McNish’s outstanding performance
Allan McNish drove a superb race at Road Atlanta last Saturday to win the Petit Le Mans for Audi with team-mates Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro. The Scot made a grievous error on his out-lap on the way to the grid, losing control on cold tyres and crashing into the barriers. McNish was able to drive his battered car back to the pits and after the Audi mechanics made rapid repairs he started the race two laps down.
Driving at his ferocious best, McNish was able to perfectly use a series of full-course yellows to get back on the lead lap before attacking and passing the Nicolas Minassian/Stephane Sarrazin/Christian Klein Peugeot 908 in the closing stages. The lone Peugeot to run this year’s Petit Le Mans led most of the race but McNish was able run down the Peugeot and pull away to win by 4.5 seconds. Lucas Luhr/Marco Werner finished third in the second Audi R10 just three seconds behind the Peugeot. McNish’s performance stole the show at Road Atlanta but the big news of the weekend was the Penske/Porsche team’s sweep of the LMP2 category.
Penske’s Porsche Spyders finished one-two-three in class and fourth, fifth and sixth overall so that Roman Dumais/Timo Bernhard wrapped up the P2 drivers’ championship after the Acura teams stumbled badly. Dumais/Bernhard finished fifth overall, eighteen seconds behind the class-winning Porsche driven by Ryan Briscoe/Helio Castroneves. The latter was delighted to be aboard the car for the final, winning stint after his appearance (in handcuffs and leg chains, no less) the day before at a federal court in Miami where he was formally indicted for tax evasion.
Three of the four Acura P2 cars entered in the race were eliminated in accidents. Incredibly, point leader Scott Sharp crashed his Highcroft Acura in practice, then crashed again early in the race preventing team-mates David Brabham and Dario Franchitti from running a single lap. Sharp’s miserable weekend essentially handed the P2 Drivers’ Championship to Porsche men Dumais and Bernhard.
The Andretti-Green and Fernandez Racing Acuras also crashed out of the race. Franck Montagny was battling for the P2 lead in the race’s final hour when his Andretti-Green Acura was eliminated in a nasty, multi-car accident triggered by Georges Forgeois spinning his Lola. Luis Diaz was aboard Adrian Fernadez’s Acura earlier in the race when he was hit by a GT car, terminally damaging his car’s suspension. The only Acura to finish was Gil de Ferran’s car driven by de Ferran/Simon Pagenaud/Scott Dixon, which came home eighth overall and fifth in class behind one of the Dyson Porsches driven by Marino Franchitti/Andy Lally/Butch Leitzinger.
The eleventh and final ALMS race of the year takes place in two weeks at Laguna Seca where the Acura teams will try to salvage the LMP2 manufacturers championship. After Penske’s sweep of the Petit Le Mans P2 category, Porsche leads Acura by eight points (192 to 184). Of course, Audi and Luhr/Werner have already wrapped-up the P1 manufacturers and drivers titles.
Filed under: Blogs, Sportscars
Tags: ALMS
He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Dave Walker:
October 6th, 2008 2:52pm
In my opinion ALMS is the best race series in the world currently. It has the best balance between technology and personalities. I have been watching racing for four (gulp)decades and it is even better in person with good fan access. Incidently the gap in GT2 was only 2 seconds after 1000 miles.
And ….. that McNish sure is great to watch.
Rich Ambroson:
October 6th, 2008 4:41pm
I agree with Dave Walker, in that the ALMS is my favorite four-wheeled racing series (MotoGP is my favorite overall racing).
F1 is a pale shadow of the racing (actual racing) involved, and the technology in the ALMS is much more relevant. Bernie’s freakshow (it’s not a mere circus anymore) has lost it’s fascination for me.
That McNish is a great driver and a great teammate. It was nice to hear him give the credit to the crew after the win.
Filipe Amoroso:
October 7th, 2008 11:59am
It was just outstanding. What a great race. McNish was huge. When ‘Lunch with’ him will feature in the magazine 30 years from now, 2008 will pop up very often.
I just wish I had better coverage. Best I have is MotorsTV (in english, with french commentary on voice-over. I have no problems with either language, but the two at the same time is just unbelievably frustrating).
The ‘freak-show’…it’s a poignant remark. For me, F1 is still F1, but I’ve just seen the ING survey (http://www.ingf1racingmagazinefansurvey.com/intro.aspx), and looking at the questions gets you thinking if F1 isn’t losing the plot (being asked how important is the “Glamour” and “The involvement of leading multi-national companies” in F1 is a bit off-course, in my opinion).
It’s curious to think about how we’ll look back to F1 in 2007 and 2008: absolutely fantastic years in terms of competition, or two years where off-track events overtook the actual racing (Lewis vs Alonso, spygate, Max and the banshees, night racing). Bit of both, surely? Or the beginning of the end?