emanuele Pirro is an Italian racing driver who has raced in Formula One, touring cars and in endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans which he has won a total of five times. Two times Italian Karting Champion, Formula Fiat Abarth Champion (1980), two times Italian Touring Car Champion, two times Italian Overall Champion and German Touring Car Champion (1996), he also achieved records in endurance racing that place him amongst the best in the discipline, including; five wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two times ALMS Champion, two times winner of the 12 Hours of Sebring, three times winner of Petit Le Mans, winner of the 24 Hours Nürburgring (1989), two times winner of the Macau Guia Race and two times winner of the Goodwood RAC Historic TT. He has taken part in over 500 official national and international races.
Allan McNish is a British former racing driver, commentator, and journalist from Scotland. He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2013, as well as a three-time winner of the American Le Mans Series, which he last won in 2007. He won the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2013. He has also been a co-commentator and pundit for BBC Formula One coverage on TV, radio and online and was team principal of the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Formula E team.
Christijan Albers is a Dutch former professional racing driver. After success in the DTM he drove in Formula One from 2005 until the 2007 British Grand Prix, shortly after which he was dropped by the Spyker F1 team. In 2008, he returned to the DTM series as a driver for the Audi Futurecom TME team. Albers acted as Team Principal and CEO of the Caterham F1 Team from July to September 2014 after it was acquired by new team owners. His estimated net-worth is $50 million
The Audi R8 is a Le Mans Prototype sports-prototype race car introduced in 2000 for sports car racing as a redevelopment of their Audi R8R and Audi R8C used in 1999. In its class, it is one of the most successful racing sports cars having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005, five of the six years it competed in total. Its streak of Le Mans victories between 2000 and 2005 was broken only in 2003 by the Bentley Speed 8, another race car fielded that year by Volkswagen Group.
Frank Stanley Biela is a German auto racing driver, mainly competing in touring cars and sportscar racing. He has raced exclusively in cars manufactured by the Audi marque since 1990.
The 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans was an automobile endurance race held for Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars from 15 to 16 June 2002 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, close by Le Mans, France. It was the 70th running of the event, as organized by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. A test day was held five weeks prior to the race on 5 May. The No. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest car of Tom Kristensen, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won the race overall and Audi's third consecutive victory in Le Mans, extending back to the 2000 event.
The 2001 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 69th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 and 17 June 2001.
The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team went on to win six driver and team championships in the American Le Mans Series, becoming a Porsche factory team and Porsche Motorsport North America's development partner from 2007 to 2012. The team helped develop the first- and second-generation 997 GT3 RSR as well as bring it to victory several times in its six-year run in the series. The team solely raced Porsche cars from 2004 to 2019, becoming a staple in the Porsche racing community.
The 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 76th Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place on 14–15 June 2008 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The test day was on June 1. The race was attended by 258,000 spectators. The Audi team's progress and victory was documented in the 2008 film Truth in 24.
The 2000 Race of a Thousand Years was an endurance race and the final round of the 2000 American Le Mans Series. It was run on the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia on New Year's Eve, 31 December 2000. The race was run on the full 3.780 km (2.349 mi) Grand Prix circuit used by Formula One for the Australian Grand Prix between 1985–1995, rather than the shorter 3.219 km (2.001 mi) Supercars version of the circuit used since 1999. The Race of a Thousand Years was intended to be run for 1000 kilometres but was stopped short due to time constraints, two hours before midnight, after completing 850 kilometres.
The 2008 American Le Mans Series season was the 38th season for the IMSA GT Championship, with the tenth season known as the American Le Mans Series. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Tourer (GT) race cars divided into four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began March 15 and ended October 18 after eleven races.
The 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 77th Grand Prix of Endurance, an endurance auto race run over 24 hours. It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and was organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) over 13–14 June 2009 and was started by Fiat and Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo at 15:00 local time. A test day was initially scheduled for 31 May that year, but was canceled by the ACO due to economic concerns. The race was attended by 234,800 spectators.
The 2010 8 Hours of Le Castellet was the inaugural round of the 2010 Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France on 11 April 2010. It was the first Le Mans Series race that is longer than the standard 1,000-km distance the LMS use since the 2007 Mil Milhas Brasil. Audi Sport Team Joest won the race overall in their first use of the Audi R15 TDI in the Le Mans Series, with drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello. Aston Martin Racing and Rebellion Racing completed the overall podium five laps behind the winning Audi. Strakka Racing also brought Honda Performance Development a win on their debut in the LMP2 category, leading the OAK Racing Pescarolo by 33 seconds. Applewood Seven won the Formula Le Mans category, the first event in which this class participated in the Le Mans Series. Team Felbermayr-Proton dominated the GT2 category by finishing in the top two positions, ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris.
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing was a motorsports group from Indianapolis, Indiana. The team was founded in 2007 by CytoSport co-founder and former IMSA GT Championship driver Greg Pickett. Since 2007, Pickett's team has competed in the United SportsCar Championship, the American Le Mans Series, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge. The team officially closed in 2014.
The Audi R10 TDI is a sports prototype designed and built by Audi in partnership with Dallara. Built to the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) regulations, the R10 was highly successful throughout its career; the R10 became the first diesel-powered car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2006, in what would be the first of three 24 Hours of Le Mans wins. Unveiled to the public on the 13th of December 2005 in Paris, the R10 would go on to win the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans just 200 days later.
Lucas Luhr is a German BMW factory racing driver, currently competing for BMW and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the GTLM category of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
Marcel Fässler is a Swiss retired racing driver. From 2010 to 2016 he competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship as part of Audi Sport Team Joest with co-drivers André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times and capturing the World Endurance Drivers' Championship in 2012.
Mike Rockenfeller, nicknamed "Rocky", is a German professional racing driver and was an Audi factory driver competing in the DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship. He won his first DTM title in 2013, driving for Audi Sport Team Phoenix. He also won the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Rinaldo "Dindo" Capello is an Italian professional racing driver. He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with Bentley in 2003 and Audi in 2004 and 2008. Capello is a two-time American Le Mans Series champion, a five-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner, and the record holder for most wins at Petit Le Mans, having won five times. Capello has also raced in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the FIA World Endurance Championship, DTM and the Italian GT Championship.
Timo Bernhard is a former driver from Germany. He was a sports car driver from Porsche, but was seconded to Audi for selected events in 2009 and 2010. He is the ninth and most recent driver to complete the informal triple crown of endurance racing. On 29 June 2018, he became the first person in 35 years to break the all-time Nürburgring Nordschleife lap record, set by Stefan Bellof in 1983 with a Porsche 956, in a derestricted Porsche 919 Evo with a time of 5:19.546.
