American Le Mans Series

Planetlemans analyzes the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio

© Audi Motorsport

An early attack and a regular, problem-free race helped Audi to a solid 1-2 at Mid-Ohio today ahead of the #7 Penske Porsche and the Patrón Highcroft Acura. The #2 car of Marco Werner-Lucas Luhr took the chequered flag 7.7 seconds ahead of the sister car of Emanuele Pirro-Dindo Capello after having dominated the race for over 2 hours. In LMP2 Romain Dumas was able to fend off a late attack by David Brabham to take the class win and 3rd overall. GT2 went to the 71 Tafel Ferrari after a master tactical move during the first full course caution that got them one lap ahead of the rest of the class. The Corvettes managed to be overtaken by almost all of the GT2 field after serving 5 minutes of dangerous driving penalties while racing ech other out of pitlane.

It took seven minutes for Marco Werner to get in the lead overtaking the Porsche and Acuras ahead of him while his team mate Dindo Capello would have a bit more of work but finally establish an Audi 1-2 after about 20 minutes that would last until the end of the race. Behind the Audis there would be plenty of action however and already early on a clash with a Porsche had the Andretti Green Acura into the pits with steering issues that would take 10 laps to repair and would put #26 out of contention for the win.

On GT2 the battle was very much alive as well and an early lead of the #62 Risi Ferrari would not last long as the Farnbacher Loles Porsche would take over and the #45 and #46 Lizards and the #71 Tafel Ferrari would also attack fiercely during the first period of the race. Around lap 30 Dindo would spin and have to work back his way to second in about 4 laps while a few places behind the B-K Lola Mazda would start a very good race much in the pace of the rest of the LMP2 class and getting to 10th at this stage having started from pitlane.

Behind the Audis it was a very tight battle between the de Ferran, Patrón Highcroft and Fernández Acuras as well as the Penske Porsches, all 5 cars very evenly matched on the track. On lap 38 the Primetime Viper would land on the gravel trap causing the first full course caution at a very favorable moment for Audi. An impeccable pit stop from the Ingolstadt team would see #2 retain their lead while the GT2 leader (Farnbacher Loles) would see their position gone as one of the jacks failed and they needed extra time for the tyre change. A good pit stop also from De Ferran saw the black Acura rejoin with Simon Pagenaud in 2nd overall just ahead of Capello.

As the green flag waved on lap 43 Dumas had also placed the #7 Penske Porsche ahead of the Highcroft Acura while the #6 Penske car was up to 5th in class. The GT2 race was won at this point when the #71 Tafel Ferrari was able to pit during the wave-by and managed to jump one lap ahead of the rest of the class. They were followed by #62 Risi, Farnbacher Loles, #46 and #45 Lizards and #61 Risi at that point.

On lap 45 Pirro overtook Pagenaud restablishing the Audi 1-2 and Devlin was flying on the Lola-Mazda having reached 8th after overtaking both Dyson Porsches. Dumas also overtook the De Ferran Acura getting 3rd overall and opening a small gap that would prove very fragile as the race evolved. Salo lost also second on GT2 to Werner but lap 56 saw a second caution thanks again to the Viper which would retire this time around.

On lap 62, about 90 minutes into the race the green flag was waved again but the #30 Intersport Lola driven by John Faulkner would cause a 3rd full course caution just 4 laps after that. This was an eventful one as the 66 Acura caught fire in the pits, Pagenaud apparently accelearting away before refueling had been completed. The huge blast would see one of the De Ferran team members injured and transferred to a nearby hospital in Columbus while the car was retired. Our best wishes for a prompt recovery for the De Ferran team member involved in the incident.

This caution would last therefore for just over 30 minutes, again Audi #1 lost second position to an LMP2 (in this case the #7 Penske Porsche) and ha to regain position on the track afterwards. The B-K Lola-Mazda also lost 11 laps on the pits at this point and a bad day again for Risi #62 dropping several places after their pit stop. The Corvettes would have a brawl with each other during their simultaneous pit stop that was severely penalized by race officials with 5 minutes stop-and-go and a severe warning afterwards.

