AGR earn first ALMS win in Detroit

An early driver swap from James Rossiter to Franck Montagny and then the decision not to change tyres at the car's final stop vaulted the AGR Acura to the head of the pack, where it remained despite pressure from Highcroft Acura's David Brabham, who came home second.

Brabham's co-driver Scott Sharp had led from pole in the opening stages, resisting constant pressure from Simon Pagenaud in the de Ferran Acura, with Rossiter holding an early third for AGR.

Behind the top three, the LMP1 Audis were making rapid progress from their lowly grid slots, until Lucas Luhr had a heavy crash in the No.2 car after 36 minutes and caused a long yellow.

AGR waited until the 45 minute mark (the minimum amount of time each driver had to be in the car) before bringing Rossiter in to hand over to Montagny, while the Highcroft and de Ferran teams chose to stay out.

When racing finally resumed, Pagenaud continued to stalk Sharp for the lead before diving ahead in traffic just after the halfway point. The Frenchman then rapidly pulled away before the entire prototype field pitted when a GT2 crash prompted another yellow with one hour and ten minutes remaining.

While the erstwhile lead cars changed drivers and tyres as well as refuelling, AGR chose to just top up on fuel and send Montagny straight out, allowing him to emerge at the head of the field.

Similarly excellent strategy moved Timo Bernhard's No.7 Penske Porsche up to second - Romain Dumas having pitted under an earlier yellow - ahead of Marcel Fassler in the No.1 Audi, with Pagenaud and Sharp's co-drivers Gil de Ferran and Brabham falling to fourth and fifth.

Brabham made rapid progress in the final stint - benefiting from an error on cold tyres by de Ferran to take fourth just after the green, then hunting down and passing Fassler for third.

He then gained second when Bernhard was penalised for avoidable contact in traffic, and when Tom Sutherland crashed the PTG Panoz with 18 minutes remaining and caused another yellow, Brabham moved right on to Montagny's tail.

The Frenchman was up to the challenge, however, edging clear of Brabham at the restart and staying ahead to the flag - claiming AGR's first outright ALMS win at a time when their future in the series is far from certain after Acura's 2009 announcement failed to mention the team.

Fassler took third overall and the LMP1 class win for himself and Emmanuele Pirro, with de Ferran and Bernhard coming home fourth and fifth. Ryan Briscoe and Pat Long were sixth having pitted the second Penske Porsche with a few minutes remaining to elevate their LMP2 title chasing teammates another position.

Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta came from behind to end their Corvette teammates Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell's run of GT1 class wins, although it took a while for both cars to edge clear of the GT2 contenders.

The smaller class saw a one-two finish for Flying Lizard Porsche, with Wolf Henzler and Jorg Bergmeister leading home teammates Johannes van Overbeek and Patick Pilet, although the latter pairing had been on course for the class win before being tapped into a spin by Bernhard's Penske Porsche.

Flying Lizard had actually been in line for a one-two-three, but Risi Ferrari's Mika Salo passed Martin Ragginger for the final class podium spot in the closing stages. Salo and co-driver Jaime Melo had fought the Flying Lizards for the class lead until a flapping door forced an extra pit stop.

Tafel Ferrari were also extremely unfortunate, with the Dominik Farnbacher/Dirk Muller car having joined a spectacular four-way GT2 battle with the Flying Lizards and Risi cars until a broken starter motor stranded them in the pits for 20 minutes.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                        Car                 Time
 1.  P2   Montagny/Rossiter              Acura ARX-01b       104 laps
 2.  P2   Brabham/Sharp                  Acura ARX-01b      +   3.985
 3.  P1   Pirro/Fassler                  Audi R10 TDI       +  20.114
 4.  P2   De Ferran/Pagenaud             Acura ARX-01B      +  28.836
 5.  P2   Dumas/Bernhard                 Porsche RS Spyder  +  59.266
 6.  P2   Long/Briscoe                   Porsche RS Spyder  +  59.792
 7.  P2   Dyson/Smith                    Porsche RS Spyder  +   1 lap
 8.  P2   Bonilla/Devlin                 Mazda Lola B07-46  +   1 lap
 9.  P2   Leitzinger/Franchitti          Porsche RS Spyder  +  2 laps
10.  GT1  Gavin/Beretta                  Corvette C6.R      +  4 laps
11.  GT1  O'Connell/Magnussen            Corvette C6.R      +  4 laps
12.  GT2  Bergmeister/Henzler            Porsche 911 GT3    +  6 laps
13.  GT2  Van Overbeek/Pilet             Porsche 911 GT3    +  6 laps
14.  GT2  Salo/Melo                      Ferrari 430 GT     +  6 laps
15.  GT2  Raggenger/Pechnik              Porsche 911 GT3    +  6 laps
16.  GT2  Brix/Bell                      Ferrari 430 GT     +  6 laps
17.  GT2  Tafel/Figge/Ehret              Ferrari 430 GT     +  9 laps
18.  GT2  Feinberg/Hall                  Dodge Viper        + 10 laps
19.  GT1  Borcheller/Ducote              Aston Martin DBR9  + 11 laps
20.  GT2  Farnbacher/Muller              Ferrari 430 GT     + 15 laps
21.  GT2  Robertson/Murry/Robertson      Doran Ford GT-R    + 16 laps
22.  GT2  Milner/Sutherland              Panoz Esperante    + 17 laps
23.  P1   Field/Field/Berry              Lola B06/10 AER    + 21 laps
24.  P2   Fernandez/Diaz                 Acura ARX-01b      + 21 laps
25.  GT2  Pappas/Lazzaro                 Doran Ford GT-R    + 54 laps
26.  GT2  Pastorelli/Pastorelli/Basseng  Porsche 911 GT3    + 65 laps
27.  P1   Luhr/Werner                    Audi R10 TDI       + 82 laps
28.  GT2  Drayson/Cocker                 Aston Martin       +103 laps