Backstretch Motorsports

Audi Takes LMP1 Class Win; O’Connell,Corvette Easily Win GT1
Flying Lizards Break Through with 1-2 GT2 Finish

If the grueling Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida is an indicator, the 2008 ALMS campaign will be another record book season for Penske Racing Porsce RS Spyders. Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard drove to an historic overall win at the 56th running of the American endurance classic.

Proving the computer simulations that show the LMP2 class to have a distinct advantage over their LMP1 counterparts, the lighter prototypes stole the thunder from the higher horsepower , heavier machines — the first overall win at Sebring by an LMP2 car that was further punctuated by four P2 lead-lap finishers, a race record. Dumas took the checkered flag by 12.979 seconds over Adrian Fernandez in the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b he shared with Luis Diaz. The P2 class swept the overall podium with Dyson Racing’s Porsche RS Spyder of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Andy Lally placing third.

Audi Sport North America took the LMP1 victory with the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI of Dindo Capello, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. Audi’s streak of consecutive overall wins at Sebring ended at eight although it won for the 23rd straight time in LMP1.

With the Peugeot 908 suffering a hydraulics failure and Audi R10 TDIs suffering both turbo and brake troubles, the LMP1 class was shut out of overall victory for the first time in recent memory.

Capello was charged with an early rough driving penalty after contact with the No. 46 Flying Lizard Porsche and assessed a stop and go at the 45 minute mark. The No. 1 Audi would rejoin the race in 12th place over all and fourth in class.

The Lizard Porsche of Johannes van Overbeek, Patrick Pilet and Richard Lietz rebounded from the hard hit (which required an hour-long suspension and axle repair for the No. 46) and returned from the back of the pack to finish eighth in class

The racing agility and speed of the Peugeot was well documented throughout the 12 hour contest, especially in the early going as the 908 was the easy leader in LMP1 and will give cause for the German manufacturer to return to the drawing boards as the challenges with the French turbodiesel moves to the European circuits.

The Porsche teams were class of the field at the 12 Hour ALMS endurance classic, the maunfacturer taking its first overall victory in 20 years.

Roger Penske becomes the first owner to have victories in the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Corvette ace Johnny O’Connell became the winningest driver in Sebring history with his seventh class victory, teaming with Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows for a nearly flawless run in Corvette Racing’s Corvette C6.R. The trio started from the head of the class and never trailed the entire way.

O’Connell won overall in 1994 and posted class victories in 1993, 1995 and 2002-2004. It gave Fellows four Sebring wins - he teamed with O’Connell for three straight from 2002-04 - and was Magnussen’s second in four years.

While the No. 3 Corvette ran faultlessly, the No. 4 sister Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Max Papis ran into trouble early. The car lost time early in the race when the crew had to change a driveshaft in the second hour. The trio was trying for a second straight class win together.

Flying Lizard Motorsports finally broke through in the 12 Hours after finishing second the last two years. Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb drove their No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to a two-lap victory over the sister car of Darren Law, Seth Neiman and Alex Davison.

It is the first 1-2 class finish for the Lizards, which placed third in 2005 and runner-up in 2006 and 2007.

Risi Competizione/Krohn Racing Ferrari finished third in class, driven by Nic Jonsson, Eric van de Poele and Tracy Krohn.

The 56th annual running of the 12-hour contest was truly a race of attrition – nearly 50% of the starting GT2 cars did not finish the race, including the two leaders for the first half of the race – the No. 62 Risi Ferrari and the No. 87 Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche, which made hard contact on course halfway through the race, resulting in early retirement for both cars.

56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida
Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Fla.
Saturday’s results

1. (4) Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Emmanuel Collard, France; Porsche RS Spyder (1, P2), 351.

2. (6) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 351.

3. (7) Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Andy Lally, New York, NY; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 351.

4. (1) Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Tom Kristensen, Denmark; Allan McNish, Scotland; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 351.

5. (10) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (4, P2), 350.

6. (11) David Brabham, Australia; Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; Stefan Johansson, Sweden; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 349.

7. (3) Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Mike Rockenfeller, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (2, P1), 333.

8. (12) Jan Lammers, The Netherlands; Fredy Lienhard Sr., Switzerland; Didier Theys, Belgium; Porsche RS Spyder (6, P2), 333.

9. (16) Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Ron Fellows, Canada; Johnny O’Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 328.

10. (9) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (3, P1), 327.

11. (17) Oliver Gavin, England; Max Papis, Italy; Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 320.

12. (2) Nicola Minassian, England; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Pedro Lamy, Lisbon Portugal; Peugeot 908 (4, P1), 318.

13. (21) Wolf Henzler, Germany; Marc Lieb, Germany; Jorg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (1, GT2), 314.

14. (28) Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Alex Davison, Australia; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 311.

15. (29) Nic Jonsson, Sweden; Eric van de Poele, Belgium; Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Ferrari F430 GT (3, GT2), 308.

16. (22) Allan Simonsen, Australia; Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Pierre Ehret, Santa Rosa, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (4, GT2), 305.

17. (18) Antonio Garcia, Spain; Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin DBR 9 (3, GT1), 299.

18. (32) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Competiton Coupe (5, GT2), 295.

19. (8) Marco Andretti, Nazareth, PA; Bryan Herta, Valencia, CA; Christian Fittipaldi, Miami, FL; Acura ARX-01B (7, P2), 287, Overheating.

20. (26) Craig Stanton, Long Beach, CA; Nathan Swartzbaugh, La Habra Heights, LA; Uwe Alzen, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (6, GT2), 286.

21. (20) Dirk Mueller, Germany; Robert Bell, UK; Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (7, GT2), 280.

22. (23) Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Richard Lietz, Austria; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (8, GT2), 280.

23. (15) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Bryan Willman, Kirkland, WA; Tony Burgess, Canada; Creation CA07-002 Judd (5, P1), 250, Mechanical.

24. (27) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; Panoz Esperante Ford (9, GT2), 200, Mechanical.

25. (34) David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT-R (10, GT2), 186, Accident.

26. (33) Miroslav Konopka, Slovakia; Mauro Casadei, Italy; Miroslav Hornak, Slovakia; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (11, GT2), 173.

27. (19) Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Gianmaria Bruni, Italy; Ferrari F430 GT (12, GT2), 137, Accident.

28. (24) Dirk Werner, Germany; Marc Basseng, Germany; Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (13, GT2), 136, Accident.

29. (25) Marc Goosens, Belgium; Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Doug Peterson, Bonita Springs, FL; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (14, GT2), 99, Overheating.

30. (13) Michael Vergers, England; Jean Ravier, France; Juan Barazi, Switzerland; Zytek 07S (8, P2), 88, Accident.

31. (30) Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Tim Sudgen, England; Aston Martin DBRS 9 (15, GT2), 70, Accident.

32. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Australia; Sascha Maassen, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Porsche RS Spyder (9, P2), 29, Overheating.

33. (14) Ben Devlin, England; Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Raphael Matos, Brazil; Lola B07 46 Mazda (10, P2), 0, Excluded.

34. (31) Gunnar Jeannette, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Johnny Mowlem, England; Ralf Kelleners, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (16, GT2), 0.