McNish and Capello secure title

For McNish it was a second ALMS championship to go with his 2000 success, but thanks to quirks of the scoring system Capello had never won the series title before - an anomaly that has now been corrected.

Their celebration was almost delayed as Smith surged into contention in the second half of the race, putting on a spurt after taking over from co-driver Chris Dyson, who had run fourth for most of the opening stint.

A late final stop brought Smith even closer to the race-leading Audi, and he set a string of fastest laps as he narrowed the gap from 19 seconds to just 2.7 seconds at the flag.

The other Dyson Lola looked the more likely winner at first, as Butch Leitzinger led from pole for the first hour, resisting huge pressure from Capello and Emanuele Pirro, until the former slipped ahead on lap 41.

Ultimately Leitzinger and co-driver James Weaver would drop out of contention when a jammed wheelnut caused a desperately slow final pit stop. They recovered to third ahead of Pirro and Frank Biela's fading Audi, but that was not enough to keep the title battle alive.

Dyson could have retained a mathematical shot a the championship had they ordered Smith to hand second to Weaver, but they chose not to interfere - a gesture that Capello appreciated.

"Dyson made it a fair race," acknowledged the new co-champion. "I'm very happy to win this championship after winning so many races but never a championship in the past. Half an hour ago it looked very difficult for us, but now everything is fantastic."

The Penske Porsches were no match for the LMP1 cars on this occasion, despite getting amongst them in pre-race testing. They still took a dominant LMP2 one-two, with Romain Dumas and Lucas Luhr leading home Sascha Maassen and Timo Bernhard.

Liz Halliday, in possibly her best drive yet, kept pace with the Porsches for a while, but then severe brake problems brought the Intersport Lola in for an extended pit stop. It eventually rejoined and finished last of all, 32 laps down, but was still classified third in LMP2.

Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy dominated GT1 for Aston Martin, leading virtually throughout. The alternate pit strategy that Corvette duo Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin tried allowed them to lead the class briefly in the final hour, before Sarrazin charged past and reclaimed the advantage.

The other half of the GT1 field tangled even before the green flag, with Peter Kox's Aston being spun to the back and Ron Fellows receiving a drive-through penalty as a consequence. The Canadian was left seething, adamant that Kox was to blame for the incident.

The Risi Ferraris ended up taking a commanding GT2 one-two, Johnny Mowlem and Stephane Ortelli beating Toni Villander and Maurizio Mediani.

But such a result looked unlikely in the opening hour, as the Ferraris struggled for tyre temperature and Marc Lieb strode into the distance, having vaulted from fifth to first at the start in his Flying Lizard Porsche.

A puncture - possibly caused by contact with a Dyson car - early in Lieb's partner Johannes van Overbeek's stint dropped the Porsche back and allowed Gunnar Jeanette to lead the class in the Multimatic Panoz, having pitted during an early yellow.

When the strategies played out, the Ferraris emerged first and second, with the Panoz seemingly bound for third until the recovering van Overbeek claimed the place in the final minutes.