Race: Panoz grabs another win

A stop-go penalty for Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello's R8 cost them the lead, and a lengthy stop for Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela to cure a misfire put paid to any hopes that the number 2 car would notch up a second successive victory.

David Brabham and Jan Magnussen took a huge gamble on fuel mileage and emerged the victors for Panoz, although they had a few tense moments in the closing minutes when Biela unlapped himself.

"I knew he was a lap down, but I remembered what they did to us at Petit Le Mans last year so there was no way I was going to let him past," said Magnussen. "Finally the gearbox jumped into fourth when I was upshifting to third, so he went by."

But there was no repeat of the team orders scenario that cost Panoz position at Petit Le Mans. Biela didn't hold Magnussen up and Capello finished nine seconds behind.

Dyson Racing played the caution periods like a piano and came close to finishing second with the Lincoln-engined Riley & Scott MkIII C shared by Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver. Capello relieved Weaver of second shortly before the end of the race and defended the position stoutly.

"I had a good race with Capello at the end there and our performance today proved that our car is quick, despite the problems we had in practice," said Weaver.

Didier de Radigues and Bruno Lambert won the LMP675 class in the Dick Barbour Racing Reynard-Judd, but this was no flag-to-flag run: de Radigues spun to the tail of the field after making contact with Claudia Huertgen's KnightHawk Lola-Nissan on the first lap.

"I was able to get back into the lead," said de Radigues, "but I had another brief off and grass got into the radiator, so I had to back off as the engine was getting hot."

Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell beat their team mates and the Saleen S7-R of Franz Konrad and Terry Borcheller to win the GTS class for Chevrolet, despite dropping back in the first stint.

"We made a sway bar change before the race and it didn't work," said Fellows. "We made some more changes at the first stop, which was just what Johnny needed to chase down the numebr four car."

Konrad initially made the running but he was punted off by Andy Wallace in the Champion Audi and lost a wheel. Borcheller mounted a spectacular charge in the final hour but had too much ground to make up, and finished third behind Andy Pilgrim and Kelly Collins.

JJ Lehto and Jorg Muller headed the GT cars home, just a car length ahead of BMW Motorsport team mates Fredrik Ekblom and Dirk Muller. Alex Job Racing's McKenna Porsche 911s were in the hunt at first but the pace car came out just after they pitted, putting them almost a lap down. Randy Pobst and Christian inherited third after team mates Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen pulled off three laps from the end with a failed half shaft.

"That's a risk you take when you have so many development parts on the car," said Pobst. "We're tweaked to the max."

Brabham/Magnussen Panoz Roadster S 116 laps
Capello/Kristensen Audi R8 116 laps
Weaver/Leitzinger Dyson Racing Riley & Scott MkIII C 116 laps
Biela/Pirro Audi R8 116 laps
Herbert/Wallace Champion Audi R8 115 laps
Graf/Lagorce Panoz Roadster S 115 laps
Taylor/Angelelli Cadillac Northstar 114 laps
Tinseau/Collard Cadillac Northstar 113 laps
Lambert/de Radigues Dick Barbour Racing Reynard-Judd 109 laps
Fellows/O'Connell Chevrolet Corvette C5-R 109 laps
Pilgrim/Collins Chevrolet Corvette C5-R 109 laps
Huertgen/Knight KnightHawk Lola-Nissan 108 laps
Konrad/Borcheller Konrad Saleen S7-R 108 laps
Lehto/Muller BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GTR 107 laps
Muller/Ekblom BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GTR 107 laps
Pobst/Menzel Alex Job Racing McKenna Porsche 911 GT3-RS 106 laps