Audi’s Sebring Stronghold Falls To Penske’s Spyder

SEBRING, Fla. — Forty-three years ago, Roger Penske watched as Jim Hall and Hap Sharp drove their Chevrolet-powered Chaparral sports racer to victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Penske was the team manager for Hall’s Texas-based operation.
Last Saturday night Roger Penske was back in Sebring’s winners circle, this time as the owner of Team Penske, whose DHL LMP2 class Porsche RS Spyder had just fulfilled an impossible dream by claiming the overall honors in the Mobil-sponsored classic at the historic Sebring Int’l Raceway airport road course.
For two years, the vaunted Penske operation had been thwarted by problems at Sebring, even though the Porsches dominated the LMP2 division during the American Le Mans Series season.
That changed Saturday.
Despite the early retirement of the second Penske Porsche driven by Ryan Briscoe, Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long, the other RS spyder with reigning ALMS LMP2 champions Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard aboard finished a flawless race to come home first over the similar LMP2 Dyson Racing RS Spyder of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Andy Lally.

SPYDER SENSE: The trio of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard captured the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. (Keith D. Rizzo Photo)

The LMP1 class winning Audi R10 turbocharged diesel of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello was third overall — the first time the Audi camp has not garnered the outright honors at Sebring this century.
“We won today because we didn’t have any problems,” Collard said.
Before the race, everyone was wondering how the new Acura ARX-01b would perform. They didn’t have long to wait, as the three Acura teams — Adrian Fernandez’s Lowe’s-backed operation, Highcroft Racing and Andretti-Green — all showed they could not only compete on an equal level with their Porsche opposition, but could surpass them as well. Yet, in the end, gremlins got to them.
Especially disappointed were Fernandez and his partner Luis Diaz, who crossed the line in second at the finish after a stirring effort that just failed to catch the winning Porsche. All that went for naught, however, as officials disqualified the duo after a post-race technical inspection showed irregularities in its engine’s induction system, their exclusion moving the Dyson Racing entry and Audi up a notch.
Likewise benefiting from the decision were Chris Dyson and Guy Smith, whose RS spyder moved up to fourth. David Brabham, Scott Sharp and Stefan Johansson in the Highcroft Acura inherited fifth.
In LMP1, Sebring was all about problems, as the Kristensen, Capello and McNish R10 began the day in the penalty box after Capello clipped one of the Flying Lizard team’s Porsche 911 GT3RSDRs and then continued when Kristensen pitted during the afternoon with a bent right-front suspension pushrod.
Later, he and his fellow drivers lost even more time when the Audi crew was forced to replace the car’s front disc brakes under green. Despite all this, the Audi was running hard in the final hour, but simply ran out of time in its efforts to overtake those ahead of it.
As for its sister car piloted by Marco Werner, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller, it lost its chance at victory during the afternoon when it went behind the wall with turbocharger problems, eventually coming home sixth overall and second in class.
In GT1, the story was all Corvette with the sometimes-retired Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen taking the top spot over their teammates Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis, who lost time early when the Corvette crew had to replace a rear half shaft.
As for GT2, there it was sweet revenge for Jorg Bergmeister, who last year lost so narrowly to the Risi Ferrari 430GT of Jaime Mel and Mika Salo after Melo bumped his way past Bergmeister’s Flying Lizard GT3 in the final 50 yards. This time, it was Melo who made a huge mistake trying a similar move during the race, taking himself and one of the multitude of Porsche’s out when he entered turn seven too fast in mid- afternoon, forcing the retirement of both cars.
Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb rolled to a relatively easy triumph over the second Flying Lizard Porsche of  Darren Law, Seith Neiman and Alex Davison. Afterwards, Bergmeister was cryptic, saying, “It was actually a bit boring. We had such a good car, all we had to do was not make any mistakes.”
The finish:
Showing drivers, car, class and laps completed: 1. Timo Bernhard/Romain Dumas/Emmanuel Collard, Porsche RS Spyder, P2, 351; 2. Butch Leitzinger/Marino Franchitti/Andy Lally, Porsche RS Spyder, P2, 351; 3. Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen/Allan McNish, Audi AG R10/TDI P1, 351; 4. Chris Dyson/Guy Smith, Porsche RS Spyder, P2, 350; 5. David Brabham/Scott Sharp/Stefan Johansson, Acura ARX-01B, P2, 349; 6. Marco Werner/Lucas Luhr/Mike Rockenfeller, Audi AG R10/TDI, P1, 333; 7. Jan Lammers/Fredy Lienhard/Didier Theys, Porsche RS Spyder, P2, 333; 8. Jan Magnussen/Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell, Corvette C6.R, GT1, 328; 9. Jon Field/Clint Field/Richard Berry, Lola B06/10 AER, P1, 327; 10. Oliver Gavin/Max Papis/Olivier Beretta, Corvette C6.R, GT1, 320; 11. Nicola Minassian/Stephane Sarrazin/Pedro Lamy, Peugeot 908, P1, 318; 12. Wolf Henzler/Marc Lieb/Jörg Bergmeister, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 314; 13. Darren Law/Seth Neiman/Alex Davison, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 311; 14. Nic Jonsson/Eric van de Poele/Tracy Krohn, Ferrari F430 GT, GT2, 308; 15. Allan Simonsen/Jim Tafel/Pierre Ehret, Ferrari F430 GT, GT2, 305; 16. Antonio Garcia/Terry Borcheller/Chapman Ducote, Aston Martin DBR 9, GT1, 299; 17. Joel Feinberg/Chris Hall, Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, GT2, 295; 18. Marco Andretti/Bryan Herta/Christian Fittipaldi, Acura ARX-01B, P2, 287; 19. Craig Stanton/Nathan Swartzbaugh/Uwe Alzen, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 286; 20. Dirk Mueller/Robert Bell/Dominik Farnbacher, Ferrari F430 GT, GT2, 280; 21. Johannes van Overbeek/Patrick Pilet/Richard Lietz, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 280; 22. Chris McMurry/Bryan Willman/Tony Burgess, Creation CA07-002 Judd, P1, 250; 23. Tom Milner/Tom Sutherland/Joey Hand, Panoz Esperante Ford, GT2, 200; 24. David Murry/Andrea Robertson/David Robertson, Doran Ford GT-R, GT2, 186; 25. Miroslav Konopka/Mauro Casadei/Miroslav Hornak, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 173; 26. Jaime Melo/Mika Salo/Gianmaria Bruni, Ferrari F430 GT, GT2, 137; 27. Dirk Werner/Marc Basseng/Bryce Miller, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, GT2, 136; 28. Marc Goosens/Lou Gigliotti/Doug Peterson, Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6, GT2, 99; 29. Michael Vergers/Jean Ravier/Juan Barazi, Zytek 07S, P2, 88; 30. Paul Drayson/Jonny Cocker/Tim Sudgen, Aston Martin DBRS 9, GT2, 70; 31. Ryan Briscoe/Sascha Maassen/Patrick Long, Porsche RS Spyder, P2, 29; 32. Luis Diaz/Adrian Fernandez, Acura ARX-01B, P2, 351, DQ; 33. Ben Devlin/Gerardo Bonilla/Raphael Matos, Lola B07 46 Mazda, P2, 0.