The City of Baltimore Board of Estimates this morning approved a contract with Race On LLC and Andretti Sports Marketing to operate the 2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore, Aug. 31-Sept. 2. Race On, spearheaded by Baltimore businessmen J.P. Grant and Greg O’Neill, and Andretti Sports Marketing (ASM), led by racing legend Michael Andretti, hosted a news conference today to address their leadership role that ensures the running of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrόn championship’s eighth round.

“The American Le Mans Series could not be more pleased and encouraged by today’s announcement confirming the way forward for the 2012 Grand Prix of Baltimore. Our Series was a vitally important and popular part of the overall fan experience of the inaugural race last year, and we look forward to helping build an even better event this year,” said American Le Mans Series President and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Atherton.

“The ability of Andretti Sports Marketing to immediately place a complete and highly experienced management team will enable this event to enjoy a successful second year. There have been many challenges surrounding the Grand Prix of Baltimore, but the confirmation of Andretti’s involvement, with J.P. Grant’s and Greg O’Neill’s financial backing, is the best result possible. We believe this new partnership ensures not only a successful 2012 race, but a long-term future for this outstanding event.”

In the final west coast visit of the American Le Mans Series' for 2012, RSR drivers Tomy Drissi, Bruno Junquiera and Roberto Gonzalez prevailed in the six hour battle to put the #9 Prometheus LMPC on the second step of the podium. In addition, the team took fourth overall on the winding curves and elevations of the 2.238-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

"The team did a great job this weekend," noted Tomy. "They played the right strategy and overcame some early issues. The name of the game in a six hour endurance is strategy… RSR played it to the letter."

"I think Bruno had a great shot at the win in the late going," added the Trans Am Champion. "He and Colin Braun (CORE autosport) split a GTC car on the last lap and unfortunately it worked out a little better for Braun. It was an incredible drive any way you look at it."

The focus of sports car racing now turns to the 24 Hours of Le Mans where select ALMS teams compete on June 16-17 at the famed 8.3-mile French circuit in the world’s greatest auto race.

The American Le Mans presented by Tequila Patrón returns to action at Lime Rock Park for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 7. The two-hour, 45-minute race is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET from the 1.5-mile, 10-turn Lime Rock Park circuit. ESPN2 airs the race the same day at 4 p.m. ET. Live coverage is available starting at 2:45 p.m. ET on ESPN3.

TRG scored its first win of the sports car season with an impressive come-from-behind victory in the GTC class at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Saturday by its No. 66 entry of Emilio DiGuida, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Bret Curtis.
 
After a few early race hiccups, the TRG Porsche 911 GT3 of team owner Kevin Buckler, found itself down three laps early in the race but methodically made its way back through the pack to take the lead with less than an hour remaining in the six-hour endurance classic.  The No. 68 car piloted by Tracy Krohn, Nick Tandy and Mike Hedlund was extremely strong as well, but it sustained a mechanical issue early, after solidly leading in the race and lost more than 30 laps while under repair in the garage.

"We knew we had two really good cars and that if we just hung in there, we would have a chance to win," said team owner Kevin Buckler.   "The entire team just did a stellar job today.  I was so proud of all of our drivers. Emilio is doing such a fantastic job and getting better and better with every race.  It is nice to be able to bring him back to a track he has driven at like Laguna Seca.  Bret was a super-star today and a real heads-up driver. He and I were working well together on the radios and when I asked him to dig deep and pull out the laps times, he got it done for us. Jeroen is just so strong and consistent that whenever we have him in the car and we are within "striking distance," we all know that we are in a solid position.  

The 68 guys were equally as impressive and had a real shot to win.   Tracy was awesome and put in the drive of his life for us on his last double stint, running times with the leaders.  Mike was absolutely stellar and I am always so impressed whenever I get a chance to work with him.  His approach to professional racing and his commitment to all aspects of his driving is outstanding.   It was our first time working with Nick and he is a rocket - fast and smart and was solidly leading the race before the differential blew apart.  And I can‚t say enough about the entire crew.  They worked very hard to get these cars dialed in and they did.  

This is what TRG is all about.  If it had not been for the mechanical issue on the No. 68 car, I believe we would have had two cars on the podium."

