ALMS
Long Beach: Race report
DUMAS, BERNHARD LEAD PENSKE 1-2 FINISH AT LONG BEACH Phenomenal strategy and a bit of luck sent Penske Motorsports to its second 1-2 overall finish in the American Le Mans Series as Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard drove to victory ...
Published: Apr 15, 2007, 6:59 PM
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DUMAS, BERNHARD LEAD PENSKE 1-2 FINISH AT LONG BEACH
Phenomenal strategy and a bit of luck sent Penske Motorsports to its second 1-2 overall finish in the American Le Mans Series as Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard drove to victory Saturday in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Dumas crossed the finish line 0.76 seconds ahead of Sascha Maassen in the team's other Penske entry.
It marked the second time in two years that Dumas and Bernhard drove their LMP2 entry to an overall win. They did it for the first time last May at Mid-Ohio. Porsches took the top three spots as Dyson Racing's Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace finished 13 seconds behind the winners.
Dumas and Bernhard ran the entire race on one set of tires, a strategy the team developed prior to the race. Their pit stop also fell right on time as Dumas re-entered the race with 70 minutes remaining, the maximum time allowed for one driver in the race.
The win by Dumas and Bernhard also ended a nine-race overall winning streak for Audi's R10 TDI. Allan McNish and Dindo Capello won in LMP1 for the second consecutive race but the finished seventh overall. They did take ownership of the class championship standings as Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner finished second in class, a lap down.
Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin went wire-to-wire to win for the third consecutive race in GT1. The No. 4 Corvette took a 0.349-second win over the sister car of Jan Magnussen and Johnny O'Connell, who was chasing Beretta down in the closing laps.
Gavin and Beretta appear to be well on their way, at least early in the season, toward a third straight class championship.
Jaime Melo and Mika Salo also won their third straight race in GT2 for Ferrari and Risi Competizione. The class championship leaders were five seconds ahead of the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Patrick Long and Darren Law. Third was the second Risi Ferrari, that one driven by Anthony Lazzaro and Nic Jonsson.
The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Lone Star Grand Prix at Houston's JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park, set for 5:30 p.m. CDT on Saturday, April 21. The race will be broadcast on CBS Sports at 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday, April 29. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.
-credit: alms
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