De Ferran wins, Highcroft takes title
Gil de Ferran brought his professional racing career to an end with victory in the American Le Mans Series finale at Laguna Seca, but de Ferran and team-mate Simon Pagenaud's race win was not enough to prevent Highcroft's David Brabham and Scott Sharp clinching the LMP1 title
De Ferran had to resist huge pressure from the LMP2 Fernandez Acura, which came agonisingly close to its first outright win in what could be the team's last race.
While de Ferran and Pagenaud led the majority of the four-hour race, Highcroft had a series of scares. Brabham immediately fell away from Pagenaud at the start - the Frenchman leading by 3.5s after just two laps - and then lost second to Jon Field's Intersport Lola at the restart from an early yellow caused by the Cytosport Porsche tangling with the Drayson Lola.
Brabham spent 13 laps stuck behind Field, by which time Pagenaud was over 40s clear in the lead. Another yellow wiped out that advantage, but the restart saw more trouble for Highcroft as its Acura was caught up in a multi-car tangle triggered by Corvette GT2 driver Oliver Gavin. An extra pitstop was required to attend to rear bodywork damage, and Brabham was back in again soon afterwards so a gearbox glitch could be fixed, leaving him two laps down before half distance.
Everything ran smoothly after that though, with Sharp and Brabham cruising home in third place, having secured the title once they reached the 70 per cent distance required to be classified as a points finisher.
De Ferran's toughest rival in the first half of the race was the bio-butanol Dyson Lola-Mazda LMP2, which had to miss qualifying and was not permitted to score due to its experimental fuel. The car tore through the field from the back of the grid and mid-race yellows allowed Guy Smith to hassle de Ferran for a while - until contact with Olivier Beretta's GT2 Corvette damaged the Dyson Lola's suspension.
Then in the final stint Adrian Fernandez charged onto de Ferran's tail as the Brazilian tried to stretch his fuel mileage and double-stint his final set of tyres. The LMP2 car squeezed ahead into the last corner with 24 minutes to go, but lost out to the LMP1 Acura's horsepower on the pits straight. Fernandez tried his utmost, but ultimately had to be content with second and another class win. Their LMP2 rivals Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti (Dyson) retired early.
Corsa's hybrid Ginetta-Zytek had a promising afternoon, running as high as second, but was delayed by a wiring loom issue and a puncture and fell to fifth behind the Autocon Lola.
Flying Lizard Porsche duo Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long became GT2 champions early in the race when the rival Risi Ferrari had to retire. Risi's Pierre Kaffer had run third behind the Corvettes at first, but got ahead in the pits and thanks to the Gavin accident. A win was the least Risi required as Flying Lizard could clinch the title with a top ten finish, and in the end the Ferrari squad conceded defeat early after its car was damaged in a collision with the new RSR Jaguar.
Bergmeister went on to win the class in a ferocious battle with Jan Magnussen's Corvette. The Dane was ordered to relinquish the lead on the final lap having overtaken using part of the pitlane, then barged back ahead with an aggressive last corner move, only to end up hitting the wall when Bergmeister fought back on the run to the line.
The Farnbacher Loles Porsche beat the PTG Panoz to third in a similarly close - but less violent - fight, as one BMW suffered an early failure and the other was delayed in the Gavin tangle.
Guy Cosmo and John Baker won the GT Challenge class as on the road victors Shane Lewis and Mitchell Pageray failed a technical inspection. Martin and Melanie Snow clinched the inaugural class title.
Pos Drivers Cl Car Time/Gap 1. De Ferran/Pagenaud P1 Acura 4h00m51.966s 2. Fernandez/Diaz P2 Acura + 0.662s 3. Brabham/Sharp P1 Acura + 4 laps 4. Burgess/McMurry/Willman P1 Lola + 9 laps 5. Mowlem/Johansson P1 Ginetta-Zytek + 10 laps 6. Bergmeister/Long GT2 Porsche + 13 laps 7. Magnussen/O'Connell GT2 Corvette + 13 laps 8. Henzler/Ehret GT2 Porsche + 14 laps 9. Farnbacher/James GT2 Panoz + 14 laps 10. Neiman/van Overbeek GT2 Porsche + 15 laps 11. Muller/Milner GT2 BMW + 15 laps 12. Westbrook/Stuck GT2 Porsche + 15 laps 13. Sellers/Cicero GT2 Porsche + 18 laps 14. Dyson/Smith/Devlin UNC Lola-Mazda + 18 laps 15. Sutherland/Drissi/Gigliotti GT2 Riley Corvette + 18 laps 16. Baker/Cosmo Ch Porsche + 24 laps 17. Beretta/Gavin GT2 Corvette + 25 laps 18. Parker/Pickering Ch Porsche + 28 laps 19. Rodriguez/Bieker Ch Porsche + 28 laps 20. Murry/Robertson/Robertson GT2 Doran Ford + 29 laps 21. Brown/Sweedler Ch Porsche + 30 laps Retirements: Field/Field P1 Lola 125 laps Pickett/Graf P2 Porsche 124 laps Curtis/Sofronas Ch Porsche 89 laps Snow/Snow Ch Porsche 52 laps Melo/Kaffer GT2 Ferrari 49 laps Gentilozzi/Goossens GT2 Jaguar 46 laps Leitzinger/Franchitti P2 Lola-Mazda 31 laps Hand/Auberlen GT2 BMW 3 laps Drayson/Cocker P1 Lola 2 laps Lewis/Pagerey Ch Porsche DSQ Hoaglund/Faieta Ch Porsche DSQ
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