It was another great race for Acura but De Ferran experience heartbreak
Highcroft
AGR
Fernandez
De Ferran
Dyson
Click a link to go directly to that story!
Highcroft
Patron Highcroft Racing Make it Two in a Row at Mosport
Patron Highcroft Racing sealed its second consecutive American Le Mans Series victory and win number four, in round eight - the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport in Canada. Outstanding performances from Scott Sharp and David Brabham, stellar team work and strategy, and a bit of luck for good measure saw the Acura go from sixth overall and fourth in class to win LMP2 and finish third overall, repeating the success of Road America two weeks ago.
The consistently outstanding performance of the Patron Highcroft Racing team on Michelin tires sees Brabham and Sharp close to within 10 points of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas in the LMP2 championship fight. With just three rounds remaining and round nine at Detroit next weekend, Patron Highcroft Racing is ready to take the title fight to the very end of the season.
Elated after taking victory at Mosport, Patron Highcroft Racing Team Owner, Duncan Dayton enthused: "This has been an absolutely fantastic and quite unbelievable race. A brilliant job by Jordy (Lead Engineer, Jordan Eber) to manufacture fuel out of thin air certainly helped our cause. That guy ought to go in to the exploration business, because he can find oil and gas like nobody I know! Everybody did a fantastic job and we made some great pit calls. The car was quick all weekend. Scott did a great job to get us into the fight and David wrapped up a fantastic finish. It was tough luck for Gil [de Ferran] to run out of fuel at the end; that was really heartbreaking for them, but their first win will come for sure. But for us it's win number four, baby!"
Sharp, a previous multiple victor at Mosport in SSCA and Trans-Am competition, delivered a solid opening stint to line the team up for success after showing impressive pace throughout the weekend. The high speed Mosport corners suiting Sharp's style, the 40 year-old stayed in the thick of the top six throughout his session to hand over the Acura ARX-01b to Brabham from sixth overall and fourth in class at the 45-minute marker under full course caution.
"We did a fantastic job here today. The last two races have been about fuel and the team, led by Duncan [Dayton], and Rob Hill did another great job of calling the right shot at the end," said Sharp. "Our car was fast all weekend but traffic was a major factor in the race. I wasn't quite so lucky in some places so that hurt us a little but David did his usual charge to get the Patron Highcroft Acura to victory lane and now we're in the thick of the championship fight."
In what was another nail-biting American Le Mans Series race finish, Brabham battled back from sixth overall and fourth in LMP2 with 20-minutes remaining, taking Romain Dumas and Adrian Fernandez to lie fourth and second in class with four minutes to go. But with LMP2 class leader Gil de Ferran running out of fuel on the last lap, the Patron Highcroft Acura took the class win and third overall.
"This is another fantastic team victory today and what a phenomenal race," said Brabham. "The wheel-to-wheel action was as good as it gets. The Patron Highcroft Acura was hooked up, the Michelin tires were performing really well and I just tried to go as fast as I could, carrying speed through the corners while conserving fuel. Scott did a great job at the beginning of the race while the team once again delivered an excellent pit strategy. I feel bad for Gil's team as they were so close to winning, but we'll happily take this fourth win."
AGR
XM Satellite Radio Acura drivers Franck Montagny and James Rossiter drove to a fourth-place finish in LMP2 and a sixth-place finish overall Sunday in the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport at Mosport International Raceway.
Rossiter opened the race for the Andretti Green team and wheeled the car to the second spot in class and fourth overall during his 44-minute stint. He then gave way to Montagny under caution, who took over and drove into the overall lead at the time of a caution one hour later. The team’s strategy called for Montagny to pit during the yellow-flag period, but a miscommunication kept Montagny from making the anticipated trip to pit lane. He pitted 18 minutes later under green-flag conditions and rejoined the race sixth in class and 8th overall.
The final 43 minutes saw Montagny gain the final two positions to account for the finish. David Brabham and Scott Sharp combined for the LMP2 class win at Mosport, while the Audi of Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner claimed the overall victory.
The American Le Mans Series continues next weekend with the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch at Belle Isle on Sunday, Aug. 30. Live coverage of the event begins at 2:30 p.m. (EDT) on SPEED.