Curtis may have provided the best insight of the day,  "I think we just drove a really hard race, but conservative," he said. "The thing about (team owner) Kevin Buckler and TRG is he wants you to push, but he also wants you to pace the car. The strategy was really good. Everyone was putting in solid laps, and the crew did a super-super job. It was the strategy from the get-go. Some teams might have been struggling but we kept on and took the win."

"It is getting harder and harder to win in GTC," admitted Bleekemolen, who has driven with TRG and Emilio multiple times this season. "You are getting a lot more cars out there with experience and a lot of great drivers. We didn't have a lot of mistakes from the drivers and the teams, so it was just a good win."

It was the first win in a U.S. series for the DiGuida, who began with TRG mid-season last year.

"I am very happy to get my first win," said the former Venezuelan champion.  "The traffic can get really tough out there.  I don‚t have a lot of experience yet here in the US but working with Kevin [Buckler] and two great drivers like Jeroen and Bret, really helps a lot.  We refused to give up and it paid off."

TRG moved into third place in GTC class with the win.

Perseverance paid off for Project Libra Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca as its Radical SR10 finished the grueling 6-hour American Le Mans Monterey Presented by Patrón.
 
Marking the debut of the Roush Yates Ford-based V6 twin-turbo 3.2-liter engine in racing competition, the car placed fifth in the LMP2 class with drivers Andrew Prendeville of Raleigh, N.C.; Rusty Mitchell of Midland, Texas and Duarte Félix da Costa of Cascais, Portugal.
 
The event marked the Garysburg, N.C.-based team’s first race in the series since 2010, the culmination of a great deal of development work and the beginning of what it hopes will be a successful season and future.
 
The team flirted with a podium finish during the race. The car was running in third place in class and tenth overall at the halfway point but then it was forced behind the wall twice to repair the car’s nose, which was damaged in an incident that did not bring out a yellow flag.  The problem caused the engine temperature alarms to come on so additional time was lost to allow the engine to cool and to add some water, but luckily there was no damage to the engine and the team was able to make repairs and achieve its primary goal of finishing the race.
 
Prendeville qualified fourth in class and 13th overall in the 35-car field on Friday with a lap in 1:21.539 (98.809 miles per hour) for the 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course near Monterey.  When the race started he dropped back to fifth in class, and carefully and cleanly ran with some of the top GT drivers who were dicing for position.
 
Although he was being careful not to become involved in an accident, Prendeville was also able to improve his own lap times on almost every lap.  The race was only 20 minutes old when he passed Oliver Gavin’s Corvette and Stefan Mucke’s Aston Martin to draw right behind the fourth-place LMP2 driver, Joe Foster in the Dempsey Racing Lola Judd No. 27, in the overall standings.
 
About 10 minutes later Prendeville completed his 19th lap in just 1:23.010, which stood as the entry’s fastest lap of the race until the late stages of the event.
 
Prendeville spent the bulk of the rest of that stint chasing down Foster, closing the gap from some 5 seconds to just 1.39 seconds in the first hour and a half of the race.  He moved from fifth in class to fourth in class when Foster pitted, and then he pitted too after about 1 hour and 47 minutes in the car for fuel, fresh Dunlop tires and to turn it over to Mitchell.
 
The Dempsey Lola had to serve a penalty for avoidable contact with a PC car so it didn’t take long for Mitchell to draw right behind that car, which was now being driven by actor and team owner Patrick Dempsey. On lap 71, about an hour and 53 minutes into the race, Mitchell passed Dempsey to move into fourth place in class.  Mitchell, who is sponsored by Petro Communications, was four laps behind the third-place Conquest Endurance Morgan Nissan of Martin Plowman at the 2-and-one-half-hour mark, but he was one lap ahead of Dempsey and he was determined to keep the actor behind him.
 
He did just that and more.  Dempsey lost about a minute when he spun in the Corkscrew around the 2-hour-and-8-minute mark. The race was two hours and 48 minutes old when the driver who was running second in the LMP2 class, Frank Montagny in the Level 5 Motorsports HPD Honda, had an altercation with JDX Racing’s GTC Porsche of Chris Cumming at the entrance to pit lane. Mitchell had a stop-and-go penalty for speeding on pit lane but he moved into third place in class on lap 116 when Montagny’s car was rolled to the paddock at almost exactly the halfway point of the race.
 
