Corvette Racing driver O'Connell and Magnussen Clinch GT1 Drivers Championship with Eighth Win in 2008 (ALMS Photo)
Emanuele Pirro, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish celebrate their thrilling overall victory at Road Atlanta. (Dan Boyd/ALMS)
McNish and his Audi R10 TDI crossed the finish line 4.512 seconds ahead of Peugeot’s Christian Klien and the Peugeot 908 HDi that he drove with Stephane Sarrazin and Nic Minassian. A record weekend crowd of 113,000 witnessed the week-long fight between the top two powers in sports car racing.
Andretti Green Racing's James Rossiter (left) and Franck Montagny drove to their first overall victory at Detroit on Saturday. (ALMS photo)
The day was about Acura, however. The manufacturer also posted its second overall race victory and took the lead in the LMP2 manufacturer championship by four points over Porsche.
Flying Lizard's pairing of Jorg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler have led the GT2 championship for a majority of the season. (ALMS Photo)
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.
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.
Le Mans, France - The Peugeot No. 7 is completely in control of the race at the 8 Hour mark. Audi Sport North America team No. 2 is second in LM P1 but is one lap down.
Approximately 2 hours into the 24 Heures du Mans, the No. 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche (driven by Patrick Long) made contact with the No. 80 Flying Lizard Porsche on course and both cars flew off the course deep into the gravel. The collision drove the No. 80 Porsche into the guardrail. There was significant damage to the car including severe bodywork damage on all sides, a broken rear wheel, two broken radiators, and right rear suspension damage. Driver Seth Neiman was able to drive the car back to the pits, where the crew is currently working on repairs. The No. 80 had been in the lead in GT2 for most of the race, with Joerg Bergmeister driving the first stint, and Johannes van Overbeek the second. We do not have an estimated time yet for return to the track; the car has been off track for 50 minutes so far.
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.
Corvette Racing First and Second in Provisional GT1 Qualifying for 24 Hours of Le Mans
Magnussen and Gavin Set Fast Times in First Four-Hour Qualifying Session
LE MANS, France, June 11, 2008 – With the possibility of rain tomorrow, there was a sense of urgency when tonight’s first four-hour qualifying session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans began. When qualifying concluded shortly before midnight, Corvette Racing was first and second in provisional GT1 qualifying. Jan Magnussen turned the quickest time in the GT1 class at 3:49.406 in the No. 63 Compuware Corvette C6.R, with Oliver Gavin a heartbeat behind at 3:50.766 in the No. 64 Compuware Corvette C6.R.
Sonoma, Calif. — The Lizards have closed up their home shop at Infineon Raceway for the month of June: the Flying Lizard No. 80 Porsche and its complement of crew and drivers are off to France for the team’s fourth consecutive 24 Heures du Mans. The team arrives this week in the historic town of Le Mans, near the Loire Valley, to prepare for the renowned 24-hour race on a 8.5-mile road course. The official test day is June 1; the race starts on June 14 at 3 pm CET and ends 24 hours later on June 15.
The 2008 Lizard drivers for Le Mans will be Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), Johannes van Overbeek (USA), and Seth Neiman (USA). Bergmeister, a Porsche factory driver, drives the No. 45 Porsche for the Lizards in the ALMS, and currently leads the ALMS GT2 drivers’ championship with teammate Wolf Henzler. van Overbeek pilots the No. 46 Lizard Porsche in the ALMS, and together with teammate Patrick Pilet (France), is in third. Neiman, driving the No. 44 Lizard Porsche (with Darren Law and Lonnie Pechnik), is fourth in the points chase.
Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard gave Porsche and Penske Racing their second straight victory at Miller Motorsports Park with a 1-2 finish for the two Porsche RS Spyders. Dumas took the checkered flag in front of Patrick Long in the Larry H. Miller Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels.
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