Franck Montagny, #26 XM Satellite Radio Acura:
"It wasn’t a good day for the XM Acura. We made a mistake with the yellow and lost track position. It is quite a shame, but that’s racing. Once again we had the car to get a good finish. It just was not a good day. Nothing went our way and the finish wasn’t what we had hoped for."
James Rossiter, #26 XM Satellite Radio Acura:
"I had a really good start and was able to put some pressure on the class leader. At one point I had a little contact with a Ferrari. It broke off one of the dive planes on the car so we had a little bit of an understeer. I really love this circuit. I really had a great time out there with all the traffic. It really keeps you busy."
Fernandez
Lowe's Fernandez Racing Finishes Second at Mosport
Lowe's Fernandez Racing claimed their best finish of the 2008 season to date this afternoon with a second-place class result in the Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. The result was the second podium finish for Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz in the last three races and their fifth career ALMS podium.
Diaz started the race and, after a good battle with fellow Acura driver James Rossiter in the #26 Andretti Green car, emerged third in class after the first round of pit stops. The team elected to keep Diaz in the car and he ran as high as second before pitting on Lap 68 with 77 minutes remaining to turn the car over to Fernandez under a full-course yellow.
The key to the race turned out to be the ensuing pit stops to top off with fuel with Fernandez pitting on Lap 72 and race winner David Brabham pitting on Lap 73. The team was hoping to make it to the end without another stop with a little yellow flag help.
Fernandez ran a strong pace trying to chase down then race leader Gil de Ferran. He was running second in class and fourth overall with 17 minutes remaining when the team radioed that he was a third of a gallon short of fuel at that stage to make it to the end. Despite pressure from Brabham and the #7 Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas, Fernandez managed to save fuel. He was passed by Brabham for second-place with five minutes remaining and resumed the spot after de Ferran ran out of fuel on the last lap.
Adrian Fernandez, #15 Lowe's Acura ARX: "I am proud of Luis. He did a good job. At the first round of pit stops around an hour in, I was ready [to get in the car] but Luis was doing a good job and I thought it was a good time to keep him on the track. He was carrying a good momentum. On the next stop, we pitted at the right time. We pitted again to top off with fuel but David Brabham pitted one or two laps later. I think that was the difference. The car was actually quite good. In the warm-up, I wasn't very happy with the car. It was quite loose. I was charging Gil [de Ferran] pretty hard and I was quicker than him. When we saw that it was possibility going to be a fuel race, I started to save fuel. I was trying to hold off Brabham and the #7 [Penske Porsche] which was not easy. The team said that we weren't going to make it and we needed better fuel mileage. I tried to stay in front which is easy to say. At the end, David was close to me and he decided to push the button for maximum fuel and make the pass. He had the momentum into Turn Eight and that was it. It was not worth pushing and wasting all the fuel because we were close. I wanted to make sure we made it to the end. Brabham pitted one lap later than us and that was the difference between winning and coming second. We had a great strategy and I am very happy to put a good result with all the Lowe's Canada people here today. This really should have been our third podium in a row after Elkhart Lake [suspension failure while running second] but we will keep pushing and hopefully our first win will be soon."
Luis Diaz, #15 Lowe's Acura ARX: "It was a great day for us. We were very close to winning the race. The team keeps showing that we are a very strong team. We were fighting at the end and it came down to a strategy race at the end. The car was running strong again. We did smart moves and it is a great result. I am very happy for all the Lowe's Canada folks that came to see us today and for the team. Adrian did an unbelievable job. He was saving fuel with traffic and with pressure. He was fantastic and I am very proud to be his teammate. I know that we will get a victory soon."
De Ferran
HEARTACHE FOR DE FERRAN MOTORSPORTS AT MOSPORT
BOWMANVILLE, ON. CANADA (24 August, 2008) -- Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud faced a day of heartbreak at Mosport today after clever strategy by the de Ferran Motorsports squad took the #66 Acura within ten minutes of an outright victory and 1/2 a lap of a P2 win in the American Le Mans Series.
