Allan McNish has expressed his delight at being given the chance to compete at the 2009 Petit Le Mans endurance classic with the Audi Sport team.

The Scot's race outings have been limited this season due to Audi's decision to scale back their participation with the all-new R15 TDI, the machine competing in only the Sebring 12 Hours and the Le Mans 24 Hours this year.

Nonetheless, McNish, together with team-mates Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello, will resume his rivalry with the Peugeot team – which ended its run of wins at Le Mans this season – at Road Atlanta next month, much to his delight.

“I'm personally very pleased, as are Audi Sport, that we are back racing again and especially to be going to Petit which has become one of the biggest sportscar races on the calendar,” said McNish, a three-time American Le Mans Series champion.

“It shows Audi's commitment to sportscars and the American Le Mans Series and I'm personally delighted to be racing in America again.”

Following their defeat by Peugeot at Le Mans, McNish is eager to readdress the balance of authority in the Petit Le Mans, even if he predicts Acura to provide a significant threat too.

“At Le Mans, we saw how much Peugeot had moved forward from our race with them at Sebring and I expect that to have continued. Acura have been racing regularly in ALMS so they will have developed their car significantly since the ALMS season opener which we won first time out with the R15 TDI. But everyone at Audi is really looking forward to the challenge.”