American Le Mans Series

Planetlemans Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston report

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Saturday’s American Le Mans Series Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston was once again a thriller. During the entire 2 hours and 45 minutes the race lasted there was a constant battle at the front between Audi and the LMP2 teams. That battle for the overall victory at the Reliant Park Circuit only ended when the checkered flag came out.

That it would be an interesting Grand Prix could be seen from the word go on Friday. The LMP1 and LMP2 cars were constantly close to each other, resulting in the Highcroft car taking pole position by .006s over the Audi of McNish and Capello.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

When the green flag was waved just after 5:30 pm it was Allan McNish in the nr 1 Audi passing David Brabham in the nr 9 Highcroft Acura. Before the end of the lap the Acura had already lost another place when Romain Dumas put the Penske Motorsport Porsche ahead.

Only six minutes into the race it was Ryan Briscoe (nr 6 Porsche RS Spyder) attacking the Marco Werner (nr 2 Audi R10) going into turn 4. The Australian driver managed to pass the German and moved up into fourth overall.

The first mishap of the day was for the nr 61 Krohn Racing Ferrari. Owner/driver Tracy Krohn went off going into turn 6. He quickly returned to the track, but damaged the left front fender slightly in the incident. The car returned to the pit where the front bumper was replaced and the car was refuelled.

Unfortunately for the team the IMSA officials noted that the Ferrari’s engine had not been shut down during the refuelling process and the team was penalized with a stop/go penalty, with engine switched off.

Out on the track McNish was still in the lead, while the others behind him were fighting for the second place with LMP2 and LMP1 swapping positions every now and then.

After 30 minutes the two Audi’s were leading the race, McNish nearly 7 seconds ahead of Werner. Romain Dumas was a close third.

In GT2 the Risi Competizione Ferrari led the two Flying Lizard Porsches and seemed to have no problems defending that lead.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

With the leaders making their way through traffic all of a sudden all eyes in the Audi team looked at the screens when Werner went into the run-off area of turn 10. In the process of getting back on the track he lost several positions and rejoined the race in fifth place overall. Three minutes later he went off at the same place, this time hitting the wall and damaging the rear bodywork. Werner lost even more places and dropped back to ninth place before coming into the pit lane for fuel and tyres and the necessary repairs.

Just before the one hour mark McNish came down the pit lane handing over the overall lead to the Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas. And while the prototypes at the front were fighting for it, the third placed LMP1 car of Intersport Racing spun at the chicane, coming to a halt facing the wrong way. After several cars went by Clint Field managed to get the car in the right direction again.{mospagebreak }Rinaldo Capello, at that point still in contention for an overall victory, had to come in because of a punctured left front tyre, losing valuable tracktime. Minutes later the GT2 Panoz of Bill Auberlen arrived in the pit lane. The car had substantial damage to the rear and the team put the car behind the wall when they found out there was a driveshaft failure. The car was later retired with a broken axle.

After 1,5 hour of racing the Timo Bernhard driven Penske Porsche RS Spyder was still leading, nearly 6 seconds ahead of team mate Sascha Maassen. 26 seconds behind Bernard was Capello in the Audi, despite the problems before. Pirro in the nr 2 Audi kept on closing the gap to the Intersport Creation.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Meanwhile the Krohn Racing Ferrari 430 hit trouble again. Tracy Krohn hit the tires, resulting in a broken rear wing and rear bodywork damage. He went on, with smoke coming from the car as a result of the right rear fender touching the tire.

After 100 laps the Maassen took the lead, as Bernhard went into the pit for a scheduled pitstop. The gap to the new number two in the race, Capello in the R10, was just under 15 seconds. But just before the 2 hours mark Capello got in trouble again. While turning into turn 6 the Porsche of Darren Law also turned in, hitting the rear of the R10 and the Audi rolled into the tires. Capello got the car in reverse and rejoined the race, losing a lot of ground to Maassen.

Then the first full course caution came out. Jim Tafel’s nr 73 Porsche suffered a suspension failure and the car went off at turn 10. With several cars using the yellow flag period to make a pitstop the Penske team decided to stay out, only to pit a few laps later.

When the green flag came out again it was the nr 7 Porsche RS Spyder in the lead and with 30 minutes to go the top cars were once again within seconds of each other. And that was not to stay. While the clock ticked on towards the 2 hours 45 minutes the nr 26 Andretti Green Acura and nr 1 Audi R10 slowly but steadily closed in on the leading Porsche. With 15 minutes to go Herta was 1,5 seconds behind the leader with Capello about 3 seconds behind him. And still the gap was closing.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Going into the final minutes of the race Bernhard was less than a second ahead of Herta. Herta used the whole track to find a place to get closer to overtak Bernhard. Spectators, team members and officials were standing to see if the Acura would overtake the Porsche, and in the final lap the Acura really put its nose under the rear wing of the Porsche. But the checkered flag came out and Bernhard won the race, just .490 seconds ahead of Herta and 1.341 seconds ahead of Capello.

For Porsche it was the second overall victory this year, the first back to back win for an LMP2 car in the American Le Mans Series. Audi won the LMP1 class, while the Magnussen/O’Connell Corvette won their first race of the season. The first win of the couple since 1999. Mika Salo and Jaime Melo took the GT2 honors, the fifth win in a row for the Risi Ferrari 430.

The gallery of the race is now online! Find our Lone Star Grand Prix of Houston pictures HERE

marcel@planetlemans.com