LAST WEEK Audi confirmed their driver line-up for the 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour. They also confirmed the well-reported fact that Phoenix Racing will run the team next year in what will be their first visit to Australia.
Joest, we knew. But who are Phoenix Racing? www.bathurst12hour.com.au investigates this German team that has achieved an awful lot in just a short amount of time…
It was a widely-reported fact that the works Audi team that so brilliantly finished first and second in the 2011 Armor All Bathurst 12 hour was masterminded by the equally brilliant Team Joest, one of the most successful sports car teams in the business.
Under the ‘Audi Race Experience Team Joest’ banner, the team operated with typical Germanic efficiency – with an Aussie edge – and the professionalism and results backed up the reputation. They were very, very good.
Audi will return to the 12 Hours on the Mountain next year but Joest won’t. An existing calendar clash in Europe has their team committed so a follow-up trip down under won’t be doable.
It’s fortunate, then, that Audi have plenty of crack teams on which to draw on when they need to replace the best. So, welcome everyone, to Phoenix Racing.
But who are Phoenix? What makes up the brand that – as many will know more from the Harry Potter movies than from ancient mythology or anything else – represents a majestic creature rising from its own ashes.
It turns out the branding is apt, because the team did come out of the ashes of another outfit, in this case the well-known Zakspeed team.
Phoenix was formed by team owner Ernst Moser, a former Zakspeed employee who watched as the team crumbled when ambitious owner Peter Zakowski began an attempt to take over the fractious Arrows Formula One team, in 1998.
Moser had begun at Zakspeed as a mechanic in the early 1990s following a promising yet ultimately short – he had no money – career in motorcycle racing. His career with the team included stints in German Touring cars (DTM), where he served as the mechanic on his racing Idol’s (Johnny Cecotto) car. However, while racing in the United States in 1998 Zakspeed dismissed a majority of its German-based employees who didn’t fit the teams F1 ambitions and that decision – along with a lack of interest in Formula One – forced Moser to resign on the spot, quitting his job and beginning the process of branching out on his own.
The result was a new team – Phoenix Racing – that rose from the ashes of dismissed Zakspeed employees, and those from another local team from the region that was downsizing at the time.
The team is now based near the famed Nurburgring and employs 25 people in a state-of-the-art facility built in the late 1990s and has run a wide array of vehicles since its formation.
After beginning in German Super Touring (STW) with an Audi A4, the team branched into the new-look DTM in 2000 with Opel Astra’s driven with success by Manuel Router (who finished 2nd) and Michael Bartels (7th). The team also took its first major Sportscar success when a Phoenix-run Porsche won the Nurburgring 24 hour race the same year.
After Opel’s DTM program wound down in the mid-2000s, Phoenix switched to Audis, a decision that culminated with the team winning the 2011 DTM title with driver Martin Tomcyzk. As well as running GT1-specification Chevrolet Corvette’s lately, the team has also operated Audi’s successful R8LMS in GT3 racing for the past three seasons, in Nurburgring-based VLN competition and the ADAC GT Masters series – ideally positioning them to step in to the shoes of Team Joest for the 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour.
So, Audi rivals – be warned. Just because Joest isn’t around doesn’t mean that the Audi’s won’t enter the 2012 Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour as the hot favourites – because Phoenix won’t need any magic to help them keep Audi on the top step of the podium.
Words: Richard Craill Image: www.phoenix-racing.de