Mitchell stayed in third place for about 36 minutes, but dropped back to fourth when he pitted around the 3-hour-and-38-minute mark to allow da Costa to take a turn behind the wheel.  The driver from Portugal was only on the track for about 13 minutes when he pitted so the crew could inspect the front of the car, and the crew took it behind the wall for repairs.
 
da Costa returned to the fray about 41 minutes later, but the car was back behind the wall about 5 minutes later for additional repairs and to check the engine temperature, since the warning alarms had come on. That took an additional 14 minutes, and shortly thereafter the car dropped from fourth to fifth in the standings due to the time spent behind the wall.
 
Prendeville climbed aboard again at that point and rejoined the race from behind pit wall.  With about 50 minutes to go Prendeville set the car’s fastest lap of the race with a lap in 1:21.514 before he turned the car back over to Mitchell 11 laps later.  Prendeville’s time was quite remarkable, as he bettered his qualifying time despite being in race trim.
 
The podium finish that once seemed possible but later seemed improbable looked possible again in the last half-hour of the race. With about 31 minutes remaining in the race the fourth-place Dempsey Racing car of Jonny Cocker became beached in a gravel trap to bring out a full-course caution and David Heinemeier Hansson brought the car that was running second in class, the Conquest Morgan, into the pits with a gearbox issue.  Cocker got restarted, however, and there wasn’t enough time to make up Hansson’s advantage so Project Libra ended up fifth, but it still achieved its primary goal of finishing the race.
 
The race was broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN3.
 
There’s a pause in the schedule now to allow some teams to prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The next American Le Mans Series event is July 6-7 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.   More information can be found on alms.com, imsaracing.net and Project Libra’s brand-new Facebook page.
 
Post-race quotes:
Andrew Prendeville: “I’m really happy.  Our goal was to get the car on the track, get the engine running and finish the race, and so for me it was mission accomplished.  It’s a real good starting point.
 
“We had plenty of success, even though the results don’t show it. I had two good stints.  I was happy with my performance, with the team’s performance and with the car’s performance.  The Roush Yates Ford engine is very solid and reliable, as is the car.  We had no real issues with either of them. We ran every session with no real problems, and at one point in the race we were tenth overall and third in class.
 
“We have two months now until Lime Rock so we can improve some things. We have something to build on for the rest of the season now.”
 
Rusty Mitchell: "I want to first thank the guys at Project Libra for working longer and harder hours than any other team in the paddock.
 
“We had a podium run going but unfortunately ran into a few issues a little over halfway through the race.
 
“I thought everyone worked extremely hard, not just this weekend but in the months coming into this race, and I want to thank them along with my sponsor, Petro Communications, for supporting me. There are some things we need to work on as far as the flat-out pace with the car but we know now where we stand and we will improve from here."
 
Ian Dawson (team owner and engineer): “We lost most of our time and subsequent laps when with two hours and 15 minutes remaining, after da Costa had taken over from Mitchell, the front diffuser had suffered some damage and the water alarms on the engine came on. da Costa made the right call to pit. We decided as a precaution to go behind the wall to check things over. We allowed the engine to cool and added some water. We lost several laps at that point, but there was no damage to the engine.
 
“We had no problems with the engine or chassis in our first race, and we can go away with the satisfaction that we can be competitive. Now we need to review all the data gathered during the week and get ready for the next event.”

Round three of the 2012 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was the scene of yet another intense GT battle, as the pair of Dunlop-shod BMW M3 GTs fought for the lead against two Corvettes in the final laps. The BMWs finished the six-hour race in third and forth position, delivering a third consecutive GT class podium for Dunlop and BMW Team RLL.

After Saturday’s running at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, BMW Team RLL ranks second in both the team and manufacturer points standings, with drivers Joey Hand and Dirk Müller holding second in driver points.

The No. 55 BMW M3 GT of Bill Auberlen and Jörg Müller finished in third place, scoring the duo’s first podium together and tying them for fourth in the driver standings.

Teammates Joey Hand and Dirk Müller finished fourth in the No. 56 BMW M3 GT, despite losing the car’s rear fascia and diffuser as a result of contact from the second place Corvette.

“Our competitors certainly are not making it easy,” said Bobby Rahal, Team Principal. “We hung in there despite being hit many times and came away with valuable points.”

