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Acura Peerless In St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, FL – Veteran drivers Scott Sharp and David Brabham cruised to victory Saturday afternoon in the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, the second round of the American LeMans Series 2009 season. The victors drove the Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a, scoring their first P1 triumph.
The nationally televised race was run on the 1.8-mile street course in St. Petersburg with a one hour and 55-minute time limit. 93 laps were completed in the allocated timeframe, and the winners averaged 86.665 miles per hour.
Performing in front of a sun-baked crowd in downtown St. Petersburg, the winners powered into the lead on the 58th of the 93 laps and weren’t headed as Brabham scored his 17th series victory and ninth overall win. Sharp took his fifth series win and second overall victory.
And it was the first overall victory for the Highcroft team.
“This car is a brand new and Acura has done a lot of development on it,” Sharp said with enthusiasm. “The car will only get better and better, and it is real exciting.”
Commenting on his early race mishap, Sharp added, “We went with a harder rear tire and the first few laps it was like a death-defying run. I was sure I was gong to crash. I snapped it sideways but managed to gather it up. I didn’t know what was going on. But toward the end of the run the car got much better.”
Brabham drove the final half of the race. “It was great for Acura to get its first P1 victory here, especially since they were sponsoring the event,” Brabham said. “Although the race looked simple, the track was really slick. Going into turn one, it was very easy to make a mistake. We mixed our tire strategy up at the beginning, and Gil (de Ferran) took off but Scott (Sharp) was catching him, which forced them to change their strategy. They got caught out on a yellow and that put them back. It was a shame they had problems as it would have been fun to dice with them. It’s racing and you have to take victories when you can get them.”
The ultimate victors chased the leading de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-02a for the first half of the race and just when it looked like he de Ferran car couldn’t be touched, mechanical gremlins began to slow the car considerably. After a series of time-consuming pit stops, the car stalled on the course, ending the race for the team. Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud shared the driving duties and while they were scored third in P1, the pair was 13th overall after completing just 66 of the 93-lap- race.
Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz finished second overall and also took P2 honors in their Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01B. “We had a good race and no major problems,” Fernandez said. “This is a race we should have won two years ago. I wish we had this last year when the Porsches were here. This proves we are tough competitors.”
Noted Diaz, “The team has done a great job preparing this car. Everyone wants to win so badly. We have internal problems between myself and Adrian, and he’s the fastest teammate I have ever had. He continually pushes me to be a better driver.”
The Dyson Racing Mazda Lola B09 86 Mazda’s were second and third in P2, finishing one and two laps, respectively, behind the Fernandez Acura. They were also third and fourth overall.
Chris Dyson and Guy Smith drove the second-place Mazda and Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti were in the other Mazda.
The most intense action of the race occurred in the GT2 class with a race-long battle ensued among six cars. In the end, seasoned drivers Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long drove the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to victory over the BMW Rahal Letterman E92 M3 of Dirk Muller and Tommy Milner.
Third in GT2 was the independent LG Motorsports Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6.
“Yesterday, we didn’t think we could win, so we played it safe today with our tires,” Bergmeister stated. “For me, it was a boring race as I was just cruising around.”
Patrick Long said, “It was definitely an exciting race. We showed early we had speed, although we didn’t start where we wanted. It was a battle with the BMWs and then trying to pull in the Ferrari. We expected more yellows, and when that didn’t happen, the strategies got a little different.”
The ALMS returns to the streets in Long Beach, California, for its next event two weeks from now.

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