On lap 80 we went racing again and as Pirro retook second a big battle started among Brabham, Fernández and Long that would see the Acuras move ahead of the Porsche and start challenging Dumas for first in class. In the meantime Farnbacher Loles was back to 3rd in GT2 behind #71 and the #46 Lizard, the PTG Panoz in 5th doing a pretty good job.

Very quick laps from Brabham would get him very close to Dumas but not as close as to get the lead from him as happened last week. In the end the Audis crossed the line with a small but manageable lead while Porsche managed an LMP2 victory at Acure’s home track. In GT2 the Porsches managed a 2-3-4 behind the #71 Tafel Ferrari which again took the honors. A late move from Salo enabled Risi #62 to take 5th ahead of the PTG Panoz. A very close race which is a great prospect for the next 4-hour round at Road America in August.

Mid-Ohio Race provisional results:

Pos Car Cls CP Team Laps Gap Best Lap Stops Car Make/Model
1 2 P1 1 Audi Sport North America 111 0.000 1:10.034 2 Audi R10
2 1 P1 2 Audi Sport North America 111 7.717 1:10.315 2 Audi R10
3 7 P2 1 Penske Racing 111 11.272 1:10.532 2 Porsche RS Spyder
4 9 P2 2 Patron Highcroft Racing 111 11.881 1:10.200 2 Acura ARX-01B
5 15 P2 3 Lowe`s Fernandez Racing 111 18.519 1:10.685 2 Acura ARX-01B
6 6 P2 4 Penske Racing 111 32.798 1:11.561 2 Porsche RS Spyder
7 16 P2 5 Dyson Racing Team 111 52.516 1:11.812 2 Porsche RS Spyder
8 20 P2 6 Dyson Racing Team 111 56.665 1:12.291 2 Porsche RS Spyder
9 71 GT2 1 Tafel Racing 104 7 Laps 1:21.175 2 Ferrari F430 GT
10 46 GT2 2 Flying Lizard Motorsports 104 1:04.135 1:21.663 2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
11 45 GT2 3 Flying Lizard Motorsports 104 1:04.594 1:21.190 2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
12 87 GT2 4 Farnbacher Loles Racing 104 1:05.265 1:21.329 2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
13 62 GT2 5 Risi Competizione 103 8 Laps 1:21.276 3 Ferrari F430 GT
14 26 P2 7 Andretti Green Racing 103 10.103 1:11.263 4 Acura ARX-01B
15 30 P1 3 Intersport Racing 103 31.842 1:12.046 5 Lola B06/10 AER
16 61 GT2 6 Risi Competizione 102 9 Laps 1:22.173 3 Ferrari F430 GT
17 21 GT2 7 Panoz Team PTG 102 26.098 1:23.133 3 Panoz Esperante GTLM
18 73 GT2 8 Tafel Racing 101 10 Laps 1:22.889 2 Ferrari F430 GT
19 18 GT2 9 VICI Racing 101 15.496 1:23.962 2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
20 8 P2 8 B-K Motorsports 99 12 Laps 1:12.100 2 Lola B07/46 Mazda
21 3 GT1 1 Corvette Racing 98 13 Laps 1:18.269 4 Chevrolet Corvette LS7
22 4 GT1 2 Corvette Racing 98 18.487 1:18.068 4 Chevrolet Corvette LS7
23 007 GT2 10 Drayson-Barwell 94 17 Laps 1:25.910 3 Aston Martin Vantage GT2
24 40 GT2 11 Robertson Racing 93 18 Laps 1:23.610 3 Doran Ford GT-R
25 12 P1 4 Autocon Motorsports 92 19 Laps 1:17.135 5 Creation Ca07-002 Judd
26 66 P2 9 de Ferran Motorsports 67 44 Laps 1:10.915 1 Acura ARX-01B
27 11 GT2 12 Primetime Race Group 43 68 Laps 1:25.670 1 Dodge Viper Competition Co
28 44 GT2 13 Flying Lizard Motorsports 44 37 74 Laps 1:24.912 0 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR
29 54 GT2 14 Black Swan Racing 27 84 Laps 1:25.181 3 Doran Ford GT-R
30 37 P1 5 Intersport Racing 23 88 Laps 1:13.197 0 Lola B06/10 AER