Bathurst 12H: A word from Rahel Frey

Next weekend youll be celebrating your personal premiere at Bathurst with the Audi customer team Phoenix Racing. What are your expectations of this debut? Ive never been to Australia before and dont know the country or the race track at Bathurst. Thatll be tremendously exciting and an absolutely new challenge Im very much looking forward to. But it wont be a walk in the park.

Rahel Frey, Audi Sport Team Abt Audi A5 DTM

Photo by: XPB Images

The competition is fierce and there are a lot of local heroes who know the track like the back of their hand. That means weve got to get used to the track on location as quickly as possible.

Youve known the Phoenix squad for a long time. Does that help? Obviously, Im happy to be seeing familiar faces from my DTM days in Australia. Im running in a likeable top team that has previously won this classic endurance race. Plus were a very strong driver squad. Laurens Vanthoor and René Rast are very successful in the Audi R8 LMS ultra around the world. I feel very comfortable in the R8 as well and was able to clinch a few successes in the Chinese Audi R8 LMS Cup. But my team-mates will probably teach me a few more things. If I can keep up with them at Bathurst I will have achieved my goal. After all, team-mates are always the best benchmark.

How did you prepare for the start of the new motorsport year? My preparation already started last year. Through intensive strength training I managed to gain a bit of weight. The additional job as an instructor for the Audi driving experience was helpful too as regular driving practice. And of course I watched many onboard videos in preparation for Bathurst and really played the PlayStation a lot. Honestly: I feel fitter than ever before. Ready for Bathurst.

Where else will we be seeing you this season? The events have not been finally decided yet. But itll definitely be in an Audi R8 LMS thats the most important thing for me. Im already looking forward to the next challenges with Audi.

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