McNish to race diesel Audi in Europe

Allan McNish will bid to claim his first sportscar championship title in Europe when he competes for Audi in the Le Mans Series this year.

The 38-year-old Scotsman has won the American Le Mans Series for the past two years but will concentrate on the six-race 2008 LMS championship driving a diesel-powered Audi sportscar.

McNish will contest races in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Britain and another venue yet to be decided aiming for European title glory.

“Having now won the American Le Mans Series title three times (2000, '06 & '07), I’m delighted to be racing again regularly in Europe,” commented Allan. “My career began in 1987 and I’ve come close to championship success in Europe on a couple of occasions only to just miss out.

“I last raced sportscars regularly in Europe in 2004 and started the final race that year leading the championship but missed out."

The Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype has previously only raced annually in Europe with its history-making victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the past two years.

Allan continued: “I’m really looking forward to racing at places like Monza, Spa and Silverstone again – especially for the first time in Audi’s pioneering diesel-engined sportscar.

“We’re likely to face very stiff competition in the LMS in terms of possible race and championship glory but Audi always relishes fierce competition as do I.”

McNish will be co-driven in the LMS by Dindo Capello, the Italian who partnered McNish to ALMS titles in 2000, ’06 & ’07 – with the Anglo-Italian pairing being joined by Tom Kristensen for the Le Mans 24 Hours on 14-15 June.