Capello and Kristensen win frantic first round
Audi drivers Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen took an early advantage in the American Le Mans Series at the Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The Italian and the Dane claimed victory at the end of a frenetic race in which there were no fewer than five different overall leaders
Pole sitter Capello led throughout the opening shift, but the Italian found himself behind team mate Frank Biela after the first round of pit stops. Biela, who had stormed through the field from back of the grid, extended his lead before handing over to team mate Emanuele Pirro during the first of two yellow flag safety car periods.
Pirro looked to have the race in the bag until he spun after colliding with a backmarker shortly after half distance.
"At lot of things happened in that race," said Kristensen, "but we got lucky today."
Pirro, who blamed the backmarker for his off-track excursion, said: "It was a pity because Frank had done a wonderful job and I was able to build up our lead."
Pirro's off handed the advantage to Klaus Graf in the number two Panoz. The German was one of the stars of the race aboard the 2000-spec LMP Roadster S. He jumped ahead of team mate Jan Magnussen at the start and led after the first set of yellows.
David Brabham, Magnussen's team mate, found himself in the lead after the second safety-car period. The Australian led until just 10 minutes before the chequered flag, but he always knew that he would have to make a splash-and-dash fuel pit stop.
The stop dropped him to third, some way ahead of the customer Champion Audi of Andy Wallace and Dorsey Schroeder. Graf and Salles ended up an unrepresentative fifth.
The GTS class was won the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R of Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows, which lost a lap to its sister car with a blow-out early in the race. The former won back the lap under the yellows and then had an easy run to the flag after an almost identical tyre failure put the second 'Vette out of the race.
Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen were dominant in the GT class aboard their Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RS. Luhr pulled away from team mate Randy Pobst early in the race and then found himself with a lap lead after the first yellows.
Pobst and Christian Menzel finished second despite briefly dropping behind the Schnitzer BMW of JJ Lehto and Jog Muller.
Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen (Audi R8) 2h45m53.965s
Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro (Audi R8) 2h45m01.476s
Jan Mangussen/David Brabham (Panoz LMP07) 2h46m19.597s
Andy Wallace/Dorsey Schroeder (Audi R8) 2h46m40.921s
Klaus Graf/Gualter Salles (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 116 laps
Jay Cochran/Richard Dean (Panoz LMP Roadster S) 113 laps
Johnny O'Connell/Ron Fellows (Chevrolet Corvette C5-R) 108 laps
Lucas Luhr/Sascha Maassen (Porsche 911 GT3-RS) 108 laps
Randy Pobst/Christian Menzel (Porsche 911 GT3-RS) 107 laps
Hans Stuck/Boris Said (BMW M3 E46) 107 laps
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