McNish and Capello take dramatic win in Portland

The Italian had converted his pole position into the lead from the sister Joest-run R8 of Emanuele Pirro at the start of the race, but disaster struck after just eight laps. Capello was lapping the GT class lead battle and, under pressure from Pirro, slid on oil and hit the Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R of Dirk Muller. The impact sent the Audi into a spin and it dropped all the way back to seventh.

Pirro continued unperturbed and built a lead over Panoz driver David Brabham and the sister car of Johnny O'Connell. But a yellow flag period 10 laps later gave Capello the chance to pit and change the nose of his car, however, he then found his progress back up the field delayed as he tried in vain for 10 laps to pass the sixth-placed Reynard of Stefan Johansson.

All seemed lost, for when Capello finally made his way past the Swede on lap 41, he was already 45 seconds behind Pirro. With the Audis clearly the class of the field again, there seemed little chance of making up the deficit. But just one lap after Pirro had pitted under racing conditions, a second yellow flag period allowed Capello to hand over to McNish under caution, and the No77 Audi emerged in second place just behind O'Connell's Panoz. Poor Pirro was the major loser, and found himself nearly a whole lap down due to his stop.

When racing resumed, McNish quickly picked off O'Connell as he was held up lapping the Rafanelli Lola of Mimmo Schiattarella, and the Scot simply flew into the distance to stretch out a winning lead from Brabham.

"Yellow flags have gone against us in three races this year," said McNish, "but this time they really played into our hands. What goes around comes around, but I do feel sorry for Emanuele."

From there McNish simply reeled off the laps to win from Brabham's team mate Jan Magnussen. Pirro's team mate Frank Biela charged hard over the closing laps to eventually rise to fourth, but he could not quite catch the Schnitzer BMW of championship leader Jorg Muller before the flag to win the final podium position.

An upset Pirro said: "Even after 20 years in racing, a turnaround like this is hard to accept. But that's the way it goes."

Briton Guy Smith drove excellently to continue the strong work of team leader Johansson to finish fifth in the Reynard, ahead of Hiroki Katoh in the second Panoz.

The Chrysler Viper of Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger won the GTS class from the sister Oreca-run car of David Donohue and Tommy Archer, while Sascha Maassen took the lead of the GT class championship after winning with Dick Barbour team mate Bob Wollek. The team's other car of Muller had recovered from the impact with Capello to get back into the lead, but then hit Archer's Viper as it ran into the back of the Rafanelli Lola. The damaged radiator put him out of contention, leaving Maassen to be chased home by Boris Said's BMW M3 and Bruno Lambert's Alex Job Racing Porsche.


Final results


Rinaldo Capello/Allan McNish Joest Audi R8 136 laps
David Brabham/Jan Magnussen Panoz LMP1 Roadster S + 57.45s
JJ Lehto/Jorg Muller Schnitzer BMW V12 LMR 135 laps
Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela Joest Audi R8 + 9.61s
Stefan Johansson/Guy Smith Johansson Reynard-Judd 2KQ + 40.91s
Johnny O'Connell/Hiroki Katoh Panoz LMP1 Roadster S 134 laps
Mimmo Schiattarella/Didier de Radigues Rafanelli Lola-Judd B2K/10 133 laps
Max Angelelli/Wayne Taylor GM Cadillac Northstar LMP + 3.10s
Jon Field/Rick Sutherland Intersport Lola-Judd B2K/10 127 laps


Olivier Beretta/Karl Wendlinger Oreca Chrysler Viper GTS-R 123 laps
Tommy Archer/David Donohue Oreca Chrysler Viper GTS-R 121 laps
Vic Rice/Zak Brown/Mike Fitzgerald Roock Porsche 911 GT2 99 laps


Sascha Maassen/Bob Wollek Dick Barbour Porsche 911 GT3-R 121 laps
Boris Said/Johannes van Overbeek PTG BMW M3 E46 + 47.13s
Randy Pobst/Bruno Lambert Alex Job Porsche 911 GT3-R 120 laps