The de Ferran car struggled with a gearbox oil leak, which forced de Ferran and Pagenaud to make extra pit stops.
The Intersport Lola of Jon and Clint Field made a strong early showing, leading the race until the Lola’s front splitter broke, forcing lengthy pit stop which set the team too far back to catch up.
In LMP2, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz clinched the class championship with a win over Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger, when their Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda burned a piston in the final minutes of the race. Chris Dyson lost control of the other Dyson car, apparently hitting a wet patch of pavement entering Turn One, hitting the wall backward and ending his race.
In GT2, Corvette Racing scored its first class victory. Johnny O’Connell, starting his 100th ALMS race, and co-driver Jan Magnusson fought their way past the Ferrari Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer.
Oliver Gavin and Olivier Berretta brought the second Corvette home in third place in class, after briefly leading in class before sliding off while sparring with Kaffer in the Ferrari.
GT2 points leaders Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finished fifth, slowed by accident damage.
Patrón Highcroft Profits From de Ferran’s Problem
Race day was cool and cloudy; interment drizzle dampened the track, increasing the difficulty for drivers on one of the fastest tracks on the ALMS schedule.
On lap 27, Gil de Ferran brought his Acura into the pits with low oil pressure. Apparently due to radio problems, de Ferran thought he was swapping with Simon Pagenaud. He got halfway out of the car before he was told that the telemetry had revealed rising transmission oil temperatures. His crew assessed the situation, decided they couldn’t make repairs, topped up the transmission with oil, and sent de Ferran back out to race. (During this confusion, Marino Franchitti actually led the race in his P2 Dyson Lola-Mazda.)
The de Ferran car never again challenged seriously for the lead. It was as fast as the Patrón Highcroft machine, but it had to make repeated pit stops to top of the transmission oil. Simon Pagenaud brought the car home in second place, and even managed to compete for position, but the team accepted early on that it had no real chance of winning.
Fernandez, Diaz Clinch LMP2 Championship
The Dysons were fast enough to compete with the P1s. On lap 28, Marino Franchitti in the P2 Dyson Lola-Mazda passed Scott Sharp’s P1 Acura to take second overall.
The Dysons used different pit strategies on the two cars, double-stinting tires on the #16 car and changing them on the #20 car, to hopefully offset the Lowes Acura’s mileage advantage with better grip or quicker stops, depending. However, the experiment never culminated; on lap 43, Chris Dyson lost grip entering Turn One and slammed backwards into the wall. Dyson was uninjured, but the car was undriveable.
“We damaged a left front dive plane a couple laps before and this was really upsetting the balance of the car in the fast right-handers,” explained Dyson. “I went into Turn One and the front end washed out, then loaded up with grip. The car stepped out and I tried to correct it, but the speed was too high and I ended up backing into the wall. It was a hard hit. I want to thank Lola for building a strong car and Stand 21 for making an equally strong helmet.”
Butch Leitzinger took over in the remaining Dyson car, and did his best to maintain his lead, but he was running low on fuel, while Adrian Fernandez was able to run full rich. Fernandez closed steadily on Leitzinger, until on lap 120, Leitzinger’s car emitted a puff, then a plume, of smoke, and lost power. Apparently the combination of hard acceleration and a lean fuel mixture raised cylinder temperatures enough to burn through a piston crown.
“Without a doubt, we have had better results here,” Rob Dyson said afterwards. “But for the first time this season, an LMP2 car led an ALMS race on speed and pace and we are glad that we were able to give Mazda that distinction. The car definitely has the pace. All of our guys have a very strong desire to win and we will continue to build on our momentum and take it to them again at the Petit Le Mans.”
Adrian Fernnadez motored home to another class win, and the LMP2 championship.
Corvette Wins Its First GT2 Race
In GT2, the # 92 BMW of Tom Milner held the lead until lap nine, when he pitted with vibrations in his rear tires, allowing the two Corvettes to pass. Eight laps later, Bill Auberlein in the #90 BMW got cut off by Tont Burgess in the Autocon Lola. Auberlein stood on the brakes, and Patrick Long, in the #45 Fling lizard Porsche had nowhere to go; Long slammed the BMW forcing both cars to pit for repairs. On lap 28 Jaime Melo in the Risi Ferrari worked his way past Johhny O’Connell, and on lap 49 passed Oliver Gavin to take the GT2 lead.This set the pattern for the rest of the race in GT2: The Corvettes and the Ferrari battled back and forth, racing hard but clean. On lap 104, Kaffer brought the Ferrari in for tires, and rejoined the race second in class behind Jan Magnusson. On the next lap, Magnusson pitted; his crew turned in an absolutely amazing twenty-five second-pit stop. Magnusson exited the pits and rejoined the race right next to Kaffer in the Ferrari.
