Backstretch Motorsports

David Brabham did it again. Another late-race pass meant victory in the American Le Mans Series, this time a historic first overall victory for Acura and Patrón Highcroft Racing. Brabham passed Penske Racing’s Timo Bernhard with 90 seconds left Saturday to win the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix with Scott Sharp.

Brabham and Bernhard ran 1-2 for the last 50 minutes of the race, one that saw Brabham qualify on the overall pole position. The Patrón Highcroft Acura ran the final 1:26 on one tank of fuel and set of Michelin tires and coasted to the finish line in an attempt to save precious drops of fuel.

Brabham won overall for the first time since 2002 in Washington DC with Panoz, and Sharp won an overall race for the first time and the first American to win an overall series race since Butch Leitzinger in 2005. The pairing also won in class at Long Beach earlier this year. The victory came on Patrón Highcroft’s home track with its headquarters 50 miles from the track in Danbury, Conn.

Bernhard ended second with Romain Dumas in their Porsche RS Spyder. The other Penske entry of Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long finished third.

Audi Sport North America’s Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr won their fourth straight LMP1 round in their Audi R10 TDI. The pairing ran fourth overall and finished just off the lead lap. Intersport Racing’s Jon Field, Clint Field and Richard Berry scored their second runner-up finish of the season. Emanuele Pirro and Dindo Capello were third in class after Pirro dominated early in the pair’s Audi. Capello was involved in a crash an hour in that resulted in nearly 45 minutes lost in the paddock to repair the prototype.

Corvette Racing’s Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen won in GT1, coming from nearly a full lap back to beat the hard-luck duo of Corvette mates Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin. The duo won for the fourth time in five races and third time in a row. Each was victorious at Lime Rock for the first time.

O’Connell pitted late from the lead for a splash of cellulosic E85 and entered the track side-by-side with Beretta, who went wide and slightly off the track as O’Connell kept the lead.

Beretta eventually had to park his Corvette when the gearbox lost oil.

Wolf Henzler and Jörg Bergmeister took their second straight GT2 victory and third of the season for Flying Lizard Motorsports and Porsche. Henzler got around teammate Johannes van Overbeek with 37 minutes remaining after Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Dirk Werner slammed into van Overbeek’s side on a restart.

The collision sent van Overbeek off track and Henzler into first place. Werner and teammate Richard Westbrook came home second with Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo and Mika Salo third in their first race since winning the class championship at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Henzler and Bergmeister increased their lead in the class championship to 11 points over Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher after the duo made a last minute stop for fuel and finished fourth.

American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix
Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Conn.
Saturday’s results
1. (1) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Acura ARX-01B (1, P2), 168.
2. (5) Romain Dumas, France; Timo Bernhard, Germany; Porsche RS Spyder (2, P2), 168.
3. (3) Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Sascha Maassen, Germany; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 168.
4. (8) Lucas Luhr, Germany; Marco Werner, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 167.
5. (5) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (4, P2), 166.
6. (24) Marco Andretti, Nazareth, PA; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 165.
7. (6) Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Porsche RS Spyder (6, P2), 164.
8. (12) Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Johnny O’Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 157.
9. (16) Jorg Bergmeister, Germany; Wolf Henzler, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (1, GT2), 154.
10. (25) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (2, P1), 154.
11. (13) Richard Westbrook, England; Dirk Werner, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 153.
12. (14) Mika Salo, Finland; Jaime Melo, Brazil; Ferrari F430 GT (3, GT2), 153.
13. (15) Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Dirk Mueller, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (4, GT2), 152.
14. (2) Simon Pagenaud, France; Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Acura ARX-01B (7, P2), 151.
15. (18) Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Panoz Esperante Ford (5, GT2), 150.
16. (11) Oliver Gavin, England; Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 146.
17. (19) Patrick Friesacher, Austria; Harrison Brix, San Jose, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (6, GT2), 145.
18. (17) Patrick Pilet, France; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (7, GT2), 144.
19. (22) Tim Pappas, Boston, MA; Anthony Lazzaro, Acworth, GA; Doran Ford GT-R (8, GT2), 142.
20. (27) Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Alex Figge, Hollywood, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (9, GT2), 142.
21. (7) Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Audi AG R10/TDI (3, P1), 137.
22. (23) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (10, GT2), 107.
23. (9) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (8, P2), 94, Accident.
24. (20) Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (11, GT2), 81, Accident.
25. (10) Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Ben Devlin, England; Lola B07 46 Mazda (9, P2), 74.
26. (26) Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin DBR9 (3, GT1), 61, Accident.
27. (21) Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Aston Martin Vantage (12, GT2), 24, Throttle Linkage.