Dion von Moltke back in the Audi R8 GRAND-AM for the Sahlen's Six Hours at The Glen

CORAL GABLES, Fla., June 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On 29 January, 2013 four drivers from four different countries accomplished an incredible feat that took the racing world totally by surprise.  They won the biggest race in American sports car racing, the Daytona 24 Hour in the Rolex GT class.  Young PR Newswire driver Dion von Moltke (South Africa) was joined by Filipe Albuquerque (Portugal), Edoardo Mortara (Italy), and Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain) in an unlikely but powerful combination of talent and passion -- resulting in Audi's first win in GT racing ever in North American racing -- in the number 24 Alex Job Racing WeatherTech Audi R8 Grand-Am.   The win at Daytona 24 Hour was the first victory for all four drivers at the legendary track.

(Photo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130628/FL40459)

Although already running a full season with Flying Lizard in the number 44 Porsche in the ALMS GTC category and racing with Muehlner Motorsports in a Porsche GT3 in selected Grand-Am races, Dion was thrilled to be invited by Audi to join their comeback to the GRAND-AM Series for the upcoming 6 hours at Watkins Glen.  Joining winning teammates and Audi factory drivers from the DTM series in Germany, Filipe Albuquerque and Edoardo Mortara, the trio will be competing for the prestigious North American Endurance Championship (NAEC) in the number 24 Audi Customer Racing Audi R8 GRAND-AM.  

Dion will miss having Oliver Jarvis in the car for this race -- Oliver has other responsibilities for Audi AG in Europe, but is thrilled to be joining Edoardo and Filipe in the second round of the NAEC championship:

"Rejoining Audi is a result of months of intense efforts of working with them to build their US customer racing business since our win at the Daytona 24 Hour, and it feels like rejoining a close family.  We have all remained in contact since Daytona and have been talking about ways to bring our incredible chemistry with Audi back to American GT racing!  

"Watkins Glen is a very challenging track with a ton of history which creates multiple complex challenges for the drivers and engineers to get the most out of the car.  There are a lot of elevation changes up through the Esses, then dropping down into the boot section of the track and then back up as you leave the boot into the final two corners of the lap -- each corner is a little different and requires different setups on the car to get through with maximum speed, so you need to find the right compromise that delivers the lowest lap times overall.  It is also an incredibly challenging weekend with very limited practice time to set up the car.  While this is the same for everyone it is our first time running the car since Daytona so will have to be as productive as possible in each of these sessions."

The third and final race of this championship will be at Indianapolis -- joining Daytona and Watkins Glen as one of the most challenging combinations of race tracks leading to a championship anywhere in the world. 

PR Newswire has been a partner of Dion von Moltke for many years, and will be an integral part of this three race program.  As the leading news and marketing distribution company globally, PRNewswire ha become an integral partner to companies leveraging sports car racing as an important component of their sales and marketing strategy.

About Dion von Moltke: Dion von Moltke is a professional race car driver who has multiple wins in Skip Barber, Grand-Am, and the American Le Mans series, including being one of the few race car drivers ever to have won the Daytona 24 Hour race and the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring in the same year -- in fact he has won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice.  Dion, also a highly popular driver instructor who focuses on all aspects of peak performance, is competing in the ALMS series with Flying Lizard in the GTC class, and is racing in Grand-AM GT class in a Porsche, as well as some targeted races in the Audi R8. Visit www.dionvm.com  to find out more about Dion, his bio, and his 2013 racing program.

About PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com):  PR Newswire is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 59 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content -- from rich media to online video to multimedia -- and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.

SOURCE Dion von Moltke