Organisers hail Silverstone race

In front of a record crowd of 53,000, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello fought back from two laps down following a clash with Stephane Sarrazin's Peugeot to win a breathless and unpredictable series finale.

The result, and fourth place for the No.2 Audi of newly-crowned drivers' champions Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat, meant that Peugeot came away from a series that they had dominated empty-handed in terms of major titles.

Le Mans Series General Manager Patrick Peter said: "This has been the most exciting race since the Le Mans Series began in 2004.

"There was a lot of suspense and drama throughout," he added. "I feel sorry for Peugeot, but this is motor racing. Audi used their experience and are very worthy champions."

Peter was also pleased with the attendance figures and said the series will aim to have regular crowds of 50,000 by 2010.

"It is a great way to end our season after crowd sizes were up at all our venues; for example 28,000 came to Barcelona, 35,000 to Spa-Francorchamps and now today's attendance. Our goal will be to have 50,000 at all our events in 2010.

"I believe today's figure can be attributed to a number of key areas - notably strong, strategic marketing and promotion, including that from our teams and partners, plus the fight between Audi and Peugeot has really captured the public's imagination and today was a chance to see their fight decided.

"Considering we did not release our calendar until February - and so started later than is perhaps ideal - the crowd figures are very good. I hope we can finalise our 2009 calendar in the next few months so we can start putting things together earlier for next season."