Dunlop-equipped teams also achieved podium finishes in both the LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes.

In LMP1, the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda of Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Johnny Mowlem finished second in class. The team lost contention for the lead after a damaged front diffuser sent them back to the garage for repairs. However, the team would return to finish the race, using the final portion as an opportunity to test different Dunlop tire combinations.

In LMP2, Dunlop-equipped teams swept the class podium, with the No. 95 HPD ARX-03b of Level 5 Motorsports earning the team’s third consecutive victory. Drivers Franck Montagny, Scott Tucker and Luis Diaz finished second overall, only three laps behind the more powerful LMP1 race leader. Second and third place were rounded out by the No. 37 Morgan-Nissan of Conquest Endurance and the No. 055 HPD ARX-03b of Level 5 Motorsports, respectively.

Following the traditional break in the ALMS season for teams competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, round four of the series, the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix, will be held at Lime Rock Park, in Lakeville, Conn. on July 7th.

About Dunlop
Dunlop is a global tire brand with an excellent reputation among performance car enthusiasts. Well known for its prestigious sports car racing heritage, many of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers—including Alfa Romeo, AMG, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche—come standard with Dunlop tires. For more information on Dunlop, visit www.dunloptires.com. Teams are sponsored in part by Dunlop Motorsport.

Johnny Mowlem’s racing career has taken him around the world, far distances from his home in Britain. But, far-flung as are his travels, Mowlem never seems to stay away from the American Le Mans Series for long.

He was back in ALMS competition again this weekend at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, driving Dyson Racing’s ModSpace/G-Oil Lola Mazda in the top P-1 category during the six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey race. The points result was good as the team netted a second-place finish in the category despite a lengthy stop late in the race to repair some debris damage.

“I am disappointed for the Dyson Racing team since we should have been second overall,” Mowlem said. “At least we got second place P1 points which is good for the championship but more work needs to be done before the next race.”

Mowlem, a factory driver for Lotus’ sports car program, will race with Dyson in the long-distance ALMS races this season. His work with the Lotus program leaves little time for other pursuits, but the company has allowed Mowlem to work with the Dyson team.

Mowlem was still getting acquainted with the car’s potential when the race started.

“Through no fault of the team's, but just through unfortunate circumstance, I went into the race feeling extremely unprepared and a little like the shortest leg on the table! The first part of my stint I used to get my hands around the car and during the second part I was starting to feel comfortable with the car,” said Mowlem. “I was able to run lap times that at that time were second only to the leading HPD LMP1 car, and I'll admit that was a relief!”

"On a personal level, I really enjoyed becoming initiated into the Dyson Racing Team, as they are a terrific bunch of people, and you could see in everyone the burning desire to get back to winning ways!" Mowlem commented. "I am sure that day will come sooner rather than later."

Mowlem’s next race will be for Lotus at the Nurburgring at the end of May. His next race for Dyson will come later in the summer.

Guy Cosmo started 8th in the #02 Extreme Speed Motorsports Patron Ferrari 458GT and ran as high as 4th during Saturday's American Le Mans Monterey Presented by Patron at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Salinas, Calfiornia. Battling a world-class field of GT entries and marques, most would come away citing survival as a moral victory.

Cosmo and his teammate, Ed Brown, were right in the mix following Friday’s afternoon qualifying. After a tight session featuring several see-saw battles, the top eight GT-class qualifiers were separated by less than seven-hundredths of a second. Cosmo qualified 8th with a best lap time of 1:22.942 (97.138 mph). The ESM sister car, #01 Ferrari driven by Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek qualified 6th.

"Qualifying was really intense," observed Cosmo. "The #02 Ferrari felt good and the team was reporting good times to me on the radio. But before you could pat yourself on the back, someone else would bump you down by a heartbeat. It was crazy."

The tight qualifying would continue to play out on race day. With a surprise start from the pole, the Aston Martin ran undisturbed out front while just a few car lengths back, the Corvettes, BMWs, Ferraris and Porches ran door-to-door and bumper-to-bumper.

"I got a pretty good start when you consider 8th puts you right in the middle of things," said Cosmo. "But this became a six hour sprint. The early going was literally an epic battle for every position. There was no one out there willing to settle back and wait for a late race strategy. Right from the flag, it was on."

