Marco Werner held off a late charge by Butch Leitzinger to score his second consecutive win in the American Le Mans Series with co-driver JJ Lehto in Monday's New England Grand Prix sports car race at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. The race was the 50th event in the history of the ALMS, which started in 1999, and was the first-ever ALMS race at historic Lime Rock Park.
Werner, driving the ADT Champion Racing Audi R8, beat Leitzinger's Dyson Racing Lola-MG to the finish line by 1.429 seconds after a late-race caution period set up a five-minute dash to the finish in the two-hour, 45-minute timed event. Lehto, who drove the first 45 minutes of the race, and Werner led 105 of the race's 165 laps, while Leitzinger and co-driver James Weaver led 59 circuits.
The two cars had a back-and-forth race, with each falling a lap off the lead at separate points during the event. But the key was the next-to-last of five caution periods in the race when Werner was able to make the Audi's final pit stop under yellow shortly after Leitzinger had pitted under green. Leitzinger was able to close into striking distance near the end of the race but Werner prevailed in the final shootout.
"That was a lot of pressure on me," said Werner. "I knew he (Leitzinger) was close for the last restart and he had been running fast. I lost a race to that team last year like that and didn't want it to happen again."
"We got out of sequence which was in our favor for a while, but that last yellow put us a lap down," said Leitzinger. "From then we had to crawl back. We made little dents, but it wasn't quick enough. The #38 (Audi) got caught in horrible traffic and from then I could judge his progress. But with that last yellow lasting a long time, we just didn't have enough time to get it done."
"The race stayed close all the way to the end," said Lehto. "It was up to tactics and it was a good game. It's always nice to win. This was our first time here. It was nice to take it. I was so nervous at the end I didn't know who was going to win."
Ferrari Takes First Alms Gt Win
Ferrari scored its first-ever GT class win in the ALMS with Anthony Lazzaro and Ralf Kelleners winning by one lap in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 360 Modena. The win was also the first in the ALMS for the two drivers and snapped a 21-race GT class winning streak in the ALMS for Porsche that dated back to the first event of the 2002 season.
Miracle Team Takes Second LMP2 Win Of 2004
Ian James of Orlando, Fla., and James Gue of Athens, Ga., had a trouble-free race and won the LMP2 class by eight laps in the Miracle Motorsports Lola B2K/40-Nissan. The team won for the second time this season as James raced with two other drivers to win the class in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
"The Miracle Motorsports preparation is second to none," said James. "John Macaluso (team owner) has a great work ethic and a drive to win. These Yokohama tires did great. The key is being consistent and never deviating from that. Of course the traffic was tough, and the car was not hugely quick in the straights, so all the overtaking of the GT cars was under braking in the corners."
Andy Lally and Ryan Eversley finished second in the Race Car Company Lola-Millington, while the Team Bucknum Racing Pilbeam MP91-Nissan of Jeff Bucknum, Chris McMurry and Bryan Willman was third.
Earnhardt And Infineon Next
The ALMS will have a weekend off before the July 16-18 Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr., will be a special guest driver, sharing a third Corvette Racing entry with road racing veteran Boris Said.
"Junior is really fast as well as Boris," said Gavin. "Those two will be no slouches. I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a fun weekend."
The Sonoma race will be the first of back-to-back events for the series, the second being the Grand Prix of Portland at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway July 23-25.
