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CORVETTE, RISI AND BRABHAM
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| Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia sent Corvette Racing's Corvette C6.R out a winner in its final GT1 race at Le Mans. Photo: Richard Prince |
“When you look at the Americans who have won here multiple times, they're all important figures in motorsports history,” O'Connell said. “To achieve my fourth win with Corvette Racing, driving a sports car that's an American icon, it's hard to put that into words. There is nothing more difficult and more rewarding than winning here, and sharing it with two awesome drivers like Jan and Antonio.”The sister Corvette of Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Marcel Fässler were on the same lap through 22 hours before losing drive and grinding to a halt just shy of pit lane. The car still finished third in class.
Corvette Racing will move to GT2 in August at the Mid-Ohio round of the American Le Mans Series.
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| Risi's Mika Salo (left), Jaime Melo (center) and Pierre Kaffer (right) claimed the team's second GT2 victory in a row at Le Mans. Photo: Regis Lefebure |
Risi became the first GT2 team in a decade to repeat in
class. Jaime Melo and Mika Salo won their second straight
race, and Pierre Kaffer was a winner for the first time.
The red Ferrari F430 GT led since the sixth hour; prior
to that it was part of a five-car scrap for the class lead
including the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3
RSR of Jörg Bergmeister, Darren Law and Seth Neiman.
It retired following a crash in the 17th hour while running
fourth.
“To be honest I didn’t expect to see the Porsches
out of the challenge from the first few hours,” said
Melo, who has been with Risi since the beginning of 2006
when the F430 GT was introduced. “Before the race
we all thought they were really strong, but I think Risi
Competizione has really prepared well for this race in
the past year as well as more recently. Pierre, Mika and
I were able to do really consistent lap times, and it was
a really easy car to drive so that helped us to do our
job. Like Mika said we had no problems. Tire changes were
perfect every time so we need to say thanks to Risi Competizione
for those and to Michelin as well as we could triple stint
the tires from quite early on. “
Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Eric van de Poele finished
third in class in the second Risi entry in partnership
with Krohn Racing. The green F430 also finished on the
class podium in 2007. So this makes three straight GT2/GT
podium finishes for the same entrant, a rarity at Le Mans.
“This is a very special day; winning this again after
what we did last year makes it even more so,” said
team principal Giuseppe Risi. “To have 10 Ferraris
here and have two of our cars placed in the top-three is
a simply magnificent result. These are the best teams in
the world who race here so it is extremely special to have
achieved this outcome, and to have entered the history
books as part of Ferrari’s racing folklore. I can’t
say enough about it.”
At the head of the grid, Brabham won overall at Le Mans
in his 16th appearance but first in a Peugeot 908 HDi.
Son of three-time F1 World Champion Jack, Brabham teamed
with Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz for a one-lap victory
over the team car of Stephane Sarrazin, Sebastien Bourdais
and Franck Montagny.
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| David Brabham won overall for the first time at Le Mans, driving a factory Peugeot 908 HDi with Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene. |
“I think it might take a few days for this to sink in. It’s all quite unbelievable,” Brabham said. “Our strategy was really to take care of the car; the tires, the brakes - particularly the front brakes which were wearing a bit more than we would have liked. We just agreed to adjust our driving styles and keep within a consistent lap time target. We were running at a restricted pace but other cars were having problems, so it worked out OK. We didn’t make one mistake and that’s what it takes to win this race.”
Audi’s new R15 TDI finished third overall and seven laps behind. Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello lost time with an electrical problem late. The trio had beaten Peugeot at Sebring with its new diesel racer.
The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. The race is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. EDT on Saturday, July 18. The race will air live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche and Live Timing & Scoring will be available at Racehub on americanlemans.com. You also can follow the Series on Twitter.
The race also will mark the fifth round of the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge. Tickets are available at americanlemans.com and limerock.com.
