Oryx Racing will miss the next few races of the 2012 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series as we are taking time to focus on a testing and development programme for the Audi R8 Grand-Am car. The team are targeting a return to competitive racing at Watkins Glen, June 29 – July 1.
In the opening two races of the season, the team experienced a number of challenges racing the Audi, which has been designed and built to comply with the 2012 Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car series. The R8 Grand-Am is new to U.S racing, having made its competitive debut at Daytona in race one of the season, and with Oryx having very little opportunity to test the car prior to the start f the season.
Humaid Al Masaood said: “The first two races in our debut season in this prestigious race series were great experiences, and we were pleased to complete both. However, we are in this for the long haul, to be as successful as possible, so we took the decision that at this stage it would be better to invest the time and resources in ensuring we have a competitive car. Both ourselves and Audi are committed to putting a car on the track that is capable of winning. While we are not there yet, we are looking forward to seeing the benefit of this programme when we return shortly,” he added.
Over the coming weeks the team will work closely with Audi to make the car more competitive. The team will also cooperate with the organisers of the Grand-Am series to look at the regulations currently in place, which limit the R8′s ability to challenge the leading cars. “The car is similar to the hugely successful Audi R8 LMS that races in Europe” noted Number 2 driver, Steven Kane, who will lead the development work; “however the Grand-Am regulations mean we cannot run the same aerodynamic package as the LMS car and this has made the car quite a handful in the races we have done so far. We are working with Audi to develop the car to to make it competitive within the regulations.”
“We are going to miss racing at the next few rounds as the atmosphere at Grand-Am races is fantastic” noted Masaood, “but we are committed to a future racing in the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and we know the Audi R8 can be a great race car – next time you see us on track we hope to be able to demonstrate just how competitive both the R8 and Oryx Racing are.”
Source : Oryx Racing