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04 October 2008 | Posted in News
Allan McNish lines-up his diesel-engined Audi on the front row for today’s (SAT) Petit Le Mans endurance sportscar race at Road Atlanta.
The 38-year-old former triple American Le Mans Series champion, unexpectedly drafted in to strengthen Audi’s American squad for the 1,000-mile race, set a personal fastest time of 1min 6.327secs, an average speed of almost 138mph, around the 2.54-mile track in Georgia.
McNish held provisional pole-position until the final five minutes of the 25mins time trial, the Scotsman ultimately denied “pole” by the Peugeot of Stephane Sarrazin (1:6.242) by a scant 0.085secs – both cars almost three seconds under the race lap record.
“Eight hundredth’s of a second is the closest we’ve ever been to the Peugeot in qualifying all season and historically our Audi is able to run closer to the qualifying times than them,” commented McNish.
“I was on pole throughout, improving my time four times, until Sarrazin just pipped me. But we’ve a very good car for the race and they [Peugeot] are under extreme pressure.
“Audi has already won the Le Mans 24 Hours race plus American Le Mans Series and the European-based Le Mans Series titles this year.”
Britain’s Le Mans 24 Hour race winner drives an R10 TDI alongside regular co-driver Dindo Capello and fellow Italian Emanuele Pirro bidding for his fourth “Petit” victory from four starts. The “sister” Audi Sport North America entry of German duo Lucas Luhr/Marco Werner starts from third position (1:6.818). The race begins at 4.15pm on Saturday afternoon (BST).
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