ALMS

Laguna Seca: Series spotlight - Romain Dumas

DUMAS' MEMORIES FROM MONTEREY Before last year's Monterey Sports Car Championships and the close of the 2007 American Le Mans Series, Penske Racing's Romain Dumas could not have imagined a tougher fight for victory than his climatic battle with ...

Edited: Oct 13, 2008, 11:19 PM

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DUMAS' MEMORIES FROM MONTEREY

Before last year's Monterey Sports Car Championships and the close of the 2007 American Le Mans Series, Penske Racing's Romain Dumas could not have imagined a tougher fight for victory than his climatic battle with Audi's Dindo Capello at Petit Le Mans. As close as that race was - the winning margin was a razor-thin 0.923 seconds - it was even tighter at the seasons' finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Once again, Dumas and Porsche lost out to Capello and Audi by a race-record 0.41 seconds, basically a car length after four hours. Dumas and Timo Bernhard took their eighth LMP2 victory of the season.

"Last year was a very nice race;" Dumas recalled. "I overtook the Audi four or five times on the last corner. Unfortunately, Dindo passed me on the straight because he had more power."

For the second year in a row, Dumas and Bernhard enter this season's Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón with the class championship sewn up. But there still is the matter of the manufacturer championship. Porsche's sweep of the first four positions in LMP2 at Road Atlanta moved the German marque ahead in the standings by just eight points with 25 points going to the winner this weekend.

"Laguna Seca is very nice because it's a nice track and a nice place," he said. "Now that we already have the driving title, we go there with less stress. The year was very special. It is an honor to win this championship again. From my point of view, this is the biggest moment for me with Porsche and the RS Spyder. The competition with Acura has not been easy."

The final round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series is the Monterey Sports Car Championships presented by Patrón from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The four-hour race into darkness is scheduled to start at 2:45 p.m. PT on Saturday, October 18. NBC Sports will air the race from 2 to 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 19. XM Satellite Radio's Channel 144 will air the race from 4 to 8 p.m. ET on the same day. Live video of qualifying will be available on americanlemans.com starting at 3 p.m. PT on Friday, October 17. American Le Mans Radio will have live coverage on americanlemans.com, which also will feature Live Timing & Scoring.

-credit: alms

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