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GRAND-AM
GRAND-AM: Von Moltke Thrilled With Rolex 24 Win
Alex Job Racing driver discusses breakthrough first Rolex 24 win for Audi in SPEED.com Q&A...
Dion von Moltke celebrated his first Rolex 24 class win in only his fifth attempt, in Alex Job Racing's factory supported Audi R8 GRAND-AM. (Photo: Dion VM Racing)
While Chip Ganassi Racing essentially sailed away with the overall victory in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona, the battle for GT honors went down to the wire in a frantic fuel-mileage race between no fewer than five cars.
An impressive closing double-stint by the No. 24 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 GRAND-AM of Filipe Alburquerque was rewarded with a breakthrough maiden victory for the German manufacturer in the twice-around-the-clock enduro and first for it quartet of drivers, including Dion von Moltke.
The American-born South African rising star, who won last year's Twelve Hours of Sebring in GTC in an AJR-run Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, helped connect the veteran team owner to Audi Sport customer racing through his involvement in the manufacturer's debut Rolex Sports Car Series season in 2012.
All of the pieces fell into place, with Alex Job fielding the mid-engine sports car for Rolex 24 and leading home a historic 1-2 finish for Audi in the final major endurance race it had yet to conquer.
SPEED.com caught up with Von Moltke to get his thoughts on the big win and what could be in store for the remainder of his year.
Q: How were the final few hours from your perspective?
VON MOLTKE: It's excruciating as a driver to watch your car and your teammates from the outside looking in. But we had all the faith in the world in Filipe. He's a great driver. We knew that he could do the job. Not knowing when we needed to pit, if we were going to pit, when that was going to happen, what the other cars were doing... There were so many unknowns.
The range of emotions changed radically so many times in the last three hours of the race. If you walked into the Alex Job Racing tent with two hours and 45 minutes to go, there was just a self-attentioned feeling in the air. We got our penalty, the Porsche was running in fifth and we were down a lap. It looked like all of our hopes were over. There was just silence.
Then all of a sudden, the caution came out and the top three pitted and we got our lap back. At that stage, we thought we could maybe get a top-five. Then the next yellow came out and we were right there. One thing led to another and people started pitting and we used our strategy, which was a brilliant call from Greg Fordahl, our engineer.
The strategy required a lot of execution from Filipe, who was pretty much running the last hour and a half of the race at a qualifying pace. After 24 hours, the track is not good and the car is affected and it's a really tough task.
What he was able to do with the car was amazing. And we needed every second because the margin of victory was 1.4 seconds!
Q: How does it feel to be part of Audi’s first Rolex 24 victory?
VON MOLTKE: That in itself means almost more than anything else. One thing I got to see firsthand in the last month is what makes Audi so successful internationally in motorsports. They brought that culture here and implanted it into everything they did. It made a huge difference. From how they go about working through everything, they look at every ultimate option and possibility of what could happen.
Everything is just so perfectly planned and the car is just so reliable. Some of our fastest race laps were coming near the end of the race. You need a quick, reliable car to be able to do that. Being a part of that whole atmosphere was really impressive and something special.
In my driving career, I'll never forget that and hopefully bring some of the cultures I've seen what they do into my way of working things. To be part of the celebrations and get high-fives from Dr. Ullrich [Head of Audi Motorsport] and Romolo Liebchen [Head of Audi Sport customer racing] and all the top people you see on TV at Le Mans and the DTM races, is something really cool for sure.
An impressive closing double-stint by the No. 24 Alex Job Racing Audi R8 GRAND-AM of Filipe Alburquerque was rewarded with a breakthrough maiden victory for the German manufacturer in the twice-around-the-clock enduro and first for it quartet of drivers, including Dion von Moltke.
The American-born South African rising star, who won last year's Twelve Hours of Sebring in GTC in an AJR-run Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car, helped connect the veteran team owner to Audi Sport customer racing through his involvement in the manufacturer's debut Rolex Sports Car Series season in 2012.
All of the pieces fell into place, with Alex Job fielding the mid-engine sports car for Rolex 24 and leading home a historic 1-2 finish for Audi in the final major endurance race it had yet to conquer.
SPEED.com caught up with Von Moltke to get his thoughts on the big win and what could be in store for the remainder of his year.
Q: How were the final few hours from your perspective?
VON MOLTKE: It's excruciating as a driver to watch your car and your teammates from the outside looking in. But we had all the faith in the world in Filipe. He's a great driver. We knew that he could do the job. Not knowing when we needed to pit, if we were going to pit, when that was going to happen, what the other cars were doing... There were so many unknowns.
The range of emotions changed radically so many times in the last three hours of the race. If you walked into the Alex Job Racing tent with two hours and 45 minutes to go, there was just a self-attentioned feeling in the air. We got our penalty, the Porsche was running in fifth and we were down a lap. It looked like all of our hopes were over. There was just silence.
Then all of a sudden, the caution came out and the top three pitted and we got our lap back. At that stage, we thought we could maybe get a top-five. Then the next yellow came out and we were right there. One thing led to another and people started pitting and we used our strategy, which was a brilliant call from Greg Fordahl, our engineer.
The strategy required a lot of execution from Filipe, who was pretty much running the last hour and a half of the race at a qualifying pace. After 24 hours, the track is not good and the car is affected and it's a really tough task.
What he was able to do with the car was amazing. And we needed every second because the margin of victory was 1.4 seconds!
Q: How does it feel to be part of Audi’s first Rolex 24 victory?
VON MOLTKE: That in itself means almost more than anything else. One thing I got to see firsthand in the last month is what makes Audi so successful internationally in motorsports. They brought that culture here and implanted it into everything they did. It made a huge difference. From how they go about working through everything, they look at every ultimate option and possibility of what could happen.
Everything is just so perfectly planned and the car is just so reliable. Some of our fastest race laps were coming near the end of the race. You need a quick, reliable car to be able to do that. Being a part of that whole atmosphere was really impressive and something special.
In my driving career, I'll never forget that and hopefully bring some of the cultures I've seen what they do into my way of working things. To be part of the celebrations and get high-fives from Dr. Ullrich [Head of Audi Motorsport] and Romolo Liebchen [Head of Audi Sport customer racing] and all the top people you see on TV at Le Mans and the DTM races, is something really cool for sure.
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