After making the historical 38-kilometer from space toward Earth back in the 2012 Red Bull Stratos mission, Felix Baumgartner needed another way to satisfy his adrenaline rush. Lucky for him, he is able to experience the thrills and spills of motorsports in an Audi R8 LMS Ultra race car as he has been confirmed to race the car in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours endurance race.
Of course, the R8 would not be able to take him to the mind-boggling speed of 1357.6 km/h that he experienced during the free-fall from the stratosphere, but surely the Nurburgring 24 Hours has its own way of injecting a great dose of adrenaline to the 44-year-old Austrian.
Since Baumgartner is just starting his racing career, there is a lot that needs to be done for him to be fully prepared in mastering both the race car and the circuit. He will first need to obtain a racing license, which is then followed by months of training. Official tests for the VLN series, which includes the Nurburgring 24 Hours, kick starts this month, followed by the Qualifying in early April.
Baumgartner secured his position as an official Audi driver through the Audi Race Experience program, where anyone who is interested in motorsport can buy their way into a race car. He will be racing the 2014 R8 LMS Ultra together with Frank Biela, Marco Werner, and Pierre Kaffer.
“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,” said Baumgartner in a statement.
The latest version of the R8 LMS Ultra features 562-horsepower, transferred to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential gearbox.
