Austrian skydiver and Base jumper Felix Baumgartner is getting ready to take on a new challenge. He is set to race an Audi R8 LMS Ultra at the upcoming Nurburgring 24 Hours in June. Felix Baumgartner is better known for having us all on the edge of our seats back in October 2012 when he became the first person to break the sound barrier during his 127,852 feet world record breaking skydive
Baumgartner has decided to join Audi Motorsport through The Audi race experience to drive an R8 LMS for this years 24 Hours of Nurburgring race, he has previously had occasional runs in Volkswagen Polos during the 2013 season. The Audi race experience makes it possible for Audi’s customers with sporting ambitions to enter racing. The Audi R8 LMS Ultra (which does sound kinda like a razor blade) provides him with a 570bhp ‘pure-bred’ GT3 race car (see below for shiney race car pictures!!)
His team-mates will be well known five-time Le Mans winner Frank Biela, the three-time Le Mans winner Marco Werner as well as the GT and sports car pro Pierre Kaffer will also be taking a seat in the cockpit during the 24 hour race.
While speaking about his impending endurance racing debut, Baumgartner said, “This task is totally exciting and I’m looking forward to driving races in an Audi. During initial tests in the road-going Audi R8 I got to know the Nürburgring, and in the Audi R8 LMS Ultra I’ve clocked a few kilometers on various tracks as well. I regard this task as one of the major projects in my life. The environment is perfect, the atmosphere is fantastic, and I feel really well taken care of by the Audi race experience. But it’s also clear that I’m basically starting from scratch because this sport is new for me.”
This will be the last 24 hour race before the January 2015 take over that will see the famous Nürburgring passed into private hands, as was announced earlier today.
