 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Success is not a question of luck |
|
|
Eleven wins at the world’s toughest car race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, are not a coincidence. Reinhold Joest’s team is the most successful sportscar team of the last twenty years. |
|
|
The wins are a product of hard work and a huge amount of experience from which the team form the Odenwald region near Frankfurt, can draw on. Reinhold Joest has achieved what many others attempted in vain: The step from successful racing driver to successful team boss.
Joest succeeded in mounting the winners’ rostrum as sports car driver himself in Le Mans. However, his team, established in 1978, celebrated even greater achievements. In the 1980s and 90s Joest racing set the standards sportscar racing. The team won the long distance classics in Daytona, at the Nürburgring, in Le Mans, Sebring and Road Atlanta. The Supercup, the Interseries, the ALMS. The first excursion into touring car racing was crowned by success: Joest Racing won the International Touring Car Championship (ITC) with an Opel Calibra in 1996.
Exactly as in the Audi R8 project, Joest Racing was also integrated during the development stage of the Class 1 Opel. "We were always more than just a pure race team”, says Team Director Reinhold Joest. "Our partners have always benefited from our input and know-how.”
It is no secret that Reinhold Joest has always had a weak spot for Sports Prototypes, such as those racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). That’s why Joest was the perfect partner for Audi when the company based in Ingolstadt decided to design and build a racing sportscar for Le Mans. Audi Sport in Ingolstadt and Joest Racing has made the perfect team since 1998. "The joint successes at Le Mans and in the ALMS are the product of perfect team work”, says Joest.
The team’s strength lies in the years of experience. The heart of the team was already in the thick of the action during the first Le Mans victories. In Managing Director Ralf Jüttner, Joest Racing has one of the most experienced engineers with enormous sportscar expertise.
After two season in the DTM, Audi Sport Team Joest returned to sports car racing in 2006 - and to Le Mans. With success: With the first victory of a diesel engine at the Le Mans 24 Hours the team wrote another chapter of motorsport history. In 2007 and 2008, the team repeated the victory with the Audi R10 TDI. In 2008 Joest Racing also won the Le Mans Series with Alexandre Prémat and Mike Rockenfeller.
The Audi R10 TDI will be followed by the R15 TDI starting in 2009. In this project as well, Audi and Joest Racing are fighting side by side and are rewarded in 2010 with a 1-2-3 triumph at Le Mans. |
|
|