Magnusson held the inside through turns 5 and 5a; entering 5a he slid left, due to cold ties, but caught the slide before he wrecked either himself or Kaffer. Kaffer lifted, and Magnusson shot ahead into the lead. Magnusson fought off every move Kaffer made for the rest of the race to take the class win.
The American Le Mans Series season is winding down; only two races remain. The next contest will be the thousand-mile endurance classic, Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6, at the Road Atlanta course, on September 26. European Le Mans rivals Peugeot and Audi will each bring a pair of P1 machines; in all, ten P1 cars are expected, and thirteen GT2s.
Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6 caps a four-day, twelve-race motorsports weekend at Road Atlanta. Please visit the Road Atlanta Web site for more information.
| American Le Mans Series Drivers’ Championship | ||||
|
| Drivers | Team/Car | Pts. | Gap |
| P1 Drivers Points | ||||
| 1 | David Brabham, Scott Sharp | Patrón Highcroft Acura | 142 | 0 |
| 2 | Gil de Ferran, Simon Pagenaud | De Ferran Racing Acura | 125 | 17 |
| 3 | Jon Field, Clint Field | Intersport Lola-AER | 89 | 53 |
|
| ||||
| P2 Drivers Points | ||||
| 1 | Adrian Fernandez, Luis Diaz | Lowes Fernandez Acura | 166 | 0 |
| 2 | Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti | Dyson Lola-Mazda | 107 | 59 |
| 3 | Chris Dyson, Guy Smith | Dyson Lola-Mazda | 55 | 111 |
|
| ||||
| GT2 Drivers Points | ||||
| 1 | Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long | Flying Lizard Porsche 911 RSR | 138 | 0 |
| 2 | Jamie Melo, Pierre Kaffer | Risi Ferrari F430 | 107 | 31 |
| 3 | Dominik Farnbacher, Ian James | Panoz Esperante GTLM | 68 | 70 |
| ALMS Mobil 1 Mosport Grand Prix Final Results | ||||||||
|
|
In Class |
# | Place In Class |
Drivers |
Car |
Laps | Gap In Laps |
Status |
| 1 | 1 | 9 | P1 | Brabham*/(Sharp) | Acura ARX-02a | 131 |
| Running |
| 2 | 2 | 66 | P1 | (de Ferran)/Pagenaud* | Acura ARX-02a | 130 | 1 | Running |
| 3 | 1 | 15 | P2 | Fernandez/(Diaz*) | Acura ARX-01B | 127 | 4 | Running |
| 4 | 3 | 37 | P1 | (J.Field*)/C.Field | Lola B06/10 | 125 | 6 | Running |
| 5 | 2 | 20 | P2 | Leitzinger/(Franchitti*) | Lola B09-86 Mazda | 118 | 13 | Mechanical |
| 6 | 1 | 3 | GT2 | Magnussen/(O'Connell*) | Chevrolet Corvette C | 117 | 14 | Running |
| 7 | 2 | 62 | GT2 | (Melo)/Kaffer | Ferrari 430 Berlinetta | 117 | 14 | Running |
| 8 | 3 | 4 | GT2 | Beretta/(Gavin*) | Chevrolet Corvette C | 116 | 15 | Running |
| 9 | 4 | 87 | GT2 | Henzler*/(Werner) | Porsche 911 RSR | 116 | 15 | Running |
| 10 | 5 | 45 | GT2 | Bergmeister/(Long*) | Porsche 911 RSR | 115 | 16 | Running |
| 11 | 6 | 21 | GT2 | Farnbacher*/(James) | Panoz Esperante | 115 | 16 | Running |
| 12 | 7 | 44 | GT2 | (Law)/van Overbeek* | Porsche 911 RSR | 115 | 16 | Running |
| 13 | 8 | 11 | GT2 | Feinberg/(Hall*) | Dodge Viper | 113 | 18 | Running |
| 14 | 9 | 90 | GT2 | Hand*/(Auberlen) | BMW E92 M3 | 110 | 21 | Running |
| 15 | 10 | 40 | GT2 | (Murry*)/D.Robertson/A.Roberts | Doran Ford GT-R | 105 | 26 | Running |
| 16 | 11 | 92 | GT2 | Mueller*/(Milner) | BMW E92 M3 | 71 | 60 | Mechanical |
| 17 | 4 | 12 | P1 | (Burgess*)/McMurry | Lola B06/10 | 63 | 68 | Mechanical |
| 18 | 3 | 16 | P2 | (Dyson*)/Smith | Lola B09-86 Mazda | 43 | 88 | Contact |
| *19 | 4 | 19 | P2 | van der Steur/(Pecorari*) | Radical SR9 | 116 | 15 | Excl |
*Qualifying Driver (Starting Driver)
Car 19 excluded—5.4.3.e of the 2009 ALMS SSR (stall test)
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