2010 Audi R15+ Show Off

Audi has just dropped a bunch of photos of the new livery that its R15+ TDI race cars will wear for 2010 beginning with their competition debut this weekend in France. The heavily revised R15+ features a completely new aerodynamic treatment up front and along the sides, a change which Audi hopes will allow the car to have both better grip and lower drag than than last year's model. In fact, it looks like almost nothing but the cockpit area has been carried over, with the racer's side-pods and even the rear wing being heavily re-worked.

The 2009 car was something of a disappointment and for the first time in a decade (aside from 2003 when Audi stepped aside in favor of sister brand Bentley) was handily beaten at Le Mans. Audi opted to skip last month's American Le Mans Series opener at Sebring to spend the time testing. Only one R15+ will run at Le Castellet this weekend for the opener of the Le Mans Series, and we don't expect to see the R15+ racing in North America until the Petit Le Mans in September.

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Patrick Dempsey to race at Long Beach

PATRICK DEMPSEY TO RACE IN LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX

March 29, 2010 (Irvine, Calif.). MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development today confirmed that Patrick Dempsey will race a 2010 MAZDA3 prepared by Tri-Point Motorsports in the World Challenge race during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. Dempsey normally races a Mazda RX-8 in the Rolex Grand-Am GT series.

About the weekend and the difference in racecars, Dempsey said, "I'm thrilled to be able to race near my Los Angeles home. With the Grand-Am series, I've been able to race at many of the great tracks in North America, but now I have a chance to race locally. The Tri-Point MAZDA3 really impressed me during testing. I've never driven a front-wheel drive racecar that handled that well before. I shouldn't have been surprised though as my daily driver is a MAZDASPEED3. The weekend will also be personally rewarding to me as we'll be carrying the colors of our Dempsey Challenge."

The Dempsey Challenge presented by Amgen is a non-competitive fundraising event for The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing at Central Maine Medical Center. The 2010 event will take place October 2nd and 3rd in Lewiston, Maine. More information, including registration materials, can be found at www.dempseychallenge.org

The World Challenge series is for production-based racecars and features three classes, GT, GTS, and TC2. Dempsey will be racing against over two dozen other professional drivers in cars ranging from Porsches, Corvettes, Vipers, Acuras, to Scions. The Tri-Point MAZDA3 will compete in the GTS class.

The World Challenge race is a part of the multi-race Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend, April 16-18. The World Challenge race will take place on Sunday, April 18th. Ticket information can be found at www.gplb.com


Also at Long Beach the same weekend:

• Mazda will compete in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron race on Saturday afternoon with the Dyson Lola-Mazda MZR-R LMP car. The ALMS car will be carrying ARCO colors for the two California races (Long Beach, and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in May). ARCO is a part of BP, the primary technical partner with Mazda on the powertrain development. The Mazda car will be the only entry fueled by isobutanol, a BP developed bio fuel. Team information can be found at www.dysonracing.com
• Robert Davis, Senior Vice President, Product Development & Quality, Mazda North American Operations will be the keynote speaker at the "The Race Has Gone Green" sustainable motorsports conference to be held Friday, April 16th at the Long Beach Grand Prix. The conference is sponsored by SEMA and the MIA. Conference information can be found at www.sema.org/RaceGoneGreen
• MAZDASPEED will also be a supporter of the Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) Salute to Parnelli Jones on the evening of Thursday, April 15th. The annual RRDC gala is a fundraiser for the Team USA Scholarship program. Over the past several years, many of the Team USA scholarship winners have come from the ranks of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development series. Information can be found at www.rrdc.org

USF1 shuts doors for good

USF1 has officially shuttered operations in Charlotte, NC. That's according to the Charlotte Business Journal, which notes that Ken Anderson, president of the team, sent employees an email yesterday pointing to financial woes as the straw that broke the doomed camel's back. Anderson's pet racing project was supposed to jump into the Formula One fray at the Bahain Grand Prix on March 14, but couldn't quite get its act together in time. Rumors of a shut down have been dogging the USF1 team nearly as long as it's been around, and this time, it looks like the naysayers were right.

Even worse, a handful of former USF1 employees have filed complaints with the North Carolina Department of Labor over missing paychecks. While Anderson's email said that employees could be called back at some point in the future, it looks like it's lights out for good from here.

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BMW M Division going back to its roots?

There was a time, not too long ago, when a BMW M-badged vehicle was feared. In the late 1990s, the E36 M3 Coupe was often regarded as the best-handling two-door on the planet and its sibling, the E36 M3 Sedan, was the fastest four-door in showrooms. The droptop M Roadster offered a viable alternative to a Porsche 911 Cabriolet, while the bad-to-the bone E39 M5 ran without peers thanks to its 400-horsepower V8 .

Today's M models offer excellent performance, but the bar has been raised so high that cheaper upstarts like Mitsubishi and Subaru can give them a run for the money on tracks, not to mention surging premium competitors like Audi and arch rival, Mercedes-Benz and their AMG offerings. Kay Segler, the new chief of BMW's performance-oriented M brand, has taken notice. However, instead of pushing the well-respected division to the head of the pack with even greater levels of performance, Segler says it is time to rethink what his division stands for – meaning BMW M may no longer offer the fastest or most powerful cars possible.

"The measurement of 0 to 100 (km/h) isn't as much a thrill anymore," Segler tells TheDetroitBureau.com. He goes on to explain that it's how a car feels via the driver's "butt-o-meter" matters more. Furthermore, he says the performance M brand needs to shift directions. "We want to make M young again." Segler's goal "is to go towards affordability and freshness." Those are big changes considering the current M lineup represents the flagship of each model range – priced accordingly – along with gigantic SUVs like the 5,368-pound X5 M. Undeterred by the news, we are still holding our breath for a production version of the Concept 1 Series Tii.

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Future WRC Driver

Pretty amazing for an 8 year old