Pagenaud started the race and handed over to de Ferran an hour into the event. With one hour and 25 minutes remaining, the safety car hit the track after an accident by the #30 P1 Lola. During a long 26 minute safety car period, de Ferran made two stops, the first for fuel and then a second stop to top up on fuel and fit new tires for the run to the flag.
The race went green with 59 minutes remaining and the Panasonic-sponsored Acura ARX-01b took the overall lead with 39 minutes to go as more rivals began to pit for fuel. de Ferran held the outright lead until 10 minutes to go but still enjoyed a handy advantage at the head of the P2 pack. With de Ferran in fuel-saving mode in the run to the flag, the winning Audi crossed the start-finish line with one second to spare, forcing the race into one more lap than than de Ferran Motorsports crew had calculated for the two hour, 45 minute event.
Tragically, the #66 Acura ran out of fuel on that extra lap while headed for the team's first P2 class victory. Despite the late race disappointment, de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud were still credited with a seventh place outright finish and fifth in the P2 class.
GIL DE FERRAN
"The Audi crossed the line one second before the end of the race and we had to do one more than lap than we expected - the guys had calculated it perfectly but it wasn't to be. It was a great race and the de Ferran Motorsports crew did a brilliant job, everything was judged perfectly right up until our final stop and just one single second cost us the race.
"That is the way it goes, we had a difficult time during practice and qualifying but the car in the race was fantastic. Our engineers and the Acura engineers must be congratulated on the improvements they made overnight. "It was handling beautifully and even in fuel save mode, I was able to turn really strong lap times."
SIMON PAGENAUD
"Despite the end result, I'm really happy because even though we had been going through a tough weekend, we still put ourselves in a position to win.
"The guys did a great job and gave us an excellent car for the race. We made all the right calls at the right time but it was just unfortunate that the Audi crossed the line one second too early. "I said yesterday that we needed to be clever on strategy today and that's exactly what we did, we just needed to have a little bit of luck on our side."
Dyson
EARTACHE FOR DE FERRAN MOTORSPORTS AT MOSPORT
BOWMANVILLE, ON. CANADA (24 August, 2008) -- Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud faced a day of heartbreak at Mosport today after clever strategy by the de Ferran Motorsports squad took the #66 Acura within ten minutes of an outright victory and 1/2 a lap of a P2 win in the American Le Mans Series.
Pagenaud started the race and handed over to de Ferran an hour into the event. With one hour and 25 minutes remaining, the safety car hit the track after an accident by the #30 P1 Lola. During a long 26 minute safety car period, de Ferran made two stops, the first for fuel and then a second stop to top up on fuel and fit new tires for the run to the flag.
The race went green with 59 minutes remaining and the Panasonic-sponsored Acura ARX-01b took the overall lead with 39 minutes to go as more rivals began to pit for fuel. de Ferran held the outright lead until 10 minutes to go but still enjoyed a handy advantage at the head of the P2 pack. With de Ferran in fuel-saving mode in the run to the flag, the winning Audi crossed the start-finish line with one second to spare, forcing the race into one more lap than than de Ferran Motorsports crew had calculated for the two hour, 45 minute event.
Tragically, the #66 Acura ran out of fuel on that extra lap while headed for the team's first P2 class victory. Despite the late race disappointment, de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud were still credited with a seventh place outright finish and fifth in the P2 class.
GIL DE FERRAN
"The Audi crossed the line one second before the end of the race and we had to do one more than lap than we expected - the guys had calculated it perfectly but it wasn't to be. It was a great race and the de Ferran Motorsports crew did a brilliant job, everything was judged perfectly right up until our final stop and just one single second cost us the race.
"That is the way it goes, we had a difficult time during practice and qualifying but the car in the race was fantastic. Our engineers and the Acura engineers must be congratulated on the improvements they made overnight. "It was handling beautifully and even in fuel save mode, I was able to turn really strong lap times."
SIMON PAGENAUD
"Despite the end result, I'm really happy because even though we had been going through a tough weekend, we still put ourselves in a position to win.
"The guys did a great job and gave us an excellent car for the race. We made all the right calls at the right time but it was just unfortunate that the Audi crossed the line one second too early. "I said yesterday that we needed to be clever on strategy today and that's exactly what we did, we just needed to have a little bit of luck on our side."