Dave Maraj 1953-2018

OBITUARY

Dave Maraj, who has died aged 65 in a boating accident, built Champion Racing into North America’s top sportscar team in little more than 10 years on the way to winning the Le Mans 24 Hours with Audi in 2005.

That triumph with a works-supported R8 shared by Tom Kristensen, JJ Lehto and Marco Werner made Champion the first US team to win the French enduro since 1967. It was also a prelude to the Florida-based squad becoming Audi’s factory team in the American Le Mans Series for the following season with the new

R10 TDI turbodiesel.

Champion had already won the ALMS drivers’ and teams’ title double as an independent in 2004 and ’05, and went on to repeat the trick under the Audi Sport North America banner in 2006-08. Drivers on its roster in those years included Lehto, Emanuele

Pirro and Allan Mcnish.

Indian-born Maraj, a Porsche, Audi and Alfa Romeo dealer, made his debut as an entrant in early 1993 and Champion quickly moved up the IMSA ranks. By ’98 it had graduated to a 911 GT1 Evo.

Champion got an R8 for the 2001 season and claimed its first outright ALMS win at Road Atlanta in June ’03. Four months later at the same track, it took a maiden big-enduro victory at Petit Le Mans.

The team, which also claimed a hat-trick of titles in the SCCA World Challenge in 2001-03, dropped out of racing on Audi’s withdrawal from the ALMS at the end of 2008.