Leitzinger, Weaver Take Mosport
Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver's Dyson Racing Lola won the latest round of the American Le Mans series at Mosport
A brave pit decision by team owner Rob Dyson meant the team took their second victory of the season by 3.625 seconds over the Champion Racing Audi R8 of JJ Lehto and Marco Werner.
At the Lola's final pitstop, Dyson chose not to change tyres and just refuel, allowing Leitzinger to stay ahead of JJ Lehto. Leitzinger then managed to hold off the former Formula One driver to the flag.
But it had looked worse earlier in the race for the eventual winners. Approaching the end of the first hour, Weaver locked horns with Werner when the pair were lapping a slower GT2 car into the Esses. The two cars came together, with Werner pushed towards the pitlane and Weaver going off track into the outside tyre barrier.
The Lola was not severely damaged in the accident and was able to claim back the 30 seconds it had lost to the Champion car when Werner's co-driver JJ Lehto made an unexpected pitstop after sensing a vibration.
Weaver was full of praise for teammate Leitzinger: "It was pretty obvious that as soon as he got in the car, he was going to dig us out of the hole. I was going to make that pass on the outside, but the Panoz went wide. As I went into the corner, I was hot, and thought he was going to go into pit lane but he came back. I thought that was the end of that. But Butch dug us out."
The second Champion Racing Audi of Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro finished third to maintain their lead in the LMP1 drivers championship.
Result of American Le Mans Series, Mosport, Canada:
Pos Drivers Make Class Laps 1. Weaver/Leitzinger Lola EX257 AER P1 127 2. Werner/Lehto Audi R8 P1 127 3. Pirro/Biela Audi R8 P1 126 4. Dyson/Wallace Lola EX257 AER P1 125 5. Halliday/Field Lola B05/40/AER P2 120 6. Beretta/Gavin Corvette C6-R GT1 119 7. Fellows/O'Connell Corvette C6-R GT1 119 8. Borcheller/Mowlem Saleen S7R GT1 119 9. Bertolini/de Simone Maserati MC12 GT1 118 10. Bucknum/McMurry Courage C-65 P2 117 11. Bach/Cosmo Courage Mazda P2 113 12. Weickardt/Rugulo/Belloc Dodge Viper GT1 112 13. Bergmeister/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 110 14. Law/Baas, Noblesville Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 110 15. Rockenfeller/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 109 16. Neiman/Pechnik/Murry Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 109 17. Jackson/Sudgen Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 108 18. Dumas/Bernhard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 108 19. Franchitti/Sellers Panoz Esperante eGTLM GT2 107 20. Liddell/Auberlen Panoz Esperante eGTLM GT2 91 21. van Overbeek/Fogarty Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 68 22. Devlin/Van der Steur Lola B2K/40 AER P2 26
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