Pushing the Ferrari and charging his way up to 4th place during the six-hour endurance event, Cosmo set the quickest lap of the race. Circulating the 2.238-mile, 11-turn track in 1:23.658, Cosmo was the quickest until being nicked by Olly Gavin in closing hour of the race.

"In retrospect, Laguna Seca was a tough day for us," admitted an exhausted Cosmo. "Our #02 ESM Racing Patron Ferrari was one of the fastest GT cars on track all day. I had fastest race lap until Oliver Gavin pipped me by 300ths of a second towards the end of the race. Unfortunately, I never got back in the car to take another run at him.  Congratulations to him, Tomy Milner and Corvette Racing on their 2nd win in a row. We'll go after them at Lime Rock."

Earlier in the week, Guy and teammate Johannes van Overbeek took a two-wheeled tour of Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway's famed corkscrew on bicycles.

"Yeah, I did it," laughed the American Le Mans Series 2005 Rookie of the Year.  "I climbed Mount Corkscrew on my bike. I made my way up the long, steep incline from Laguna Seca's left-handed turn 5, through the tricky left hander of turn 6, and all the way up the even-more steep incline into the mouth to the famed Corkscrew turn. I didn't have 500+ Prancing Horses behind me this time, nor the symphonic sound of the 8 fire-breathing Italian cylinders producing those prancing horses. I didn't even have all four wheels underneath me…"

You can read more about this and other personal adventures on Guy's personal blog at http://www.guycosmo.com/blog

Next up for Guy, the Extreme Speed Motorsports team and the ALMS is the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, July 6-7.

The Muscle Milk Racing duo of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr dominated Saturday’s six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in their HPD ARX-03a, leading from flag to flag to score its second consecutive overall and LMP1 victory of 2012.

Three laps behind the overall victors, the Level 5 Motorsports trio of Luis Diaz, Franck Montagny and Scott Tucker finished second overall and claimed the LMP2 class victory in its #95 ARX-03b, after a nearly race-long battle with the Conquest Racing Morgan Nissan of David Hansson, Antonio Pizzonia and Martin Plowman.

Following up on their victory last month at the team’s “home” race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Graf and Luhr sprinted away from Dyson Racing’s Lola Mazda on the opening lap and dominated the day in their HPD V8-powered ARX-03a, lapping the field within the first two hours of the six-hour event.  The team carried on to run a flawless event, setting fastest race lap and winning its second consecutive Michelin Green X Challenge en route to the win.

In LMP2, featuring a pair of HPD twin-turbocharged V6-powered ARX-03bs fielded by Level 5 Motorsports, the race was much more closer.  Driving the #055 Level 5 entry, early leader Franck Montagny collided with a slower GTC Porsche, sending the ARX-03b to the garage for repairs and handing the lead to the sister #95 car, with Scott Tucker driving.

But it was not clear sailing for the #95 ARX-03b, as the Morgan Nissan from Conquest Endurance, which added former Formula One driver Pizzonia for this event, presented a strong challenge for the first five hours.  But shortly after taking the lead in an exchange of pit stops during the final hour, Hansson was forced to pit the Conquest machine with transmission issues, and Level 5 reclaimed the lead to continue its perfect season of three American Le Mans Series LMP2 class victories in three races this year.

After going behind the pit wall for repairs, Level 5’s #055 ARX-03b returned to finish third in LMP2, with Christophe Bouchut driving the final stint.

After its two-race swing through California, the American Le Mans Series has a one-month layoff as several leading teams – including Level 5 – take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.  The series resumes July 7 with the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut.

At Le Mans, HPD will field its largest effort to date in the classic endurance contest with four teams:  British-based JRM Racing and Strakka Racing in LMP1; and the American teams Starworks and Level 5 Motorsports in LMP2.  The 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place June 16-17.

Lucas Luhr (#6 Muscle Milk Racing HPD ARX-03a) Finished 1st overall, 1st in LMP1; Michelin Green X Challenge winner:  "It was a good race for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, especially now that we have two wins in California in front of our home crowd.  It was very important for the whole team and for our motivation.  It was very nice.  There were so many friends and family of [team owner Greg] Picketts here to support us.  We can show them back-to-back victories.  Klaus [Graf] did a very good job at the beginning, and we built a good lead early.  We had to keep our focus, stay out of trouble and bring it home – and that’s what we did.”

