Washington DC: ADT Champion race notes

ADT Champion Audi duo Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson finished a disappointing fifth in the American Le Mans Series race in Washington DC today.

A decision to switch tyres for the 165-minute race around the 1.66-mile circuit constructed in the car park of RFK sports stadium after Herbert's last-minute qualifying accident, forced Johansson to start from the pit-lance at the 35-car field.

The Swede cleanly worked his way up to sixth place after 45 minutes and handed over to Herbert before the hour in a race run in temperatures of over 90F degrees.

Hebert forced his way up to fourth but the Anglo-Swedish combination slipped back to fifth place at the chequered flag.

Herbert: "I flat-spotted the tyres at the end of qualifying which meant we needed to use a new set and start from the back. Stefan did a good job but I was losing power due to a turbo problem which is why I surrendered fourth place with 30 minutes to run without a fight - it was a case of surviving to the finish."

The Panoz of David Brabham/Jan Magnussen overcame a titanic duel with first the pole-starting "factory" Audi of Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro and then the second "works" Audi of Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen in the closing stages to win the inaugural Washington race watched by a crowd of 70,000.

Johansson: "It wasn't good day for us - we had hoped for and expected a lot more from this race. I half spun early in the race because the brakes were marginal and later Rinaldo nudged me into a spin. I was obviously determined not to lose a lap to him while 'Dindo wanted to get past quickly. It was a racing incident and I'm really sorry he was given a stop-go penalty - that was a harsh decision by the organisers."

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