American Le Mans Series

Weaver/Leitzinger Win at Mosport

Teammates Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver piloted their number 16 Dyson Lola/AER to its second victory of the year. The team crossed the finish line only three and a half seconds ahead of the Audi of Lehto and Werner.

Weaver and Werner locked horns (almost literally) at the 51-minute mark as they tried to split a slower GT2 car in the esses coming into Turn 10. The two cars came together, with Werner pushed toward pit lane and Weaver taking the car straight off track and into the outside tire barrier.

The damage appeared minimal as Weaver backed the car out of the barrier and rejoined the race in second. Meanwhile, Werner opened up a nearly 30-second lead as the pit stop cycle began. But toward the midway point, teammate JJ Lehto made an unexpected stop sensing a vibration in the front of the car. That allowed Leitzinger to reclaim the lead.

Weaver’s thoughts on his chances to win when he went off? “Zero, until I saw Butch do about five or six laps,” he admitted. “It was pretty obvious that as soon as he got in the car, he was going to dig us out of the hole. I was going to make that pass on the outside, but the Panoz went wide. As I went into the corner, I was hot, and thought he was going to go into pit lane but he came back. I thought that was the end of that. But Butch dug us out.”

The climatic moment came with 35 minutes left. Leitzinger pitted with a 40-second lead, took on fuel but did not take on tires. He exited pit lane with Lehto right behind him, and the two cars battled down to the wire.

“The way the wall is here, you can’t see,” Leitzinger said. “As I was leaving the pits, they told me JJ is coming. Leaving the pits isn’t the easiest thing here because of all the rubber. It was all about getting in front of JJ. We hadn’t run that long on a set of tires before. It was a crapshoot and our only choice. It was pretty unproven and quite a chance. Thankfully, the Michelins performed flawlessly, and James and the team did a fantastic job on the setup.”