Motorsport

American Le Mans Series, round 7 in Mid-Ohio, USA, race: Porsche RS Spyder secures fifth consecutive

The Porsche RS Spyder has set the benchmark for all others in the American Le Mans Series. On the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Timo Bernhard (Germany) and Romain Dumas (France) secured the fifth overall victory in succession for Porsche. Driving the #7 RS Spyder fielded by Penske Motorsports, they won the seventh round of this race series featuring the world’s fastest sports cars ahead of their team mates Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Ryan Briscoe (Australia) in the #6 sister car. With this success, Porsche further increases its clear lead in the championship.

In a thrilling race from start to finish with tough battles for positions and many changes of the leader, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas crossed the finish line with a 2.380 second advantage to take their third overall win this season. The front-runners in the driver championship not only dominated in the Weissach developed and built sports prototypes against their rivals in the LMP2 class but again convincingly beat the LMP1 vehicles which are more powerful by around 200 hp and have a clearly better power-to-weight ratio. One year ago the duo claimed the first overall victory with the Porsche RS Spyder here on the time-honoured circuit situated in the US state of Ohio.

“Today everything fitted together beautifully, the strategy, the pits stops, simply everything,” said Porsche’s head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen. “That was a very tough victory. Our biggest thanks go to the drivers for their cautious care of the tyres, which was a major factor in the success today. To repeat our double win from last year is a fantastic experience. The competition in the LMP2 class is fierce but that makes it all the more fun. Five overall victories and six class wins in a row are super, but our primary goal this season is to win the LMP2 championship. Everything else is icing on the cake.”

For Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas this victory marked their third on this circuit. “We once won with the GT3 RSR here, twice with the RS Spyder but never from pole position. Now we have finally done that too,” said Timo Bernhard. “It wasn’t an easy race, certainly much harder than it appeared from the outside. We had to go for it right from start to finish to hold off our team mates. It was great fun.”

As Romain Dumas came into the pits with the RS Spyder after 88 laps for his second pit stop he lay second and had in fact given up on claiming the overall win. “We were concentrated on class victory, but the Penske boys were finished so quickly that I was back out in the lead and could even pull away a little,” he commented. For him the swift final pit stop was decisive in the success. “The others lost time, we saved it. As we had fully refuelled at the first pit stop we didn’t have to spend so much time during the second stop. And because the car is so light we were able to conserve the tyres in the final phase.”

Starting into the second half of the American Le Mans Series season, the two RS Spyders run by the Porsche-supported US privateer team, Dyson Racing, put in a strong performance against strong competition: Andy Wallace (Great Britain) and Butch Leitzinger (USA) occupied the fourth position in the LMP2 class, with Chris Dyson (USA) and Guy Smith (Great Britain) in fifth.

In the GT2 class for modified production sports cars, title defender Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Johannes van Overbeek (USA) celebrated their second consecutive win of the season with the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR run by Flying Lizard Motorsports. Their team mates Seth Neiman (USA) and Lonnie Pechnik (USA) saw the chequered flag in fourth.

Overall results

1. Bernhard/Dumas (D/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 134 laps
2. Maassen/Briscoe (D/AUS), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 134
3. Pirro/Werner (I/D), Audi R10 (LMP1), 134
4. Fernandez/Diaz (MEX/MEX), Lola B06/43 Acura (LMP2), 134
5. McNish/Capello (GB/I), Audi R10 (LMP1), 134
6. Wallace/Leitzinger (GB/USA), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 133
7. Dyson/Smith (USA/GB), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 133
8. Brabham/Johansson (AUS/S), Acura ARX (LMP2), 132
9. Graf//Picket (D/USA), Lola B06/14 AER (LMP1), 128
10. Franchitti/Herta (GB/USA), Acura ARX (LMP2), 126

Fastest race lap
Romain Dumas, Porsche RS Spyder, 1:10,113 min.

Class winners
LMP1: Pirro/Werner (I/D), Audi R10
LMP2: Bernhard/Dumas (D/F), Porsche RS Spyder
GT1: Beretta/Gavin (MC/GB), Chevrolet Corvette
GT2: Bergmeister/van Overbeek (D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

Points standings
Driver LMP2 class
1. Timo Bernhard, Porsche, 127
Romain Dumas, Porsche, 127
3. Sascha Maassen, Porsche, 114
Ryan Briscoe, Porsche, 114
5. David Brabham, Acura, 74
Stefan Johanssen, Acura, 74
7. Andy Wallace, Porsche, 72
Butch Leitzinger, Porsche, 72

Manufacturer LMP2 class
1. Porsche, 139
2. Acura, 97
3. Lola, 51

Teams LMP2 class
1. Penske Motorsports, Porsche, 139
2. Dyson Racing, Porsche, 74
3. Highcroft Racing, Acura, 74

Round 8 of the American Le Mans Series will be run on 11 August 2007 on the circuit of Road America in the US state of Wisconsin.