The Lola-Audi on the starting grid - Photo : Pierre-Yves Riom / ACO

It was one of the most anticipated and newsworthy annoucements of the 2006-2007 off-season. The Swiss Spirit team, created in 2006, abandoned its Courage LC70 powered by Judd for the astonishing combination of a Lola B07/10 chassis and an official Audi engine. The same V8 bloc that had been victorioius at the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans! Managed by Fred Stadler, whose contacts within the VAG group facilitated the technical assembly as well as the marque's endorsement, the team was comprised of, among others, Yann Cazaubon and Olaf Schwartz as engine engineer.

For the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, all drivers entered were of Swiss nationality per the outfit's philosophy, under Gérard Vallat's leadership, to hold Switzerland's colours high on the international scene. So, Iraj Alexander, Jean-Denis Deletraz and Marcel Fässler shared the car in the Le Mans Series and in La Sarthe. Observers were expecting a lot from this entry. The quality of the Ingolstadt 3.6L V8 Turbo no longer needed proving, with drivers as experienced as they were fast. Plus the competitive debuts were very promising especially thanks to the third place finish of the No. 5 driver line-up at the 1,000km of Valence, second round of the 2007 Le Mans Series.

Unfortunately, this great potential would not come to fruition at the 75th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Beyond a disappointment, the great Le Mans classic was to epitomize a true catastrophy for Fred Stadler's men. At the practice, an incident in the S of the forest would not allow the trio Alexander/Deletraz/Fässler to clock a lap any faster than 4:25:415 resulting in 14th position on the starting grid, the next-to-last spot in the LM P1 class. During the race, Iraj Alexander was stopped on the track for two hours with electrical issues before a throttle cable definitively ended the Swiss Spirit team's ambitions. The Lola B07/10-Audi officially retired at 11:51 p.m. while in 45th place at 75 laps behind the No. 2 Audi R10 TDi race leader!

The rest of the story - a political and financial imbroglio - could not make up for this disaster and the car would never see the track again. It was the end of an adventure as infamous as short-lived...

Pierre-Yves Riom / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO