Backstretch Motorsports

Audi’s Lucas Luhr passed Romain Dumas on a restart with three minutes left Saturday to give the manufacturer a victory in the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg presented by XM Satellite Radio, its first overall victory of 2008. Luhr teamed with Marco Werner in Audi Sport North America’s No. 2 Audi R10 TDI as the German marque won on the streets of St. Petersburg for the second straight season.

Butch Leitzinger’s spin and crash in one of the Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders with 12 minutes left brought out the yellow flag with Penske Racing’s Dumas in the lead. The crash also collected the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister. Dumas, who claimed LMP2 honors with Timo Bernhard in a Penske Porsche RS Spyder, took the lead from Luhr with 19 minutes to go under green.

But the torque of the Audi proved to be the difference on the long frontstretch when the green flag flew. Luhr moved to Dumas left and made a clean pass going into the opening turn.

Dumas and Bernhard did salvage their weekend with their eighth straight LMP2 victory dating back to Mid-Ohio in July of last year. The duo were five seconds clear of David Brabham and Scott Sharp in the Patrón Highcroft Racing entry, the highest finisher among the three Acura ARX-01bs.

The sister Audi of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro were second in LMP1, followed by Intersport Racing’s cellulosic E85-powered Lola-AER of Jon Field.

Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta led flag-to-flag for their second consecutive St. Petersburg victory in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R. Beretta qualified on the class pole position and never gave up his advantage as Gavin beat Jan Magnussen to the line by 4.754 seconds. It marked the first victory for cellulosic E85 in the American Le Mans Series as both Corvette factory cars are powered by the alternative fuel.

Tafel Racing posted its first Series victory as Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher won in GT2. The duo stayed clean as electrical problems and contact sidelined the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 and the Sebring-winning Porsche from Flying Lizard Motorsports.

It was Mueller’s first victory in the Series since 2000 and the first ever for Farnbacher. Mueller crossed the line by more than 13 seconds ahead of Flying Lizard’s No. 46 Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek and Patrick Pilet.

Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg
presented by XM Satellite Radio
St. Petersburg street circuit, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Saturday’s results
1. (1) Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 81.
2. (2) Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Porsche RS Spyder (1, P2), 81.
3. (3) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 81.
4. (4) Sascha Maassen, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 81.
5. (7) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (4, P2), 81.
6. (6) Christian Fittipaldi, Miami, FL; Bryan Herta, Valencia, CA; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 80.
7. (11) Ben Devlin, England; Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Lola B07 46 Mazda (6, P2), 80.
8. (12) Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Oliver Gavin, England; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 79.
9. (14) Johnny O`Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 79.
10. (8) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (7, P2), 78.
11. (19) Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Dirk Mueller, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (1, GT2), 77.
12. (20) Patrick Pilet, France; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 77.
13. (18) Marc Basseng, Germany; Dirk Werner, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (3, GT2), 76.
14. (23) Johnny Mowlem, England; Gunnar Jeannette, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Ferrari F430 GT (4, GT2), 76.
15. (22) Harrison Brix, San Jose, CA; Patrick Friesacher, Austria; Ferrari F430 GT (5, GT2), 75.
16. (24) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Panoz Esperante Ford (6, GT2), 75.
17. (21) Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (7, GT2), 74.
18. (26) Doug Peterson, Bonita Springs, FL; Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (8, GT2), 74.
19. (13) Robbie Pecorari, Aston, PA; Gunnar Van der Steur, Chesapeake City, MD; Radical SR9 AER (8, P2), 74.
20. (5) Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Porsche RS Spyder (9, P2), 71, Accident.
21. (16) Wolf Henzler, Germany; Jorg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (9, GT2), 71.
22. (17) Mika Salo, Finland; Jaime Melo, Brazil; Ferrari F430 GT (10, GT2), 69.
23. (25) David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT-R (11, GT2), 64.
24. (9) Frank Biela, Germany; Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Audi AG R10/TDI (2, P1), 63.
25. (15) Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin DBR 9 (3, GT1), 48.
26. (10) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (3, P1), 33, Accident.
27. (27) Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Dodge Viper Competiton Coupe (12, GT2), 20, Accident.
28. (28) Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Aston Martin DBRS 9 (13, GT2), 0, Mechanical.