ANOTHER LOOK: 2009 LARRY H. MILLER DEALERSHIPS UTAH GP
The 2009 Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix was a race of firsts for the American Le Mans Series. Two huge newsmakers hit the track for the first time at Miller Motorsports Park: the new Challenge class for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entries and Corsa Motorsports' hybrid-powered Ginetta-Zytek 09HS prototype.
Both proved to be monumental successes, as was the de Ferran Motorsports pairing of Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud. The duo won their second straight race in the XM Acura ARX-02a and won at the track where the de Ferran team debuted a year earlier.
Pagenaud and de Ferran won by 73 seconds over Patron Highcroft Racing's pairing of David Brabham and Scott Sharp on a dominating weekend. The young French star Pagenaud posted nine of the fastest 13 laps in the race, qualified on pole and set the fastest race time.
Adrian Fernandez gave Lowe's Fernandez Racing a tight 0.585-second victory in LMP2 in tandem with Luis Diaz. The Acura ARX-01b withstood a late fight with Dyson Racing's Butch Leitzinger, who just missed the team's first win with Marino Franchitti in one of Dyson's Mazda-powered Lola B09/86 coupes.
Fernandez and Diaz won their fourth straight race in class.
Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won for the third straight race in GT2 with a victory in their Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The duo led the entire way and finished 74.559 seconds ahead of Farnbacher Loles Racing's Porsche of Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler.
Martin and Melanie Snow were winners in the inaugural Challenge class race. Two Gruppe Orange entries finished behind the Snow Racing Porsche. Nick Parker and class pole-winner Carl Skerlong placed second, followed by Wesley Hoaglund and Bob Faieta.
The Snows were winners at the first American Le Mans Series race in 1999 at Sebring with a GTS class victory behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 Turbo.
The American Le Mans Series will open its 12th season with America's greatest sports car race, the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida from March 17-20. The green flag will fall at 10:35 a.m. on Saturday, March 20 with live coverage on SPEED. For ticket and accommodation information, see sebringraceway.com.
The annual American Le Mans Series Winter Test is scheduled for February 22-23, also at Sebring International Raceway.
Link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid63625362001?bctid=63635093001
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