Road America: Kristensen, Capello win
Rinaldo Capello overcame a pair of stop-and-go penalties to give co-driver Tom Kristensen a fine 35th birthday present on Sunday in Round four of this year's American Le Mans Series at Road America - the championship's first visit to the classic four-mile Wisconsin road circuit.
After Kristensen qualified the number two Audi handily on pole, his yellow liveried car fought for the lead with its red number one counterpart until the Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela machine suffered a puncture at two-thirds distance.
That delay, combined with some subsequent starting problems was enough to put Capello and Kristensen back out in front after Capello had been penalised first for jumping a restart, and later for passing under a yellow flag at Turn Five while David Brabham's driveless Panoz was parked there.
The pair of Joest Racing-run works Audis were trailed home, on the same lap, by Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson in the Champion R8, while Clint and Joel Field brought their Judd-powered Lola home fourth, seven laps down.
The Panoz challenge never really materialized. The car Brabham was sharing with Jan Magnussen spun off briefly at Turn 1 on the start after Magnussen made contact with Pirro's Audi, and Bill Auberlen stopped after just 21 laps with an electrical fire in the other car, preventing Bryan Herta from even making a lap.
The LMP 675 class proved to be a battle of attrition over the 500 miles, as the polesitting Banana Joe's MG Lola suffered alternator problems in morning warm-up that kept it from taking the green. Jon Field did eventually get it going, but made only 48 laps.
Knighthawk Racing's similar car, freshly rebuilt after going up in flames at Le Mans, suffered another, thankfully smaller, fire that kept it from challenging for the class win, while Bucknum Racing's Pilbeam/Nissan led until its steering rack worked loose.
In the end, the class win fell to the Archangel Motorsports' Sears Point-winning Lola B2K40/Millington, driven by Briton Ben Devlin, Peter MacLeod and Larry Oberto. The trio finished 10th overall.
Tom Kristensen/Rinaldo Capello Audi R8 LMP 900 118 laps
Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro Audi R8 LMP 900 +32.172sec
Johnny Herbert/Stefan Johansson Audi R8 LMP 900 118
Clint Field/Joel Field Lola B2K10-Judd LMP 900 111
Pilgrim/Collins/Freon Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GTS 109
Fellows/O'Connell/Gavin Chevrolet Corvette C5-R GTS 108
Emanuele Naspetti/Mimmo Schiattarella Ferrari 550 Maranello GTS 106
Timo Bernhard/Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 RS GT 104
Lucas Luhr/Sascha Maassen Porsche 911 GT3 RS GT 104
Devlin/Oberto/MacLeod Lola B2K40-Ford LMP 675 103
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