An outright victory for Audi in the American Le Mans Series has been a long time coming, the team having narrowly missed the mark on many occasions since it last happened at the St. Petersburg race in March. The two diesel-powered Audi R10 LMP1 cars have been saddled with restrictions by the ALMS organizing body to keep the season competitive, and pesky Porsche RS Spyders from Penske Racing in the LMP2 class have been beating the Audis consistently all year long. That ended last Saturday in a fitting way at the 10th Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, though it wasn't easy.
Dindo Capello piloted his R10 across the finish line after 1,000 miles of racing just 0.923 seconds ahead of Penske Racing's Romain Dumas in his Porsche RS Spyder. Dumas had a 30-second lead over Capello with a half hour left of racing to go, but a caution period allowed the Audi to work its way up through lap traffic after falling behind. Once behind Dumas, it reportedly took Capello eight minutes to pass him with 15 laps to go. With the win, Capello and co-driver Allan McNish also secured their second straight LMP1 drivers championship, and Audi earned the distinction of sweeping the three big enduro events of the year: Sebring, Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans.
Follow the jump for results of the top ten finishing cars and check out the gallery below for pics from the race courtesy of Audi.
[Source: Americanlemans.com]
Dindo Capello piloted his R10 across the finish line after 1,000 miles of racing just 0.923 seconds ahead of Penske Racing's Romain Dumas in his Porsche RS Spyder. Dumas had a 30-second lead over Capello with a half hour left of racing to go, but a caution period allowed the Audi to work its way up through lap traffic after falling behind. Once behind Dumas, it reportedly took Capello eight minutes to pass him with 15 laps to go. With the win, Capello and co-driver Allan McNish also secured their second straight LMP1 drivers championship, and Audi earned the distinction of sweeping the three big enduro events of the year: Sebring, Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans.
Follow the jump for results of the top ten finishing cars and check out the gallery below for pics from the race courtesy of Audi.
[Source: Americanlemans.com]
1 Capello/McNish (Audi R10 TDI) 394 laps in 9h 18m 58.275s
2 Dumas/Bernhard/Long (Porsche) + 0.923s
3 Dyson/Smith (Porsche) - 8 laps
4 Mücke/Watts/Charouz (Zytek) - 11 laps
5 Campbell-Walter/Primat/Tinseau (Creation-Judd) - 17 laps
6 Wallace/Leitzinger/Lally (Porsche) - 22 laps
7 Maassen/Briscoe/Collard (Porsche) - 24 laps
8 Brabham/Johansson/Kerr (Acura/Honda) - 29 laps
9 Beretta/Gavin/Papis (Chevrolet) - 30 laps
10 von Overbeek/Bergmeister/Lieb (Porsche) - 41 laps
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