THE CHAMP

Overall victories didn’t come as routinely or as easily for Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello in 2007 — thanks to the nimble Penske Porsches in the LMP2 division — but the duo repeated as American Le Mans Series LMP1 champions. Driving the diesel-powered Audi R10 in its first full season of competition, McNish and Capello got started with a victory at St. Petersburg in the second race of the season and — after a consistent year of top-five finishes — climaxed with victories at Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca. The repeat for McNish and Capello was also the fifth-straight title for Audi.
In their third season as a team, Timo Benhard and Romain Dumas easily drove the factory-backed Penske Porsche RS Spyder to a championship, winning six overall races. GT1 also saw a repeat championship duo in Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta as the Corvettes remained dominant. In GT2, Jorg Bergmeister repeated as champion in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR for Flying Lizard Motorsports.

MOMENTOUS OCCASIONS

AUDI VS. SPYDER: In its first full year of competition, the Audi R10 won four times but was upstaged by the Penske Porsche RS Spyders. The more nimble LMP2 Porsches won eight-straight overall races, a streak that began at the Grand Prix of Long Beach and ended at Belle Isle, Mich.
SPEED RACER: Corvette Racing shattered the GT1 track record at the 2.25-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in qualifying, eclipsing the old record by nearly two seconds. Oliver Gavin gained the pole with a time of 1:16.635.  Johnny O’Connell’s speed was disallowed after technical inspection, handing the pole and new record to Gavin.

ON THE RECORD

“Our cars are built to last 24 hours. There is no problem. We don’t have to slow down because of the car. The drivers can do it as well. We have to step up our game because our competition did that as well. Everyone goes quick, so we have to go quick as well. It’s going to be a long sprint.” — Sascha Maassen on the Penske Porsche RS Spyders

LMP1 Top Five

    Driver    Points    Wins    Top 5    Top 10
    1. R. Capello/A. McNish    246    3    11    11
    2. Marco Werner    210    1    7    9
    3. Emanuele Pirro    175    1    6    8
    4. Clint Field    95    0    0    2
    5. Chris Murry    89    0    0    0
LMP2 Top Five
    1. Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas    239
    2. Ryan Briscoe/Sascha Maasen    186
    3. Butch Leitzinger/Andy Wallace    128
    4. Chris Dyson/Guy Smith    124
    5. David Brabham/Stefan Johansson    115
GT1 Top Five
    1. Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta    246
    2. Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell    184
    3. Max Papis    52
    4. Fredy Lienhard/Didier Theys    38
    5. Ron Fellows    35
GT2 Top Five
    1. Milka Salo/Jaime Melo    202
    2. J. Bergmeister/J. Van Overbeek    170
    3. Wolf Henzler    126
    4. Tom Milner/Ralf Kelleners    107
    5. Dominik Fambacher    91