ALMS
Laguna Seca race report
MONTEREY, Calif. (September 9, 2001) -- Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won the American Le Mans Series Monterey Sports Car Championship event Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, putting Italian driver Pirro into position to win the series ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
MONTEREY, Calif. (September 9, 2001) -- Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro won the American Le Mans Series Monterey Sports Car Championship event Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, putting Italian driver Pirro into position to win the series championship.
Pirro's win, combined with a non-finish by Audi teammates Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen, put Pirro into the series point lead with only the Oct. 6 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta remaining on the schedule.
"You can never give up in racing or in life," said Pirro, who teamed with Biela and Kristensen to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans this past June for the second straight year. "It's hard to believe that we have a chance to win the championship."
The Panoz LMP-1 of Jan Magnussen led most of the first hour of the race, but was eliminated after tangling with the Audi of Johnny Herbert and crashing into the wall at the entrance to the pits. The Herbert car was penalized later in the race after officials had reviewed video of the incident.
Biela, who started the eventual winning car, swapped the lead with Magnussen in the early going before turning the car over to Pirro under a full-course yellow at the 1:20 mark of the two-hour, 45-minute race. Pirro restarted the race in second place behind Herbert and then took the lead when Herbert's car served its 20-second penalty for contact with Magnussen. He led the rest of the race.
Andy Wallace, who took over for Herbert after the penalty, managed to close on Pirro, but Pirro held on for a 1.6-second margin of victory.
Didier de Radigues, who has already clinched the LMP 675 class championship for 2001, won his fifth straight race despite having to spend time behind the wall for suspension repairs after taking over for starting driver Milka Duno. Duno was credited with winning the class for the third time this season.
Terry Borcheller and Franz Konrad drove a Saleen S7R to a one-lap win in the GTS class, snapping a four-race winning streak by Corvette drivers Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows, who finished second. The Saleen led the entire race except for during pit stop exchanges and was never really challenged.
"This feels great," said Borcheller. "The season has been a real struggle. It seems that a lot of little details have been hurting us and causing us to lose races. This victory is a big boost for the team and for Saleen."
JJ Lehto and Jorg Muller won the GT class in a BMW M3 GTR, their fourth win in the last five races. Muller passed fellow BMW driver Dirk Muller in the closing moments of the race to take the class win and pad his series point lead, though the title remains in doubt heading to the last race.
-alms
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Laguna Seca practice report
Next article Panoz Motor Sports Laguna Seca race notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Johnny O'Connell
Long, Parente PWC duel continues this weekend at Sonoma
SRO America
SRO America
Sonoma
Long, Parente PWC duel continues this weekend at Sonoma
Three COTA 60-minute races to determine SprintX championships
SRO America
SRO America
Circuit of the Americas
Three COTA 60-minute races to determine SprintX championships
Mid-Ohio PWC: Parente scores dramatic GT pole
SRO America
SRO America
Mid-Ohio
Mid-Ohio PWC: Parente scores dramatic GT pole
Latest news
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 8 min
Max Verstappen: FAQ on his GTWC Europe debut
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
1 h
Pedro Acosta: "I'm going to Ducati to learn from Marc Marquez, not to beat him on same bike"
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Christian Horner admits that F1 rivalry with Toto Wolff became "theatre"
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe