The difference in the R8s.

[Adam43]

We have several private teams running R8s and we are nearing the end of the season.

Who has done best? and why?

Veloqx has done great, 4/4 in LMES. In this series they have generally had the pace of the Goh car. The Goh car just never looked as well set up. Especially under brakes IMO. There were rumours about ride-height (and faulty gauges!), but even by Spa they didn't seem to have sorted this. They all operate under careful guidelines from what I understand, but Veloqx got the set-up right earlier and continued to have the upper hand. Is this due to having two cars?

Possibly, although it is difficult to tell, it could also be down to the drivers.

Having said that, Goh did win the main event!

Champion has carried the Audi banner over in America. How does it stack up against the European teams? In the biggies Veloqx won in Sebring and Goh in Le Mans, so it missed out on the major events. It has a championship and has had some cracking races. Driver wise I think they have a decent line up and I think that'll be confirmed when Herbert and Kaffer go over there for the last two races.

And finally, next year?

[marcush.]

At leMans the cars ran very different setups.
And now at Spa you could also see the Veloqx running quite differently to the Goh car.I cannot imagine the data is not available to all the teams ,so it seems rather odd
that Champion and Goh seem a bit second string.What about marketing reasons?
There must have been massive pressure if you look at the do
or die aproach of the veloqx crews.

[marcush.]

At leMans the cars ran very different setups.
And now at Spa you could also see the Veloqx running quite differently to the Goh car.I cannot imagine the data is not available to all the teams ,so it seems rather odd
that Champion and Goh seem a bit second string.What about marketing reasons?
There must have been massive pressure if you look at the do
or die aproach of the veloqx crews.Theremight have been some damper development on the veloqx side as they ran the car quite low but Goh were the ones suffering more from bottoming in Spa.

[Paddy_NL]

but Goh were the ones suffering more from bottoming in Spa.

Nice for pics, though

[jhansen]

The stats for what it’s worth:

Champion: Total Races = 8, Avg. Grid Pos. = 2.63, Avg. Finish = 1.5
Veloqx #8: Total Races = 6, Avg. Grid Pos. = 2.33, Avg. Finish = 1.66*
Veloqx #88: Total Races = 6, Avg. Grid Pos. = 2.33, Avg. Finish = 2
Team Goh: Total Races = 5, Avg. Grid Pos. = 4.4, Avg. Finish = 2.4

*Veloqx #8 DNF’d at Spa

That’s what I came up with, although I could have made a mistake.

The two Veloqx cars have it on pace, which is where I feel they benefit from having two cars. But they lose out to Champion in terms of average finishing position. But the level of competition is obviously different between the ALMS and LMES. Goh have not impressed me this year. As mentioned the setup has never seemed right on. I wonder also if their strategy has not been as good as Team Veloqx. All four cars have good driver selections really, but that’s debatable.

I think Champion could give Veloqx better competition, but that Veloqx would win out in the end (law of averages/2 cars). Many say that Champion were off the pace at Le Mans, but I felt their race pace was good. They also had pole at Sebring along with more lousy luck. Petit and Laguna will show how they can handle competition on their home turf.

Ironically, the only race all four competed in Team Goh came out on top. It just so happened to be the Big One. But that's racing!

[tblincoe]

i think champion is definitely the best privateer R8 team, they just have pretty awful luck with driving mistakes, etc... but the team and the way they prepare is bar-none the best imo

[RacingManiac]

Interesting article from Car & Driver this month provided quite a good insight to Champion's operation and preparation at Le Mans. In it they mentioned that accident in which McNish and Lehto both involved and both damaged the R8 quite severely. Champion took 1/2 the time Veloqx took to fix the car and right out of the box the Champion was on pace of the Veloqx car still require more stop to correct some issue afterwards. I think it says alot about Champion's organization and their professionalism....

[RacingManiac]

the article, nevermind the pic, I think they picked the wrong year for the webpage article...lol

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1

[jhansen]

For the record, the Veloqx #8 received much more damage than the Champion car did. That was evidenced in just how difficult it was for McNish to drive back to the pits. You might want to grab a tape of the race and go back and view it for yourself.

[marcush.]

At leMans the Champion car behaved even worse than the Goh car.With them having to fiddle their setup to the new regs
compared to veloqx having already run with to the rules at
monza.
Champion took a totally different approach ,at least at testing .
Additiuonally they had some difference in their brakes as Champion were the only audis with brightred glowing discs in the night...or was it the drivers really pushing that much more???

[Adam43]

Originally posted by tblincoe
i think champion is definitely the best privateer R8 team, they just have pretty awful luck with driving mistakes, etc... but the team and the way they prepare is bar-none the best imo

I think Champion are a top level team, although I think Veloqx edge it. Maybe this is because they have two cars? Whatever, if you look at Sebring and Le Mans.

Originally posted by RacingManiac
Champion took 1/2 the time Veloqx took to fix the car and right out of the box the Champion was on pace of the Veloqx car still require more stop to correct some issue afterwards. I think it says alot about Champion's organization and their professionalism....

What jhansen said.
It was part of the same accident, but not the same damage.
Both repairs were impressive, but I never thought I'd see the #8 car back in the race.

marcush, that is a good point about Le Mans. This was the only race we could compare them all.

[marcush.]

I´d say at least Team Veloqx is more than a customer team.You see lots of familiar faces and audi branding everywhere.Maybe the budget is coming from UK but
basically veloqx took over Joest´s role.

[jhansen]

I agree with Adam, Veloqx edges it out. They have the total package. IMO that is largely due to having two cars and perhaps a better budget. But I can't be sure.

As for Champion's performance at Le Mans I find it funny that everyone points out their qualifying performance. However, the laps they set during the race were quite good. I can't find the exact data I'm looking for, but there is a time sheet on the ACO site that shows they had the second quickest lap time through Hour 16 of the race. They don't get enough credit IMO. But for this comparison, Veloqx get's the nod.

[Kicking-back]

Little to choose between them, Champion has had more experience with the car, but Veloqx is definitely top notch.

[courageous]

The other thing is this is Veloqx's first year with the Audi, where as Champion have several. Surely next year with a full season of data they should be even better.

[tblincoe]

if champion had two cars, i would take them any day over veloqx if both teams had equal drivers...

[Kicking-back]

Would it be wrong to say it seems the Brits on here say Veloqx, while the Americans say Champion?

[tblincoe]

haha good point

[Adam43]

At the end of the day the cars are still German though.

If we are talking favourite teams, I'll chose Champion, they have had JJ driving for them...

[Kicking-back]

Has JJ ever shared an Audi with Allan McNish? That'd be a good combination.

[IPR]

At Le Mans the teams drew lots for engines, no team was given preferential treatment.

Will these teams be running Audi's next year?

[jhansen]

Hey, I'm an American and said Veloqx was the better team. Although, my support goes to Champion!

[ASUKTV]

Answer for Kicking-back, no JJ & Allan have never shared an R8; in previous posts, I can only re-affirm that all three R8 "customer" teams are just that and that Veloqx, as suggested in an earlier post, has most definitely not taken the place of Joest - three teams with equal equipment; and on another thread, amazed to see that our cars are citicised for "racing" at Spa, still can never please everyone all of the time

[jhansen]

I heard something interesting mentioned on the NBC broadcast of the Laguna Seca race. One of the commentators (the name escapes me) mentioned that Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorport) regarded Champion as the top customer team that they have had. Did anyone else hear this as well. I thought that was a very good compliment indeed.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by ASUKTV
.....amazed to see that our cars are citicised for "racing" at Spa, still can never please everyone all of the time

Must be people around still unable to shake off the F1 "contamination"........