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Audi Avenges Misfortune To Win The Generac 500 At Road America

Elkhart Lake, WI (August 9, 2008) – The German duo of Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr took control of the Generac 500 Presented by Time Warner Cable late in the event to win at picturesque Road America. Audi’s win avenged last year’s race in which they mismanaged themselves out of a win. It was Audi’s second straight 1-2 finish and sixth win of the 2008 American LeMans Series season.

The Prototype Class 1 (P1) Audi’s of Luhr/Werner and Marcel Fassler/Emanuele Pirro started first and third with Prototype Class 2 (P2) interloper Franck Montangy in the Andretti-Green Racing #26 starting second. It was a great start as the both classed of prototypes (P1 and P2) were all bunched nicely on the start, however it was the Audi R10 TDI #2 of Lucas Luhr in front of the sister Audi (#1) of Emanuele Pirro. The Intersport Lola B06/10 #37 of young American, Jon Field got a great start and was third by the end of lap one. Early on, the Audi’s easily took command of the race marching out to a three-plus second lead after several laps.

The first big incident of the day occurred on lap six (11 min into the four-hour race) at the exit of turn seven between the P1 car of Gil De Ferran and the GT2 car of Timothy Pappas. The #66 Acura ARX-01B of de Ferran made hard contact with the tire wall on an area of the track which doesn’t see many incidents. It looked like de Ferran cut across the Doran Ford GT-R of Pappas. Apparently many of the Prototype drivers have been surprised of the speed the GT cars are carrying into the turns. What appeared to be just bodywork damage on the de Ferran Motorsports Acura was repaired and de Ferran sent back out multiple laps down. Adding insult to injury was de Ferran came back in a lap later for a penalty for too many personnel over the wall.

Even under caution, contact can be made as Alex Figge spun his GT2 Ferrari F430 #73 after contact with another car in corner number three, he continued. Several cars took advantage of the safety car period including the P1 Intersport Lola #37 of Jon Field and the two P2 Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyders.

Green flag conditions returned 25 minutes into race with the Audi R10 TDI’s leading one-two with Luhr in control. The AGR Acura of Franck Montagny moving up to third after the #37 Intersport pitstop.

Problems continued for de Ferran as he made contact with the other Doran-Ford, this time the #40 of David Murry. De Ferran was passing Murry on the inside as the made their way through the carousel, however it appeared that Murry did not see the Acura of de Ferran causing side-by-side contact and Murry went off into the ‘kitty litter.’ This incident happened 33 minutes into race. David Robertson of Doran Racing joked, “We should put a target on the car. Five points for getting hit by an Audi, three points for getting hit by an Acura, and four points for a Penske.”

Jon Field once again got a great start on the restart as he persuasively passed the Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and several GT2 cars on the long front straightaway (21 laps completed).

The third full-course caution came at 51minutes into the race as the P1 Autocon Motorsports Creation CA07-002 #12 of Michael Lewis stalled on course, restarted, then slowed apparently leaking oil. As the sun dropped lower in the west so has the ambient temperature which has dropped below 70, coolest of the weekend.

At the one hour mark, Jon Field (Intersport Lola #37) led P1, Romain Dumas (Penske Porsche #7) led P2, Oliver Gavin (Corvette Racing #4) led GT1 and Tom Milner (Panoz PTG Esperante #21) led GT2.

At the 1 hour 11 minute mark, the #2 Audi of Luhr got around the new underdog favorite of Road America, Jon Field. Things got real interesting shortly thereafter as 7 of the 30 cars on track were all clustered together going into Canada Corner (turn 12) with Luhr who performed some thrilling dicing and diving moves while passing both Tafel Racing Ferraris.

Ryan Lewis (Intersport Lola #30) had a thrill by going off wide in the carousel and taking a ride through the gravel. Lewis won’t be a favorite with his fellow drivers as he left gravel on the track as he made his way back to the pits. Lewis had relieved Michael Lewis who started the race.

Driver changes started to take place after the first hour. At the 1 hr 39min mark, the #1 Audi pitted as Pirro handed over to co-driver, Marcel Fassler. Fassler is the newest member of the Audi family to drive the Audi R10 TDI. Fassler a veteran of the DTM (European Sedan Racing) series is driving his first race in North America. Meanwhile the P2 Acura of David Brabham moved into the lead.

New leader Brabham (Patron Highcroft Racing #9) ducked into the pits and took on fuel, tires and handed the controls to co-driver Scott Sharp. Earlier, previous leader Luhr had pitted and made a driver change as Marco Werner got into the #2 Audi. Due to Audi #2 pitting, Luis Diaz (P2 Lowe’s Fernandez Acura #15) took the overall lead.

