PEUGEOT
WINS WET PETIT
LE MANS AT ROAD ATLANTA
 Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin gave Peugeot its first
American Le Mans Series victory on Friday, winning a weather-shortened
12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6. Race officials,
citing hazardous conditions due to torrential rains that fell
at Road Atlanta just past the four-hour mark, called the race
at eight hours, 44 minutes running.
Peugeot's two diesel-powered factory prototype coupes finished
1-2 with the pole-sitting 908 HDi of Pedro Lamy and Nic Minassian
in second. The first of Audi Sport Team Joest's Audi R15 TDIs
placed third, the car driven by Allan McNish and Dindo Capello.
McNish and Capello dominated the race before the rains fell.
The two Peugeots got past McNish under yellow when the Scot looped
the Audi under wet conditions.
Dyson Racing took its first Petit Le Mans victory with a victory
in LMP2 for Marino Franchitti, Butch Leitzinger and Ben Devlin.
Their Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupe had problems with gear
selection early, but the Acura ARX-01b of Lowe's Fernandez Racing's
Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz experienced steering issues throughout.
Nevertheless, the duo completed enough laps to clinch the team
championship for Lowe's Fernandez and the manufacturer championships
for Acura.
Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer
and Mika Salo won in GT2 in their Ferrari F430 GT, the fifth
straight endurance victory for the team. A brilliant call by
the team made the Ferrari the first GT2 car to take wet tires,
and Salo drove past the rest of the field into the lead.
STATE
OF SERIES ADDRESS INCLUDES 2010 SCHEDULE
BRASELTON,
Ga. (September 25, 2009) The 2010 American Le Mans Series will
feature both scheduling stability to go alongside a dynamic class
restructure, efforts that secure the worlds leading sports car
championship in the upper echelon of global motorsport. (2010
Schedule PDF)
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