The 2009 American Le Mans Series finished in style with a great race at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Every ingredient for an absolute thriller was available this race with the battles win in both the LMP and GT2 class only decided in the final lap. Patrón Highcroft Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports secured the LMP1 and GT2 championships.
Simon Pagenaud had a clean start of the final race of the season, diving into turn one still in the lead with David Brabham following him. But three laps into the race the first full-course caution of the race was a fact when Klaus Graf and Paul Drayson collided at turn 9.
While Graf got a way with a punctured tyre, Drayson was less fortunate as he went into the barrier head-first. A heavily damaged Lola the result of the impact, race over after only three laps. Drayson escaped the crash without injuries. Not much later the second retirement of the race was announced, the #90 BMW retiring with electrical issues.
At the restart it was Jon Field in the Intersport Racing Lola who moved into second place, creating a perfect buffer for Simon Pagenaud. Unfortunately for the French driver the gap was then reduced when Butch Leitzinger in the #20 Dyson Racing Lola came to a halt on the track and one of the Challenge cars also ended up in the gravel, causing another caution.
The race had only just been restarted when things went wrong in turn 1. Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and two Challenge cars went off, bringing out the safety car again. Brabham suffered some damage in the incidents, which meant he had to come into the pit, unfortunately it wasn’t his only irregular stop, dropping the Australian to sixth place. The Fernandez Racing Acura moved into second.
Risi Competizione’s fight for the championship came to an end when Pierre Kaffer made contact with the RSR Jaguar. After just under an hour and a half the car was retired from the race, front cooler damage as a result of the contact forced the team to withdraw. The retirement also means the GT2 championship is decided, no team can catch the Flying Lizards now.
Despite the pressure being off the GT2 championship the fight in the category went on. The #45 was still in the lead, with the #3 Corvette and the #87 Porsche close behind, the Corvette closing in on the Lizards car though.
With one hour left on the clock the gap was only a few seconds in GT2, while at the front Fernandez moved into the lead when Gil de Ferran made his pit stop.
The final hour turned out to be a real thriller with battles for the both the overall and GT2 lead taking place from the moment the timer showed 1 hour left.
Adrian Fernandez was really on the pace after his pit stop, which allowed De Ferran to move back into the lead, the gap between the two cars shrinking lap after lap. With just thirty minutes left the two Acura racecars were just over a second away from each other.
The Corsa Motorsports Zytek suffering a puncture did not cause a full-course caution fortunately and the battle went on. Fernandez made his move in the final corner, taking the overall lead of the race, but De Ferran regained the lead in turn 1.
In GT2 Bergmeister and Magnussen were bumper on bumper, nearly hitting each other. Magnussen then went through the pit lane exit with four wheels, not allowed as per IMSA rules, and moved ahead of Bergmeister. The Dane gave back the position in order to avoid a penalty and keep in the battle. As the final lap got underway for de Ferran and Fernandez the GT2 cars kept battling for the lead.
Gil de Ferran secured the win in his final race as he managed to keep Adrian Fernandez behind him in the final corners. Fernandez, possibly his final race as well, took second place and the LMP2 class win.
With the LMP cars having passed the line the focus went back on the GT2 battle that was far from over. Bergmeister seemed to have the advantage over Magnussen, but the Dane made a final do-or-die attempt entering the final corner. There was contact between the Porsche and the Corvette but the two cars went on. On the straight Bergmeister and Magnussen were side-by-side, until Magnussen ran out of track and hit the pit wall. The Corvette spins and slammed into the wall on the other side of the track. Bergmeister won.
Close finishes this time, with the gap between the first two overall just 0.6 seconds and the gap between the two GT2 cars eventually a second.
Despite finishing four laps behind de Ferran it was the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a of David Brabham and Scott Sharp that secured the 2009 American Le Mans Series championship. Second place in LMP1 was more than enough to clinch the title. Bergmeister not only scored yet another Lizards victory, his win at Laguna Seca was the 100th win of Porsche in the ALMS.
Source: Planet Le Mans
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June 12th, 2010 at 11:09 am