Highcroft take Acura's first victory
Highcroft's David Brabham and Scott Sharp scored Acura's first outright American Le Mans Series victory in an astonishing finish at Lime Rock
Pole-winner Brabham fought back through the field after Sharp was bundled down the order and sustained bodywork damage in the first stint, and finally snatched the lead from Penske Porsche's Timo Bernhard with just a minute and a half to go - only to then run out of fuel on the last lap.
But with Bernhard having spun as Brabham completed the pass for the lead, the Australian had just enough of a margin to coast across the line and clinch an incredible win.
The leaders were all trying to save fuel and reach the finish without a late pit stop after several full course yellows in the second half of the race.
Yet the need to be conservative didn't stop Bernhard and Brabham mounting a spectacular battle for the lead in the closing stages, with the gap ebbing and flowing in the traffic before Brabham got ahead on the outside at Big Bend in the penultimate minute of the two and three quarter hour race.
A Highcroft win looked unlikely when Sharp received contact at the first corner from front row partner Simon Pagenaud (de Ferran Acura), before being pushed back from first to fourth by a bold opening lap move from Penske's Patrick Long, and then rapidly slipping to eighth place while struggling with rear bodywork damage after a second incident with Pagenaud.
The team managed to carry out repairs without losing a lap by pitting under yellow, setting the scene for Brabham's scintillating recovery charge in the second half of the race.
Long and Sascha Maassen brought the second Penske Porsche home third despite Maassen receiving a penalty for tapping Butch Leitzinger's Dyson Porsche into a spin as they diced for the last podium spot with five minutes to go. Leitzinger continued, only to crash heavily on the pit straight when his rear wing broke in the final moments.
Maassen had been forced to battle back up the order after a miscommunication during the first yellow saw Long fail to pit with the rest of the front-runners, dropping him from the lead to the tail of the lead lap queue by the time he eventually did stop to hand over to Maassen. A couple of trips off the road hampered Maassen's recovery, before he finally - if controversially - got ahead of the Dyson Porsche.
Leitzinger's late loss completed an unfortunate race for Dyson, who at one stage looked set to get two cars on the podium after excellent pit work under the first yellow, only for Guy Smith to tangle with a GT2 Porsche and crash out.
Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr were the leading Audi duo in fourth, having been delayed by an early spin and a penalty for a pit infringement by the latter and then a trip off the road by Werner as he tried to recover.
But the team could have been celebrating a win, as a superb first stint charge saw Emanuele Pirro move from seventh on the grid into the lead within the first seven minutes of the race - the veteran Italian having made up five places on lap one alone.
Pirro then pulled away, but their chances of victory ended with a 46-minute stop for repairs after his co-driver Dindo Capello tangled with the Bell Motorsports Aston Martin shortly after their first stop.
Adrian Fernandez managed to bring his ailing Acura home in fifth ahead of the Marco Andretti/Franck Montagny Andretti Green Acura, which lost touch with the leaders in the first stint as Andretti fought through from the back - having had to start last under series rules as Andretti's IndyCar Series commitments at Nashville prevented him from driving in practice or qualifying.
The de Ferran Acura team had a disappointing race after qualifying on the front row, with Pagenaud's early incidents and a penalty for hitting Sharp costing the team ground, and electrical and gearbox problems severely delaying the Frenchman and co-driver Gil de Ferran later in the race.
The Corvettes continued to battle fiercely for the GT1 victory despite their lack of opposition. Johnny O'Connell clinched the class win for himself and Jan Magnussen after coming out best from a wheel to wheel battle with teammate Olivier Beretta as the American rejoined following a late splash-and-go pit stop. Beretta went off the road trying to fend O'Connell off, and then later had to retire with a gearbox problem.
Flying Lizard Porsche duo Wolf Henzler and Jorg Bergmeister won GT2, but the team had been on course for a comfortable one-two in class until leader Johannes van Overbeek sustained damage in a tangle in traffic at the final restart.
That dropped van Overbeek and co-driver Patrick Pilet out of contention, with the Dirk Werner/Richard Westbrook Farnbacher Loles Porsche and the Jaime Melo/Mika Salo Risi Ferrari coming through to complete the podium.
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. P2 Brabham/Sharp Acura ARX-01b 168 laps 2. P2 Dumas/Bernhard Porsche RS Spyder + 18.872 3. P2 Maassen/Long Porsche RS Spyder + 1:01.641 4. P1 Luhr/Werner Audi R10 TDI + 1 lap 5. P2 Fernandez/Diaz Acura ARX-01b + 2 laps 6. P2 Montagny/Andretti Acura ARX-01b + 3 laps 7. P2 Leitzinger/Franchitti Porsche RS Spyder + 4 laps 8. GT1 O'Connell/Magnussen Corvette C6.R + 11 laps 9. GT2 Bergmeister/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 14 laps 10. P1 Field/Field/Berry Lola B06/10 AER + 14 laps 11. GT2 Werner/Westbrook Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 15 laps 12. GT2 Salo/Melo Ferrari 430 GT + 15 laps 13. GT2 Farnbacher/Muller Ferrari 430 GT + 16 laps 14. P2 de Ferran/Pagenaud Acura ARX-01B + 17 laps 15. GT2 Milner/Sutherland Panoz Esperante + 18 laps 16. GT1 Gavin/Beretta Corvette C6.R + 22 laps 17. GT2 Brix/Friesacher Ferrari 430 GT + 23 laps 18. GT2 Van Overbeek/Pilet Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 24 laps 19. GT2 Pappas/Lazzaro Doran Ford GT-R + 26 laps 20. GT2 Tafel/Figge Ferrari 430 GT + 26 laps 21. P1 Pirro/Capello Audi R10 TDI + 31 laps 22. GT2 Feinberg/Hall Dodge Viper Comp + 61 laps 23. P2 Dyson/Smith Porsche RS Spyder + 74 laps 24. GT2 Neiman/Law Porsche 911 GT3 RSR + 87 laps 25. P2 Bonilla/Devlin Mazda Lola B07-46 + 94 laps 26. GT1 Borcheller/Ducote Aston Martin DBR9 + 107 laps 27. GT2 Drayson/Cocker Aston Martin Vantage + 144 laps
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