Capello and McNish win at Laguna
Audi's Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish fended off a chasing Penske Porsche to take victory for the second time in a fortnight in the American Le Mans Series finale at Laguna Seca
In a repeat of their battle at the end of the Petit Le Mans, Capello put a late-race pass on Romain Dumas and then resisted pressure from the Frenchman until the chequered flag. Capello's margin of victory over the Dumas/Timo Bernhard car was just 0.4 seconds.
"I would rate this race as even better than Petit," Capello said. "At least there we had an advantage on the long straight, which we don't have here.
"It was not easy in the last 15 minutes and it only got harder. Every lap I could have been overtaken. I tried to brake as late as possible but not too late so as to not make a mistake."
A similar battle for third saw Marco Werner and Mike Rockenfeller in the second Audi overcoming Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe's Porsche for the final podium spot. The Fernandez Lola-Acura and the Andretti-Green Acura finished just three seconds behind their dice.
Class champions Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta beat their Corvette teammates Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell again in the GT1 battle, with an extremely quick pitstop making the difference for the Gavin/Beretta C6.R.
Risi Ferrari's Jamie Melo and Mika Salo clinched the GT2 crown with another win. Salo came back after a pitstop to pass Ralf Kelleners' Rahal Letterman Porsche for the class lead with 25 minutes remaining.
Pos Drivers Car Laps 1. R.Capello, A.McNish Audi R10 TDI 157 2. R.Dumas, T.Bernhard Porsche RS Spyder 157 3. M.Rockenfeller, M.Werner Audi R10 TDI 157 4. S.Maassen, R.Briscoe Porsche RS Spyder 157 5. A.Fernandez, L.Diaz Acura Lola BO6 157 6. B.Herta, T.Kanaan Acura ARX-01a 157 7. C.Dyson, G.Smith Porsche RS Spyder 157 8. B.Leitzinger, A.Wallace Porsche RS Spyder 156 9. J.Campbell-Walker, H.Primat Creation CA07 Judd 154 10. T.Chilton, D.Manning Zytek 07S Zytek 153 11. O.Gavin, O.Beretta Corvette C6.R 150 12. J.O'Connell, J.Magnussen Corvette C6.R 150 13. M.Salo, J.Melo Ferrari 430 GT 146 14. W.Henzler, D.Farnbacher Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 146 15. R.Kelleners, T.Milner Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 145 16. J.Van Overbeek, J.Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 145 17. G.Pickett, K.Graf AER Lola B06-10 144 18. T.Pappas, T.Borcheller Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 143 19. B.Auberlen, J.Hand, B.Sellers Panoz Esperante 139 20. S.Neiman, L.Pechnik, D.Law Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 139 21. N.Jonsson, T.Krohn Ferrari 430 GT 136 22. J.Feinberg, C.Ducote Dodge ViperComp Coup 136 23. D.Robertson, A.Robertson, D.Murry Panoz Esperante GTLM 135 24. J.Bach, B.Devlin Mazda Lola B07-40 133 25. J.Tafel, N.Swartzbaugh, L-E.Nielsen Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 117 26. S.Mucke, H.Shimoda Zytek 07S Zytek 112 27. C.McMurry, B.Willman, T.Burgess Lola EX257 AER 92 28. D.Brabham, S.Johansson, R.Kerr Acura ARX-01a 89 29. J.Field, C.Field, R.Berry Creation CA06H Judd 40 30. P.Dumbreck, L.Luhr Ferrari 430 GT 31
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