'Hot, hot, hot' was the theme of the day at the Acura Sports Car Challenge, as Michelin technical partner teams swept all four classes and the first 14 places overall in an exciting race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Audi R10 TDI diesel claimed its first victory at Mid-Ohio and a 1-2 finish as Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner claimed their third overall race victory of the season and fifth consecutive win in the LMP1 class, finishing 7.717 seconds up on their teammates Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro.
Finishing first in the P2 class and third overall was the #7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder driven by Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard. Dumas withstood a furious closing charge by Lime Rock Park winner David Brabham, who teamed with Scott Sharp aboard the #9 Patrón Highcroft Acura to finish second in P2 and fourth overall.
Adrian Fernandez in the #15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura gave race sponsor Acura, which hosted thousands of employees from its nearby Ohio facilities, some solace, as they claimed the final P2 class podium spot ahead of a trio of Porsche RS Spyders. The Penske Porsche RS Spyder of Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen was followed by the twin Dyson Porsches of Guy Smith/Chris Dyson and Marino Franchitti/Butch Leitzinger.
The top eight cars finished on the lead lap of the two hour forty-five minute race on the classic 2.258 mile circuit, the sixth stop on the 2008 American Le Mans Series season.
The hot and humid 95 degree day made for a hot, slick race track (125 degrees). Hot competition and a refueling fire that injured a crewmember and eliminated the pole winning #66 de Ferran Acura added to the drama.
Despite the heat, both the winning Audi and the GT2 class winning Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller double-stinted their MICHELIN® tires. Each ran virtually the final two hours of the race on a single set of MICHEIN tires. The win, their third of the season for the Tafel Ferrari, gave them ninth place overall and moved them to closer in the season championship to the Flying Lizard Porsches whose Johannes van Overbeek/Patrick Pilet and Jörg Bergmeister/Wolf Henzler completed the GT2 podium.
AUDI COMMENTS
'No one expected us to win,' said Audi's Lucas Luhr, noting the Penske Porsche's overall victories at Mid-Ohio in each of the past two years. 'Over the winter, we made some progress on our car together with Michelin. My engineer saw the Michelin performance today and how we could pull away on the restarts. He said ‘we will use those tires for the rest of the race,' it was the key for us winning. We did not change tires, everyone else did, and even on old tires we still pulled away. Tires are really an important part of the combination. Thank you to Michelin.'
CORVETTE
Making two trips each to the penalty box for their contact while racing each other away from what should have been a final pit visit, the Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen scored a fifth victory in six races over teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta. 'A lot of people think that we are out there just cruising, I think this shows just how hard we compete against each other,' said O'Connell., who characterized the contact as, 'just two buddies punching each other on the arm, it wasn't as bad as it probably looked.'
TAFEL FERRARI
'We knew we could double-stint the Michelin tires, so we did. We have done it before. We ran the whole Long Beach race (100 minutes) on one set of tires,' said Dirk Mueller.
MICHELIN COMMENTS
'Mid-Ohio is a very technical track and we are pleased that each of our technical partner teams was able to find a good balance and have a very competitive race,' said Karl Koenigstein, Michelin technical team leader. 'The fact that two of our winning cars double-stinted tires as part of their strategy despite the high temperatures and very tight competition are a tribute to our engineers; tire designers; chemists; and tire engineers at the track with each of our technical partner teams,' said Koenigstein.
Source : American LeMans - americanlemans.com
Finishing first in the P2 class and third overall was the #7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder driven by Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard. Dumas withstood a furious closing charge by Lime Rock Park winner David Brabham, who teamed with Scott Sharp aboard the #9 Patrón Highcroft Acura to finish second in P2 and fourth overall.
Adrian Fernandez in the #15 Lowe's Fernandez Acura gave race sponsor Acura, which hosted thousands of employees from its nearby Ohio facilities, some solace, as they claimed the final P2 class podium spot ahead of a trio of Porsche RS Spyders. The Penske Porsche RS Spyder of Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen was followed by the twin Dyson Porsches of Guy Smith/Chris Dyson and Marino Franchitti/Butch Leitzinger.
The top eight cars finished on the lead lap of the two hour forty-five minute race on the classic 2.258 mile circuit, the sixth stop on the 2008 American Le Mans Series season.
The hot and humid 95 degree day made for a hot, slick race track (125 degrees). Hot competition and a refueling fire that injured a crewmember and eliminated the pole winning #66 de Ferran Acura added to the drama.
Despite the heat, both the winning Audi and the GT2 class winning Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 GT of Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Mueller double-stinted their MICHELIN® tires. Each ran virtually the final two hours of the race on a single set of MICHEIN tires. The win, their third of the season for the Tafel Ferrari, gave them ninth place overall and moved them to closer in the season championship to the Flying Lizard Porsches whose Johannes van Overbeek/Patrick Pilet and Jörg Bergmeister/Wolf Henzler completed the GT2 podium.
AUDI COMMENTS
'No one expected us to win,' said Audi's Lucas Luhr, noting the Penske Porsche's overall victories at Mid-Ohio in each of the past two years. 'Over the winter, we made some progress on our car together with Michelin. My engineer saw the Michelin performance today and how we could pull away on the restarts. He said ‘we will use those tires for the rest of the race,' it was the key for us winning. We did not change tires, everyone else did, and even on old tires we still pulled away. Tires are really an important part of the combination. Thank you to Michelin.'
CORVETTE
Making two trips each to the penalty box for their contact while racing each other away from what should have been a final pit visit, the Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen scored a fifth victory in six races over teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta. 'A lot of people think that we are out there just cruising, I think this shows just how hard we compete against each other,' said O'Connell., who characterized the contact as, 'just two buddies punching each other on the arm, it wasn't as bad as it probably looked.'
TAFEL FERRARI
'We knew we could double-stint the Michelin tires, so we did. We have done it before. We ran the whole Long Beach race (100 minutes) on one set of tires,' said Dirk Mueller.
MICHELIN COMMENTS
'Mid-Ohio is a very technical track and we are pleased that each of our technical partner teams was able to find a good balance and have a very competitive race,' said Karl Koenigstein, Michelin technical team leader. 'The fact that two of our winning cars double-stinted tires as part of their strategy despite the high temperatures and very tight competition are a tribute to our engineers; tire designers; chemists; and tire engineers at the track with each of our technical partner teams,' said Koenigstein.
Source : American LeMans - americanlemans.com
