Brentwood racing driver Perry McCarthy claimed a superb result for Audi in its debut sportcar race in the Sebring 12-hour race in Florida, America last weekend.

McCarthy, with team mates Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela, took the open-top Audi R8R into fifth place and their was double joy for the Audi Sport Team Joest, when the sister car of Michele Alboreto, Rinaldo Capello and Stefan Johansson finished in third place after a trouble free run.

After the race, McCarthy who had not sat in the Audi before the race let alone driven it said: "We have learned a lot in preparation for the Le Mans 24 hour in June.

''Our car's only problem was with the clutch after the first driver change, which cost us 15 minutes in the pits.

"We achieved our goal by finishing the 12-hour race with both cars but we still have a lot to do before Le Mans.

Audi has been testing the twin-turbo V8-engned R8R since last summer and the Sebring race was designed to continue the car's test and development in race conditions and during the race the cars clocked up 2,300 racing miles.

Meanwhile the build programme for Audi Sport UK's "enclosed'' R8C to race at Le Mans is underway with McCarthy due to start testing in early April.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.