Highcroft ends its ALMS win drought
Highcroft Racing ended fellow LMP1 Acura squad De Ferran Motorsports' streak of American Le Mans Series victories in today's Elkhart Lake event
Gil de Ferran and team-mate Simon Pagenaud had looked set to further erode Highcroft duo David Brabham and Scott Sharp's championship lead after they took pole, but in the race the Highcroft car got ahead when de Ferran opted to make an early pitstop under the first yellow.
Later cautions brought both back onto the same strategy, and they were nose to tail again with Brabham just ahead of de Ferran when the green flag waved for the final time with six minutes to go.
De Ferran tried his utmost, but Brabham was able to absorb the pressure and win by half a second, stretching his and Sharp's points lead again.
It was another Acura one-two-three, with the Fernandez entry winning LMP2 in third overall. The Dyson Lola-Mazdas had looked good early on, but the timing of the second yellow during the opening pitstops worked out badly for Dyson duo Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti, allowing Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz to get in front and win again. The #20 Dyson car took a close second, with the Cytosport Porsche not far behind.
Rahal Letterman's Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen gave BMW its first GT2 victory since the German marque returned to the ALMS this year. Having dominated class qualifying, the two BMWs were handed a one-lap advantage over their rivals when the first yellow fell just as the leaders had lapped the rest of the GT2 pack.
A penalty for a pit infringement dropped Dirk Muller and Tommy Milner off their team-mates' tails soon afterwards, leaving Hand and Auberlen to cruise to the class win. Muller resisted a late charge from the best of the Corvettes and the GT2 points leading Flying Lizard Porsche to complete a BMW one-two.
Pos Cl Driverw Car Time/Gap 1. P1 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX-02a 2h45m49.618s 2. P1 De Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX-02a + 0.461s 3. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b + 15.809s 4. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Mazda Lola B09 86 + 22.551s 5. P2 Pickett/Graf Porsche RS Spyder + 23.914s 6. P1 Field/Field Lola B06/10 AER + 48.510s 7. P1 Mowlem/Johansson Ginetta-Zytek 09SH + 1 laps 8. P1 Willman/McMurry Lola B06/10 AER + 1 laps 9. GT2 Auberlen/Hand BMW M3 E92 + 2 laps 10. GT2 Mueller/Milner BMW M3 E92 + 3 laps 11. GT2 O'Connell/Magnussen Corvette C6.R + 3 laps 12. GT2 Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 3 laps 13. GT2 Melo/Kaffer Ferrari 430 GT + 3 laps 14. GT2 Gavin/Beretta Corvette C6.R + 4 laps 15. GT2 Robertson/Murry/Robertson Doran Ford GT Mk 7 + 5 laps 16. GT2 Neiman/Law Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 6 laps 17. Ch Snow/Snow Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 8 laps 18. GT2 Feingerg/Hall Dodge Viper + 8 laps 19. Ch Parker/Pickering Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 9 laps 20. Ch Hoaglund/Faieta Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 9 laps 21. Ch Baker/Cosmo Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 10 laps 22. Ch Brown/Sweedler Porsche 911 GT3 Cup + 10 laps 23. GT2 Henzler/Miller Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 15 laps 24. GT2 Farnbacher/James Panoz Esperante + 17 laps 25. P2 Dyson/Smith Mazda Lola B09 86 + 21 laps
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