LAKEVILLE, Conn. — David Brabham drove his Highcroft Patron Acura ARX-01B around the outside of the Penske Porsche RS Spyder of Timo Bernhard with less than two minutes to go to take the win at the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Saturday.
In his attempt to fend off Brabham, Bernhard spun off at Big Bend, but recovered to finish second ahead of the other Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen. These LMP2 machines were the only cars on the lead lap, covering 168 laps around the 1.51-mile, 10-turn road course in the two hour, 45 minute timed event.
Fourth, and first in LMP1 class, was the Audi R10 of Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr.
At the start of the race, Maassen’s teammate, Patrick Long, got a great start from his third place on the grid, taking the lead on the first lap and leading the first seven laps. At that point, the Audi of Emanuelle Pirro took the lead. Pirro started eighth, but used the blinding speed of the Audi to take a lead he held for 56 laps.
At that point, Pirro pitted, handing over the lead to the Long/Maassen Porsche. Nine laps later, the sister Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard took the point and held it until lap 165 when Brabham made his winning move. Brabham took over for Scott Sharp at the one-hour mark when the first yellow came out, something of a surprise considering that the ALMS cars didn’t seem to be able to make three laps without a red flag during practice Friday. The race ran fairly clean, with only four full-course cautions for 22 laps.
Both of the Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders were primed for a good result, but neither finished the race. First, Guy Smith, having taken over for Chris Dyson, tangled with the Flying Lizard Porsche of Darren Law and spun into the Armco on No Name Straight, resulting in heavy damage.
With the laps winding down, the other Dyson Porsche, driven by Butch Leitzinger, was hit from behind at the reconfigured West Bend and pulled off the track with a damaged suspension. At one point, there were five cars on the lead lap, and two of them were from the Dyson stable.
In GT1, the Corvette of Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen cruised home ahead of teammates Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin.
In GT2, Jorg Bergmeister won his third ALMS race at Lime Rock, this weekend teaming with Wolf Henzler. They were a lap better at the end than the Porsche of Dirk Werner and Richard Westbrook, with the Risi Ferrari of Mika Salo and Jamie Melo in third.
After a seven-week hiatus while many of the teams and drivers competed at Le Mans, it will be a quick turn around as the teams head to Mid-Ohio this coming weekend.