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Penske hold off Audi at Elkhart Lake

Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard continued Penske Porsche's run of overall wins in the American Le Mans Series at Elkhart Lake

The duo emerged on top of a thrilling, weather-interrupted, contest that ended with the top three cars covered by just 2.3 seconds after four hours of racing.

The LMP1 Audis finished second and third after swapping positions repeatedly in the closing stages.

Allan McNish had led the early laps from pole before losing his left rear tyre.

That handed the advantage to the second Audi, but at the final pit stops after an hour-long caution caused by a thunderstorm, the Porsche crew chose not to change tyres and managed to leapfrog their LMP1 rivals.

Bernhard then successfully held off the chasing Rinaldo Capello and Emanuele Pirro to secure the LMP2 Porsche's sixth successive overall win.

The second Penske Porsche and the Highcroft Acura completed the top five.

In GT1, Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin took a dominant victory, despite a late spin by Beretta. The duo have now won the class in seven of this season's eight rounds.

GT2 turned into a fuel-mileage race after the main contenders made their final stops just over an hour before chequered flag. Jamie Melo and Mika Salo eased the Risi Ferrari home just ahead of Tom Milner and Ralf Kelleners' Rahal-Letterman Porsche.

Pos  Drivers                               Car                  Laps
 1.  R.Dumas, T.Bernhard                   Porsche RS Spyder    96 
 2.  R.Capello, A.McNish                   Audi R10 TDI         96 
 3.  E.Pirro, M.Werner                     Audi R10 TDI         96 
 4.  S.Maassen, R.Briscoe                  Porsche RS Spyder    96 
 5.  D.Brabham, S.Johansson, D.Dayton      Acura ARX-01a        94 
 6.  C.Dyson, G.Smith                      Porsche RS Spyder    94 
 7.  B.Leitzinger, A.Wallace               Porsche RS Spyder    94 
 8.  A.Fernandez, L.Diaz                   Acura Lola BO6       94 
 9.  B.Herta, M.Franchitti                 Acura ARX-01a        94 
10.  G.Pickett, K.Graf                     AER Lola B06-10      91 
11.  J.Bach, B.Devlin                      Mazda Lola B07-40    91 
12.  O.Gavin, O.Beretta                    Corvette C6.R        91 
13.  J.O'Connell, J.Magnussen              Corvette C6.R        90 
14.  D.Theys, F.Lienhard                   Maserati MC12        88 
15.  M.Salo, J.Melo                        Ferrari 430 GT       87 
16.  R.Kelleners, T.Milner                 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  87 
17.  P.Dumbreck, D.Mueller                 Ferrari 430 GT       87 
18.  W.Henzler, R.Liddell                  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  87 
19.  J.Van Overbeek, J.Bergmeister         Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  86 
20.  E.Helary, G.Bruni                     Ferrari 430 GT       86 
21.  T.Pappas, T.Borcheller                Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  85 
22.  J.Tafel, D.Farnbacher, N.Swartzbaugh  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  83 
23.  S.Neiman, D.Law                       Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  81 
24.  C.McMurry, B.Willman, M.Lewis         Lola EX257 AER       76 
25.  B.Auberlen, J.Hand                    Panoz Esperante      75 
26.  J.Field, C.Field, R.Berry             Creation CA06H Judd  48 

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