Audi hold off Porsche at Utah
Audi's R10 TDI took its second win in two starts in the American Le Mans Series as Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela won the Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park
The duo, who were two of the three victorious drivers in the R10 TDI at Le Mans last month, held off a challenge in the closing laps from Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen in their Porsche RS Spyder, the two cars separated by 0.314 seconds at the chequered flag.
"This was a great race," said Pirro after taking victory. "I thank God I have 27 years of experience because the last few laps were so difficult."
The Audi took fuel only at its final stop while the Porsche took fuel and tyres. This proved to be the winning move as the Porsche was unable to find a way past the leading Audi.
Though Maassen and Luhr didn't take overall victory, they won the LMP2 class ahead of the Intersport Lola of Clint Field and Liz Halliday as the sister Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard retired with a throttle problem.
GT1 saw a great result for Aston Martin, with the factory DBR9s scoring a 1-2 finish. Tomas Enge and Darren Turner won the class a lap ahead of Andrea Piccini and Stephane Sarrazin.
The GT2 victory went to Jamie Melo and Mika Salo for Risi Competizione in their the Ferrari F430GT. It was a great result after coming through from the back of the grid, after a penalty for changing tires prior to the start.
The Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister finished second, eleven seconds behind.
Pos Cl Drivers Make Laps 1. P1 Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro Audi R10 TDI 65 2. P2 Sascha Maassen, Lucas Luhr Porsche RS Spyder 65 3. P1 James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger Lola B06/10 AER 65 4. P1 Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello Audi R10 TDI 65 5. P1 Guy Smith, Chris Dyson Lola B06/10 AER 64 6. P1 Duncan Dayton, Andy Wallace Lola EX257 AER 62 7. GT1 Darren Turner, Tomas Enge Aston Martin DB9 62 8. GT1 Stephane Sarrazin, Andrea Piccini Aston Martin DB9 61 9. P2 Liz Halliday, Clint Field, Jon Field Lola B05/40 AER 61 10. GT1 Ron Fellows, Johnny O`Connell Corvette C6.R 61 11. GT1 Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta Corvette C6.R 61 12. GT2 Jaime Melo, Mika Salo Ferrari 430 GT 59 13. GT2 Patrick Long, Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 59 14. GT2 Johannes van Overbeek, Wolf Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 59 15. GT2 Mike Rockenfeller, Klaus Graf Porsche 911 GT3 59 16. P2 Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard Porsche RS Spyder 58 17. GT2 Scott Maxwell, David Brabham Panoz Esperante 58 18. GT2 Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand BMW E46 M3 58 19. GT2 Gunnar Jeannette, Tom Milner Panoz Esperante 58 20. GT2 Seth Neiman, Darren Law Porsche 911 GT3 57 21. GT2 Justin Marks, Bryan Sellers BMW E46 M3 56 22. P1 Bryan Willman, Michael Lewis Lola EX257 AER 47
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