By the American Le Mans Series
Audi returned to its dominating style at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a 1-2 finish in the Acura Sports Car Challenge on Saturday with Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner taking the first overall victory for the R10 TDI since April.
Luhr crossed the finish line 7.717 seconds ahead of teammates Emanuele Pirro and Dindo Capello.
Werner started fifth on the grid but moved up to third on the first lap, was second on the third lap and took the lead for good when Werner passed pole-sitter Gil de Ferran's Acura ARX-01b a minute later.
There also is something to be said for good pit strategy. Luhr drove the last hour and 55 minutes with the same set of Michelin tires and one more stop for fuel.
The call for fuel only on the last stop and to keep the Michelins on saved Luhr and Werner 12 seconds in the pits compared to the other Audi. Given the final winning margin, it's easy to say that the decision won the race.
LMP2
Penske Racing's Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard won for the fourth straight year at Mid-Ohio and the third consecutive season in LMP2. Dumas held off a hard-charging David Brabham in the closing minutes - a flashback to last week's race at Lime Rock - and won by 0.609 seconds.
Following Brabham and Scott Sharp, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz placed third in their Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura, giving the home-standing marque two of the three podium positions.
GT1
There was major drama in GT1 between Corvette Racing's two Corvette C6.Rs. Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen won for the fifth time this season and fourth race in a row but a race down pit lane was the story of their day.
Both cars pitted at the two-hour mark and left their pit boxes at the same time. O'Connell and Olivier Beretta raced to the pit exit, banging fenders and running a red flag in the process.
Beretta came out first but both cars were penalized a total of seven minutes and 40 seconds for the incident. Once they were back out, O'Connell made the winning pass with 25 minutes remaining.
GT2
Tafel Racing's Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher won for the third time this season in GT2 by taking a dominating victory with their Ferrari F430 GT.
Mueller took the checkered flag by 1:04.135 ahead of Flying Lizard Motorsports' Johannes van Overbeek, who teamed with Patrick Pilet in the No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
Farnbacher started fourth and pitted from second place. The team beat the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche out of pitlane and gained nearly a full lap on the rest of the GT2 field during the race's first safety car period.
Class championship leaders Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler finished third in class, just 0.459 behind their Flying Lizard teammates.
The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Generac 500, August 9 from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Audi returned to its dominating style at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with a 1-2 finish in the Acura Sports Car Challenge on Saturday with Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner taking the first overall victory for the R10 TDI since April.
Luhr crossed the finish line 7.717 seconds ahead of teammates Emanuele Pirro and Dindo Capello.
Werner started fifth on the grid but moved up to third on the first lap, was second on the third lap and took the lead for good when Werner passed pole-sitter Gil de Ferran's Acura ARX-01b a minute later.
There also is something to be said for good pit strategy. Luhr drove the last hour and 55 minutes with the same set of Michelin tires and one more stop for fuel.
The call for fuel only on the last stop and to keep the Michelins on saved Luhr and Werner 12 seconds in the pits compared to the other Audi. Given the final winning margin, it's easy to say that the decision won the race.
LMP2
Penske Racing's Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard won for the fourth straight year at Mid-Ohio and the third consecutive season in LMP2. Dumas held off a hard-charging David Brabham in the closing minutes - a flashback to last week's race at Lime Rock - and won by 0.609 seconds.
Following Brabham and Scott Sharp, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz placed third in their Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura, giving the home-standing marque two of the three podium positions.
GT1
There was major drama in GT1 between Corvette Racing's two Corvette C6.Rs. Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen won for the fifth time this season and fourth race in a row but a race down pit lane was the story of their day.
Both cars pitted at the two-hour mark and left their pit boxes at the same time. O'Connell and Olivier Beretta raced to the pit exit, banging fenders and running a red flag in the process.
Beretta came out first but both cars were penalized a total of seven minutes and 40 seconds for the incident. Once they were back out, O'Connell made the winning pass with 25 minutes remaining.
GT2
Tafel Racing's Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher won for the third time this season in GT2 by taking a dominating victory with their Ferrari F430 GT.
Mueller took the checkered flag by 1:04.135 ahead of Flying Lizard Motorsports' Johannes van Overbeek, who teamed with Patrick Pilet in the No. 46 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
Farnbacher started fourth and pitted from second place. The team beat the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche out of pitlane and gained nearly a full lap on the rest of the GT2 field during the race's first safety car period.
Class championship leaders Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler finished third in class, just 0.459 behind their Flying Lizard teammates.
The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Generac 500, August 9 from Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.