Overall, though, Sofronas wants to keep the car as original as possible. As he points out, Audi spent millions of dollars developing the car and was able to make use of much more resources than are available to him. "The goal is not to change too much, because they've done a great job with the car. It's really to just make sure the car fits within the guidelines of World Challenge, and then we'll see how competitive we can be."
With Sofronas' involvement in the ALMS, we also asked if he thought that the R8 LMS could be modified to run in that series as well. "Absolutely," he answers. "In fact, I've had discussions with some of the management at IMSA, who sanctions ALMS, and there's no doubt that this would be a great car to run in GT2." The task of converting the car to run in the series would be much more involved, though, and Sofronas believes it would take more manufacturer involvement to make it happen. "Audi needs to get more involved in the homologation process for ALMS," he says. "It's a lot stricter. But there's no question this belongs in that series competing against Ferrari and Porsche and BMW. I see this happening a lot sooner than I thought a year ago. Now that we've got cars here in the U.S., I think the opportunity is even greater."
For this season Sofronas has fairly reasonable expectations for the R8 LMS, especially considering both of his clients aren't professional drivers. "They want to try and run it in the series and go have some fun," he admits. "They're not out to win championships." Looking into the future, though, he sees plenty of potential for winning. He points out that in the last two years, every car in the World Challenge series has won a race. "There's no reason why this car, if it fits within the rules that they mandate, that it should be competitive and win races," he says. "It's just a matter of when." When that happens, of course, Sofronas hopes to be in the middle of it. "We would like to be the official U.S. race team for World Challenge. I think this is a first good step."
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车
奥迪 R8 LMS赛车