From American Le Mans Series
Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr ended their championship season in fitting style Saturday with an overall victory for Audi Sport North America in the Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón. Werner passed Emanuele Pirro on a restart with 26 minutes left and won by 1.941 seconds at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Luhr and Werner led twice for a total of 31 laps. There were 12 lead changes among eight different cars with eight cars finishing on the lead lap. The race also had 12 caution periods that allowed Audi to use its torque and power to charge toward the front on restarts.
Pirro teamed with newcomer Christijan Albers for a second-place finish in what was his final race in an Audi prototype. Corsa Motorsports' duo of Stefan Johansson and Johnny Mowlem finished third in class in their Zytek 07S.
Tony Kanaan and Franck Montagny scored Andretti Green Racing's second LMP2 victory in three races with a tense 0.054-second win over fellow Acura team de Ferran Motorsports. Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud, who teamed with Gil de Ferran, exchanged the lead twice within the span of a lap with 15 minutes left as two Acura ARX-01bs finished first and second for the third time this year.
The victory was the second for both Montagny and Kanaan. Montagny was part of AGR's first overall victory two races ago in Detroit with James Rossiter. Kanaan helped score the first P2 win for Acura and AGR at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2007 with Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti.
The result wasn't enough for Acura to wrestle the class manufacturer championship away from Porsche as the German marque won the title by 1 point, thanks to a third-place finish for two-time driving champions Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas of Penske Racing.
Acura's six victories were one more than Porsche's five.
Corvette Racing's Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin successfully defended their GT1 victory from last season with a 12.858-second win over teammates Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen. It was the third win of the season for the Beretta/Gavin duo, who ceded their class championship to O'Connell and Magnussen.
Beretta became the first driver to win 40 races in the American Le Mans Series. He made the winning pass with 45 minutes left when he got by O'Connell following the 11th restart.
Beretta and Gavin repeated their class victory from 2007 for Corvette Racing. If the team wins three straight at the circuit, next year's victory will come in GT2 as Corvette has announced plans to enter that class in the second half of the 2009 season.
Tafel Racing closed the season with a victory for Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher in the team's Ferrari F430 GT. The pairing won for the fourth time this season as they beat Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo and Mika Salo in their Ferrari by 5.648 seconds.
Mueller and Farnbacher placed second in the class championship behind Flying Lizard Motorsports' Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler, who finished ninth in class after losing time in the pits to repair damage from early-race contact.
Race classification :
1 - Luhr/Werner (Audi R10) - Audi - Laps 145 (1st LMP1)
2 - Pirro/Albers (Audi R10) - Audi - 145
3 - Montagny/Kanaan (Acura ARX-01B) - AGR - 145 (1st LMP2)
4 - de Ferran/Pagenaud (Acura ARX-01B) - De Ferran - 145
5 - Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 145
6 - Castroneves/Biscoe (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 145
7 - Dyson/Smith (Porsche RS Spyder) - Dyson - 145
8 - Leitzinger/Franchitti (Porsche RS Spyder) - Dyson - 144
9 - Fernandez/Diaz (Acura ARX-01B) - Fernandez - 144
10 - Maassen/Long (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 144
11 - Mowlem/Johansson (Ferrari F430) - Corsa - 142
12 - Gavin/Beretta (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 139 (1st GT1)
13 - O'Connell/Magnussen (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 139
14 - Farnbacher/Muller (Ferrari F430) - Tafel - 139 (1st GT2)
Etc.
Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr ended their championship season in fitting style Saturday with an overall victory for Audi Sport North America in the Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón. Werner passed Emanuele Pirro on a restart with 26 minutes left and won by 1.941 seconds at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Luhr and Werner led twice for a total of 31 laps. There were 12 lead changes among eight different cars with eight cars finishing on the lead lap. The race also had 12 caution periods that allowed Audi to use its torque and power to charge toward the front on restarts.
Pirro teamed with newcomer Christijan Albers for a second-place finish in what was his final race in an Audi prototype. Corsa Motorsports' duo of Stefan Johansson and Johnny Mowlem finished third in class in their Zytek 07S.
Tony Kanaan and Franck Montagny scored Andretti Green Racing's second LMP2 victory in three races with a tense 0.054-second win over fellow Acura team de Ferran Motorsports. Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud, who teamed with Gil de Ferran, exchanged the lead twice within the span of a lap with 15 minutes left as two Acura ARX-01bs finished first and second for the third time this year.
The victory was the second for both Montagny and Kanaan. Montagny was part of AGR's first overall victory two races ago in Detroit with James Rossiter. Kanaan helped score the first P2 win for Acura and AGR at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2007 with Bryan Herta and Dario Franchitti.
The result wasn't enough for Acura to wrestle the class manufacturer championship away from Porsche as the German marque won the title by 1 point, thanks to a third-place finish for two-time driving champions Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas of Penske Racing.
Acura's six victories were one more than Porsche's five.
Corvette Racing's Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin successfully defended their GT1 victory from last season with a 12.858-second win over teammates Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen. It was the third win of the season for the Beretta/Gavin duo, who ceded their class championship to O'Connell and Magnussen.
Beretta became the first driver to win 40 races in the American Le Mans Series. He made the winning pass with 45 minutes left when he got by O'Connell following the 11th restart.
Beretta and Gavin repeated their class victory from 2007 for Corvette Racing. If the team wins three straight at the circuit, next year's victory will come in GT2 as Corvette has announced plans to enter that class in the second half of the 2009 season.
Tafel Racing closed the season with a victory for Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher in the team's Ferrari F430 GT. The pairing won for the fourth time this season as they beat Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo and Mika Salo in their Ferrari by 5.648 seconds.
Mueller and Farnbacher placed second in the class championship behind Flying Lizard Motorsports' Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler, who finished ninth in class after losing time in the pits to repair damage from early-race contact.
Race classification :
1 - Luhr/Werner (Audi R10) - Audi - Laps 145 (1st LMP1)
2 - Pirro/Albers (Audi R10) - Audi - 145
3 - Montagny/Kanaan (Acura ARX-01B) - AGR - 145 (1st LMP2)
4 - de Ferran/Pagenaud (Acura ARX-01B) - De Ferran - 145
5 - Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 145
6 - Castroneves/Biscoe (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 145
7 - Dyson/Smith (Porsche RS Spyder) - Dyson - 145
8 - Leitzinger/Franchitti (Porsche RS Spyder) - Dyson - 144
9 - Fernandez/Diaz (Acura ARX-01B) - Fernandez - 144
10 - Maassen/Long (Porsche RS Spyder) - Penske - 144
11 - Mowlem/Johansson (Ferrari F430) - Corsa - 142
12 - Gavin/Beretta (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 139 (1st GT1)
13 - O'Connell/Magnussen (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 139
14 - Farnbacher/Muller (Ferrari F430) - Tafel - 139 (1st GT2)
Etc.