De Ferran dominates Utah ALMS race

The team benefited from getting into a clear lead at the start while its main rival Highcroft Acura was held up for several laps by the Intersport Lola.

Just as he had at the Utah track last year - when he battled past all the Audis, Acuras and Porsches to lead the race - Jon Field used the advantage gained from his turbocharged car at high altitude and on the very long start/finish straight to blast up the order at the start, claiming second by the first corner.

By the time Highcroft's Scott Sharp had got past Field, the De Ferran car was 20 seconds ahead. That gap grew further when the Highcroft car was slightly delayed at its first pitstop, and by the chequered flag Pagenaud's margin of victory was over a minute, as the team celebrated the first anniversary of its debut race in fine style.

Acura completed a one-two-three and a clean sweep of prototype class wins as Fernandez Racing's Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz brought their LMP2 Acura home in third.

That result looked unlikely in the first stint, as Diaz was pushed back to seventh overall and the LMP2 rival Dyson Lola-Mazdas ran first and second. But the #16 Dyson car lost several laps with electrical problems mid-race, and Marino Franchitti and Butch Leitzinger in the #20 entry ended up behind the Fernandez car after making a late fuel stop - their rivals having opted to save fuel and not make a third pit visit.

Leitzinger closed right in on Fernandez on the final lap as the Mexican tried to lap Smith in the delayed second Lola-Mazda, but ultimately Dyson missed out on a first class win of 2009 by 0.585s.

Corsa Motorsports' hybrid Ginetta-Zytek made a promising debut, running with the LMP2 cars early on and settling into fifth place before difficulty getting the car re-fired after a pitstop dropped Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson down the order.

The #45 Flying Lizard Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister took a straightforward GT2 victory, edging clear of the #87 Farnbacher Loles Porsche throughout. The Risi Ferrari came back through to third after being assisted into a spin by one of the Rahal Letterman BMWs at the start.

Martin and Melanie Snow came out on top in the new Challenge class for invited GT3 Porsches, which has been added to the grid from this round onwards to ensure fields remain at an acceptable level during the economic downturn.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                    Car                 Time
 1.  P1   de Ferran/Pagenaud         Acura ARX 02a       2h46m14.913s
 2.  P1   Brabham/Sharp              Acura ARX 02a        + 1m13.693s
 3.  P2   Fernandez/Diaz             Acura ARX-01B        +    3 laps
 4.  P2   Leitzinger/Franchitti      Lola B09 86 Mazda    +    3 laps
 5.  P1   Field/Field/Ducote         Lola B06/10          +   10 laps
 6.  P2   Dyson/Smith                Lola B09 86 Mazda    +   11 laps
 7.  GT2  Bergmeister/Long           Porsche 911 RSR      +   13 laps
 8.  GT2  Henzler/Lieb               Porsche 911 RSR      +   13 laps
 9.  GT2  Melo/Kaffer                Ferrari 430          +   14 laps
10.  GT2  Farnbacher/James           Panoz Esperante      +   14 laps
11.  GT2  Pastorelli/Stuck           Porsche 911 RSR      +   15 laps
12.  GT2  van Overbeek/Neiman        Porsche 911 RSR      +   16 laps
13.  P1   Mowlem/Johansson           Ginetta-Zytek 09HS   +   16 laps
14.  GT2  Mueller/Milner             BMW E92 M3           +   18 laps
15.  GT2  Hand/Auberlen              BMW E92 M3           +   20 laps
16.  GT2  Feinberg/Hall              Dodge Viper          +   21 laps
17.  Ch   Snow/Snow                  Porsche 911 GT3      +   21 laps
18.  GT2  Murry/Robertson/Robertson  Doran Ford GT-R      +   22 laps
19.  Ch   Parker/Skerlong            Porsche 911 GT3      +   46 laps
20.  P1   Lewis/Willman              Lola B06/10          +   63 laps
21.  Ch   Hoaglund/Faieta            Porsche 911 GT3      +   66 laps
22.  Ch   Baker/Cosmo                Porsche 911 GT3      +   21 laps
23.  Ch   Brown/Sweedler             Porsche 911 GT3      +   23 laps