Backstretch Motorsports

Audi scored its second straight 1-2 finish in the American Le Mans Series with Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr scoring a 2.463-second victory in their diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI over the sister car of Marcel Fässler and Emanuele Pirro. Werner passed race leader David Brabham on Road America’s long frontstretch for the lead with 20 minutes left to win the Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable at Road America.

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Will the fourth time be the charm for Lucas Luhr? Audi’s German factory driver certainly hopes so. Luhr earned his fourth career pole position at Road America on Friday and was the fastest overall qualifier for the Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable. His lap of 1:46.935 (136.277 mph) gave him a 0.41-second margin over Andretti Green Racing’s Franck Montagny.

Luhr will drive in Saturday’s four-hour race with Marco Werner with the duo having won three overall races and the last five LMP1 rounds. They comfortably lead the class championship by 58 points over Audi teammate Emanuele Pirro. Luhr hasn’t won from pole position at Road America after three previous fast qualifiers.

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Two races in the American Le Mans Series
First start on 9 August at Road America (USA)

Ingolstadt – The Swiss racing driver Marcel Fässler (32) gets the chance to contest two races in the American Le Mans Series with the Audi R10 TDI. The former DTM driver starts at Road America (9 August) and Detroit (30 August) for Team Audi Sport North America as team-mate to Emanuele Pirro.

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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.

Luhr drove the last 1:55 with the same set of Michelin tires and one more stop for fuel. 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.

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Gil de Ferran won his third straight pole position at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Friday…seven years since his last. The storybook debut season for De Ferran Motorsports continued with de Ferran’s first pole in the American Le Mans Series, a record-breaking 1:07.969 (119.596 mph) for the Acura Sports Car Challenge.

De Ferran’s Acura ARX-01b led a second straight overall sweep of the front row for Acura in a home race before thousands of Honda and Acura employees and guests. The two-time CART and former Indianapolis 500 winner qualified 0.224 seconds ahead of Patrón Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham, who sat on the pole a week ago at Lime Rock and won the race overall with Scott Sharp.

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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.

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Two ALMS races within eight days
US comeback for defending champion Dindo Capello
“Clean Diesel” with advantage over Ethanol

Ingolstadt [2008/06/30] – After a seven-week break, the American Le Mans Series continues in the middle of July with back-to-back races: At Lime Rock (Connecticut) and Mid-Ohio (Ohio) the world’s fastest sportscar contest two races within eight days on 12 and 19 July.

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LM P1
Audi achieves second Le Mans hat-trick

Capello/Kristensen/McNish win thriller
Audi R10 TDI remains unbeaten at 24 Hour classic
Eighth Audi victory out of ten starts at the Sarthe

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PEUGEOT 908 HDi FAPs MONOPOLISE THE TOP THREE PLACES ON SATURDAY’S GRID

For the second year in a row, a stunning lap from Stephane Sarrazin has put Team Peugeot Total on pole position for the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Frenchman was the fastest driver on the track during qualifying thanks to a time of 3m 18.513s on Wednesday in the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP he shares with Pedro Lamy and Alexander Wurz. The N8 car will consequently lead the field away when the endurance classic begins at 3pm on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the N9 and N7 sister cars of Franck Montagny/Ricardo Zonta/Christian Klien and Marc Gene/Nicolas Minassian/Jacques Villeneuve. The French machines completed qualifying more than three seconds quicker than their best-placed rival as the top teams spent the majority of the week’s two practice sessions concentrating on fine-tuning the race set-ups of their respective machines.

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Audi Sport Team Joest concentrated fully on race preparations during the first qualifying session for this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours (start on Saturday at 3 p.m.). The three Audi R10 TDI prototypes are fourth, fifth and sixth on the provisional starting grid.

As it was raining during the official test day at Le Mans and similar weather is also predicted for Thursday’s second qualifying session, last year’s winners decided not to go out for the fastest lap times with a special qualifying set-up. Instead, the Audi team worked intensively on the set-up and the aerodynamics and tested various tire specifications for the race. In addition, all nine Audi drivers completed their mandatory laps in darkness.

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