McNish anchors Audi's Sears victory

The Scot produced one of the best drives of his life over the first two-thirds of the race. He drove away from the second Joest-run Audi R8 of Emanuele Pirro from the start and was more than a lap ahead when he handed over to team mate Rinaldo Capello with less than 45 minutes to go.

McNish said: "The car was pretty good and I got a bit of a break with the traffic early on. It's nice to be back in the winner's circle and to get some points on the board. I'll sleep well tonight."

Pirro admitted that he and team mate Frank Biela were always half a step behind McNish. "He's been a little quicker all weekend," said the former. "Allan's been here before, but we had to spend time learning the circuit. That cost us in terms of our set up."

The Italian lost time early on after nudging a slow Porsche and then ran out of fuel just before his first pitstop. "For some reason I missed the call and I had to coast into the pits," he explained.

BMW pairing JJ Lehto and Jorg Muller inherited the final place on the podium near the end after an uncompetitive if reliable run. The former ran a lowly sixth early on, but the latter overhauled David Brabham for third when the Panoz driver slowed to a crawl with a slipping clutch during the final laps. Brabham and team mate Jan Magnussen ended up fifth behind the second BMW of Bill Auberlen and Jean-Marc Gounon.

Former Grand Prix drivers Karl Wendlinger and Olivier Beretta lost their 100% record in the GTS class. The former led early on in the number one Dodge Viper, but dropped to second during the first round of pitstops before Beretta lost time with a mid-race off. That left That left David Donohue and Tommy Archer to take a clear win in the second of the two ORECA Vipers.

Hans Stuck and Boris Said finally broke Dick Barbour Racing's stranglehold on the GT class. The best of the Prototype Technology Group BMWs shadowed the Barbour Porsche of Dirk Muller and Lucas Luhr for the first two thirds of the race before Stuck took the lead and drove into a clear lead.

For full results and points standings, click here.

The ALMS resumes on August 6 in Mosport Canada.