Backstretch Motorsports

The front of any American Le Mans Series grid gets plenty of attention. But the GT2 action has been fast and furious all season. It also has been the closest championship battle throughout the 2008 season, which is starting to wind down.

Entering this weekend’s Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch, Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler own a 10-point lead over Tafel Racing’s Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher for the class driver championship. The Lizard duo has been leading for most of the season, which started with a victory at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring to start the season, a race that currently is the difference. While the Lizards won 30 points for their victory, Tafel finished seventh in class and received just 14 points.

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Traffic at Mosport International Raceway did little to faze Audi Sport North America’s Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner on Sunday as they drove to their third straight overall American Le Mans Series victory in the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. Luhr crossed the finish line 21.392 seconds ahead of teammate Emanuele Pirro as Gil de Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap while leading in LMP2. That sent David Brabham and Scott Sharp to their fourth class victory of the season.

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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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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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The American Le Mans Series returns from its annual Le Mans break and heads to the shortest circuit on its schedule - historic Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. The 1.51-mile, 10-turn venue has undergone major renovations for this week’s American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix. Many of the track’s original characteristics remain, however. It’s still short, fast and extremely busy over the course of a single lap.

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All the hard luck and heartache in the first half of 2008 has been washed away. No matter what happens the rest of the season, Risi Competizione can claim the GT2 championship at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Drivers Mika Salo, Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni scored an eight-lap victory for Risi’s first win since closing 2007 with a triumph at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to clinch the American Le Mans Series GT2 title.

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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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It wasn’t perfect but Alex Figge’s first day back in the American Le Mans Series wasn’t bad either. The former open-wheel regular got his first taste of GT2 competition Friday at Miller Motorsports Park behind the wheel of Tafel Racing’s No. 73 Ferrari F430 GT.

Figge will partner with team owner Jim Tafel this weekend in the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels. After testing recently at Road Atlanta, Friday was Figge’s first time racing amongst four classes of sports cars since July 2005. The Ferrari finished Friday’s test session 11th in GT2.

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Talk about a change of scenery. The Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels could not be more of a contrast to the previous two rounds of the American Le Mans Series. Instead of tight, twisty street circuits, Miller Motorsports Park is a wide-open, extremely fast test of the abilities of both man and machine. That is certainly true in the Series’ two production-based GT classes.

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