Lehto thunders to Sears win

Lehto, who shared the car with Steve Soper, came home just 2.324s ahead of the second-placed Panoz LMP Roadster S, driven by David Brabham and Eric Bernard.

'I was a little worried about the traffic,' said Lehto. 'But it turned out to be pretty easy. They all saw the flags and moved over. But the BMW was not easy to drive on this circuit.'

Lehto's team mates Bill Auberlen and Joachim Winkelhock finished fifth after Butch Leitzinger hussled his Dyson Riley & Scott through to fourth, almost within sight of the chequered flag.

Third place went to the Roadster S of Johnny O'Connell, who finished the race a lap behind.

'The BMW was tough to beat today,' said O'Connell, who had injured his hand
the previous evening. 'It wasn't a bad race, but now we need to catch them.'

GTS class victory went to Dodge Viper drivers Olivier Beretta and David Donohue, who came home in 17th place overall, eight laps adrift.

They were followed home by Ron Fellows and Chris Kneifel in a Chevrolet Corvette.

The GT win was taken by Boris Said and Hans Stuck in a BMW M3, who were nine laps behind the winner.