Luis Diaz (#95 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b) Finished 2nd overall, 1st in LMP2:  "Our goal is to develop race by race.  The aero of this car is so great, you can carry so much speed into the corners.  I think the mechanical side of the car is great.  It’s just awesome.  The P1 cars are a bit quicker on the straights, but our team is very prepared to fight for overall [race] wins.”

Roger Griffiths (Technical Director, Honda Performance Development) on Saturday’s 6-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey:  “Excellent efforts from both of our Le Mans prototype teams today were well rewarded with class victories for both Muscle Milk Racing and Level 5 Motorsports, and the first 1-2 finish overall this season for Honda Performance Development.  Congratulations to both of our partner teams, which swept both California events to continue their winning streaks, and all of our HPD associates for a job well done.  Now, our focus shifts back to Europe, where preparations continue for our third appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and our largest effort to date for this great race.”

Level 5 Motorsports and Scott Tucker achieved their goal of a third consecutive class victory in three years at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and three from three in the 2012 American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patron.  The No. 95 HPD ARX-03b, driven by team owner-driver Tucker, Luis Diaz and Franck Montagny, claimed second place overall in the 35-strong field after a thrilling and action-packed six hours of racing in California.

The second Level 5 entry, the Alpina Watches-sponsored No. 055 in the hands of Christophe Bouchut as well as Tucker and Montagny, overcame an incident with a GTC car to take third in class and valuable championship points despite being delayed for 35 minutes while repairs were made. The team’s P2 success provided Honda Performance Development with a much applauded 1-2 in the overall results.

A delighted Scott Tucker, who also claimed a pair of class wins in this weekend’s Cooper Tires Prototype Lites series, said afterwards:  “Incidents happen in this kind of racing, and that’s why we have two cars - in case something happens to one of them.  Franck and Luis drove a great race and Christophe too.  There was the mistake with the 055 and a GTC car, but overall I couldn’t be happier.  It’s a really special day for us.”

Tucker, a five time national driving champion from Kansas City, together with Luis Diaz of Mexico City and Franck Montagny of France, came out as winners in a close-run battle with the Conquest Endurance Morgan-Nissan which endured for almost the whole race.  Tucker took the start in the No. 055 from third place on the grid and class pole, with Luis Diaz in the sister Level 5 HPD ARX-03b just one place behind. The two cars maintained a firm hold on the P2 class lead – one it wasn’t to relinquish despite some strong opposition.

Luis Diaz, who drove a perfect and solid first stint before handing off to Tucker, was a slightly reluctant observer of the tense conclusion: “Watching almost gave me a heart attack!” he smiled.  “After all the ups and downs we had it’s a great result.  I think Level 5 did a fantastic job and Scott and Franck drove a great race.  We tried to keep the car clean and there was a big fight through all the classes amongst the drivers, right to the end so it’s very nice to finish on top of the podium. Our goal is to develop race by race and it’s nice to be on a team with a leader like Scott who pushes us to the limit to be a better team.”

At the two hour 42 minute mark, just after the second round of pit stops, Franck Montagny in the No. 055 had a coming together with a GTC Porsche which resulted in significant damage to the right rear corner of the Level 5 machine.  The crew did a superb job in making speedy and effective repairs to the HPD, replacing an axle, suspension geometry and bodywork, before Christophe Bouchut was able to return the car to the race. A total of 35 minutes was spent behind the wall.

Montagny returned to the wheel of the No. 95 for the final section of the race, setting fastest P2 lap time of the race and consistently turning fast laps in order to ensure victory.  He acknowledged the fantastic job the team did to repair the car and have it back running again, and said of the incident: “To be honest I didn't see it coming. I was just following Scott, I overtook a beautiful gold car and he hit me in the rear.  Then I was in the wall and not so happy. Especially for a team like this, you don't feel good when things like that happen, but the team worked hard and put it back together and got it back on the track.  I am a race car driver and I had to do my job so I had to not think about what happened and concentrate on winning. I had a good race against Antonio Pizzonia [in the Conquest P2 entry], who I know from Formula one, so it ended up being a fun race.”

The team now turns its attention fully towards the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France.  The only official test session takes place on Sunday, June 3 and the car and all equipment will be shipped this week to Europe ready for the test and the race itself which takes place on June 16/17.