From dailysportscar.com
Audi Plan For The ALMS Becomes Clear
Ever since the launch of the R10 in Paris in early December, the underlying question has been – ‘What is the company planning besides Sebring and Le Mans?’

Now it’s clear – Houston, Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock will be contested by R8s, the balance of the season (Salt Lake City onwards) by the R10s.

“Audi returns to the world’s most popular sportscars series at a factory level,” says the company’s statement.

Audi Sport, Team Joest and Champion Racing “will cooperate closely” during the ALMS season, Champion Racing providing support for the R10s in the ALMS (although the entries will be in the name of Audi Sport North America).

"The main reason for developing the Audi R10 was to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as we want to be the world’s first automobile manufacturer to win with a diesel engine,” says Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. "From the very beginning it was however our intention to enter the R10 in every racing series based on Le Mans. The USA is an extremely important market in which the subject ’Diesel’ is currently coming in vogue. The ALMS programme with the R10 is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the Audi TDI engines in America.”

"Audi of America is looking forward to our seventh season of participation in the American Le Mans Series,” added Johan de Nysschen, executive vice-president of Audi of America. "The R8 success was very instrumental in building awareness for Audi technology and performance and we hope the R10 will achieve the same success. With Audi Sport, Joest and Champion we have the ideal partners for a successful season.”

So the R8s and the R10s won't, as strongly suspected, be competing together on the track - and Lime Rock Park looks as though it will be the last race ever for the Audi R8 in current competition. 61 wins from 77 races so far - with three races left. It's not yet clear whether the R8s will complete in Champion or Audi livery for these three races.

2006 American Le Mans Series schedule - R8 and R10
18/03 Sebring (USA) R10
12/05 Houston (USA) R8
21/05 Mid-Ohio (USA) R8
(Le Mans)
01/07 Lime Rock (USA) R8
15/07 Salt Lake City (USA) R10
22/07 Portland (USA) R10
20/08 Road America (USA) R10
03/09 Mosport (CDN) R10
30/09 Petit Le Mans, Road Atlanta (USA) R10
21/10 Laguna Seca (USA) R10
If you recall the 2000 ALMS season though, they did the exact samething(albeit without Champion), that they ran the R8 at Sebring(won that), Ran the 1999 R8R in rounds leading up to Le Mans(including Silverstone 1000km, that was the year with ALMS having some european rounds), 1999 car struggled a bit. Then after Le Mans used the R8 to clean house.

This season should be good, the new Dyson Lola will give the R8 a lot of headache and hopefully be on pace and reliability as the R10....