Porsche took outright victory for the first time in 20 years
The 2007 American Le Mans Series was a magical one for Penske Racing. The 2008 season may be even better if Saturday was any indication. Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard drove to an historic overall win at the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.
The win was the first overall at Sebring by an LMP2 car and saw four lead-lap finishers, a race record. Dumas took the checkered flag by 12.979 seconds over Adrian Fernandez in the Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b he shared with Luis Diaz. The P2 class swept the overall podium with Dyson Racing's Porsche RS Spyder of Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti and Andy Lally placing third.
The overall win for Porsche was its first since 1988 when Hans Stuck and Klaus Ludwig took victory in a Porsche 962. Roger Penske took his first win at Sebring in 40 years and became the first team owner to win overall at Sebring, the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500.
Bernhard and Collard won for the second time at Sebring, and Dumas was a first-time winner.
Audi Sport North America took the LMP1 victory with the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI of Dindo Capello, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen. Audi's streak of consecutive overall wins at Sebring ended at eight although it won for the 23rd straight time in LMP1.
Kristensen won for the fifth time at Sebring, Capello won for the fourth time at Sebring and McNish was a victor for third time. The sister car of Mike Rockenfeller, Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner were the class runners-up after losing precious time while changing a turbo in the paddock. Third was the cellulosic E85-powered Intersport Racing Lola B06/10-AER of Clint Field, Jon Field and Richard Berry.
The number 3 Corvette won GT1
Johnny O'Connell became the winningest driver in Sebring history with his seventh class victory, teaming with Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows for a nearly flawless run in Corvette Racing's Corvette C6.R. The trio started from the head of the class and never trailed the entire way.
O'Connell won overall in 1994 and posted class victories in 1993, 1995 and 2002-2004. It gave Fellows four Sebring wins - he teamed with O'Connell for three straight from 2002-04 - and was Magnussen's second in four years.
While the No. 3 Corvette ran faultlessly, the No. 4 sister Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Max Papis ran into trouble early. The car lost time early in the race when the crew had to change a driveshaft in the second hour. The trio was trying for a second straight class win together.
Flying Lizard Motorsports finally broke through in the 12 Hours after finishing second the last two years. Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb drove their No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to a two-lap victory over the sister car of Darren Law, Seth Neiman and Alex Davison.
It is the first 1-2 class finish for the Lizards, which placed third in 2005 and runner-up in 2006 and 2007.
Henzler and the Lizards took the lead near the halfway point when Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo ran hot in Turn 7 while leading in the No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT and collided with the second-place Porsche of Dirk Werner and Farnbacher Loles Racing.
As a result, the Risi Competizione/Krohn Racing Ferrari finished third in class, driven by Nic Jonsson, Eric van de Poele and Tracy Krohn.
Flying Lizard took the win that they thought they deserved one year ago
The next race for the American Le Mans Series is the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg. The green flag is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 5 from the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. The race will be broadcast on ABC from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET on April 5. Radio coverage will be available on XM Satellite Radio and on americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring.
56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida
Sebring International Raceway, Sebring, Fla.
Saturday's results
1. (4) Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Emmanuel Collard, France; Porsche RS Spyder (1, P2), 351.
2. (6) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (2, P2), 351.
3. (7) Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Andy Lally, New York, NY; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 351.
4. (1) Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Tom Kristensen, Denmark; Allan McNish, Scotland; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 351.
5. (10) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (4, P2), 350.
6. (11) David Brabham, Australia; Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; Stefan Johansson, Sweden; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 349.
7. (3) Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Mike Rockenfeller, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (2, P1), 333.
8. (12) Jan Lammers, The Netherlands; Fredy Lienhard Sr., Switzerland; Didier Theys, Belgium; Porsche RS Spyder (6, P2), 333.
9. (16) Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Ron Fellows, Canada; Johnny O'Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 328.
10. (9) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (3, P1), 327.
11. (17) Oliver Gavin, England; Max Papis, Italy; Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 320.
12. (2) Nicola Minassian, England; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Pedro Lamy, Lisbon Portugal; Peugeot 908 (4, P1), 318.
13. (21) Wolf Henzler, Germany; Marc Lieb, Germany; Jorg Bergmeister, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (1, GT2), 314.
14. (28) Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Alex Davison, Australia; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 311.
15. (29) Nic Jonsson, Sweden; Eric van de Poele, Belgium; Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Ferrari F430 GT (3, GT2), 308.
16. (22) Allan Simonsen, Australia; Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Pierre Ehret, Santa Rosa, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (4, GT2), 305.
17. (18) Antonio Garcia, Spain; Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Aston Martin DBR 9 (3, GT1), 299.
18. (32) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Competiton Coupe (5, GT2), 295.
19. (8) Marco Andretti, Nazareth, PA; Bryan Herta, Valencia, CA; Christian Fittipaldi, Miami, FL; Acura ARX-01B (7, P2), 287, Overheating.
20. (26) Craig Stanton, Long Beach, CA; Nathan Swartzbaugh, La Habra Heights, LA; Uwe Alzen, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (6, GT2), 286.
21. (20) Dirk Mueller, Germany; Robert Bell, UK; Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (7, GT2), 280.
22. (23) Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Richard Lietz, Austria; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (8, GT2), 280.
23. (15) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Bryan Willman, Kirkland, WA; Tony Burgess, Canada; Creation CA07-002 Judd (5, P1), 250, Mechanical.
24. (27) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; Panoz Esperante Ford (9, GT2), 200, Mechanical.
25. (34) David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT-R (10, GT2), 186, Accident.
26. (33) Miroslav Konopka, Slovakia; Mauro Casadei, Italy; Miroslav Hornak, Slovakia; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (11, GT2), 173.
27. (19) Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Gianmaria Bruni, Italy; Ferrari F430 GT (12, GT2), 137, Accident.
28. (24) Dirk Werner, Germany; Marc Basseng, Germany; Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (13, GT2), 136, Accident.
29. (25) Marc Goosens, Belgium; Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Doug Peterson, Bonita Springs, FL; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (14, GT2), 99, Overheating.
30. (13) Michael Vergers, England; Jean Ravier, France; Juan Barazi, Switzerland; Zytek 07S (8, P2), 88, Accident.
31. (30) Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Tim Sudgen, England; Aston Martin DBRS 9 (15, GT2), 70, Accident.
32. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Australia; Sascha Maassen, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Porsche RS Spyder (9, P2), 29, Overheating.
33. (14) Ben Devlin, England; Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Raphael Matos, Brazil; Lola B07 46 Mazda (10, P2), 0, Excluded.
34. (31) Gunnar Jeannette, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Johnny Mowlem, England; Ralf Kelleners, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (16, GT2), 0.