At the two hour mark, halfway point, it’s Marco Werner back leading in the #2 Audi after the Adrian Fernandez/Diaz pitstop. Werner is comfortably ahead of teammate Fassler who is almost 26 seconds behind. Fernandez leads P2 in the Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura #15. Olivier Berretta who took over from Gavin in Corvette #4 is 31 seconds ahead of teammate Johnny O’Connell in Corvette #3. Richard Westbrook (#87 Farnbacher Porsche 911 GT3 RSE is also 31 seconds in front of the Ferrari 430GT of Mika Salo who relieved Dirk Muller. Shortly thereafter Westbrook pitted, letting Salo retake the lead in the GT2 class.

With 90 minutes to go, pitstops were shuffling the leader board as Montagny was in front after taking over for co-driver James Rossiter. This was Rossiter’s first race for AGR. The #20 Dyson Porsche of Marino Franchitti was about 25 seconds behind. The #2 Audi who pitted with Werner aboard ran fifth overall. Scott Sharp in the P2 Petron-Highcroft Acura #9 took the overall lead. The Highcroft team tried an off-sequence strategy pitting often and early in the first half of the race.

With an one hour and twenty minutes to go, contact between the P1 #30 Intersport of John Faulkner and the GT2 Ferrari #73 of Jim Tafel at Canada corner (turn 12) caused the #30 Lola to spin around getting caught deeply in the gravel pit. The Ferrari of Tafel had a tire rub on the left-rear causing immense smoke as he raced down the front straight. Faulkner was assisted and returned to the pits for service as did Tafel whose crew wisely waited for the pits to open before working on the car.

With the ensuing full-course caution most teams took advantage of the slow down. The Intersport #30 which has had all sorts of trouble today will try driver number three, Gregor Fisken. The #9 Patron-Highcroft Acura pitted with David Brabham now aboard for a fuel only, thus trying to make it to the end of the race.

The field got the green flag with just an hour to go, Werner led the field to the green with Montagny in the AGR Acura following with Fassler back in the #1 Audi following in third. Montagny a driver who is known to have a healthy ego amused many in the press room as he dogged Werner’s Audi on the back side of the track while flashing his brights to pass. Werner ignored the Frenchman and started to pull away a lap later.

In one of the more lighter moments (at least for the assembled press corps) the GT1 leader Corvette #4 of Oliver Gavin went off course just after the kink and hit a Generac sponsor sign on the side of the track. The outer sign flew off leaving a very large semi-rigid “Champ Car” sign draped over the left front of the car. Due to the lack of vision, Gavin had to pull off course and remove the sign. With Gavin stopped on course a full course caution was called by race control.

35 minutes to go. On the restart Brabham got an unbelievable jump on the restart taking advantage of slower traffic taking a 6.5 second lead over second place Fernandez. The top-5 positions were all P2 cars. Meanwhile, the Audi’s were stuck in traffic as the sun is started to set, casting dark shadows across most of the track. Brabham’s big lead went up in smoke as Fernandez spun and went off in turn three ended up in the gravel. Fernandez appeared to be pressured by Montagny, however on second look apparently the left-rear suspension broke on his Acura. Full course caution. The biggest loser beside Fernandez was Butch Leitzinger (#20 Dyson Racing Porsche) who lost several positions in the fracas.

21 minutes to go. This time Brabham doesn’t get the jump he had last time. Montagny dogged Brabham with the two Audi’s hunting the two front running Acuras. With 14 minutes to go Brabham continued to lead Montagny and Werner as the top-5 seem to be static. That all changed a lap later as a slower GT2 car (#40 Robertson Racing Doran-Ford) caused the leader Brabham to check-up at turn 14. With that pause, the momentum swung to the more powerful Audi Diesel of Werner. Brabham led coming up the hill towards the finish line with Montagny making a move to pass. However the torque of Werner’s Audi robustly passed both by the time they got to the braking zone for turn one.

The story line continued to change as a bit later, Montagny and the #007 Aston-Martin of Paul Drayson touched coming out of Canada corner taking both cars off track. Montagny tried to continue but pulled off at just before turn 14 out of the race. Once again a full course caution was summoned.

The safety car pulled off with three and half minutes to go in the race with Werner leading Brabham to the line. Brabham tried to keep up with Werner however the #1 Audi of Fassler drafted up to pass Brabham after he crowded Fassler towards the inside wall on the straight. The Audi’s now led 1-2 overall. Meanwhile in GT2 the most exciting battle of the race developed a gaggle of GT2 cars battled for the lead. On the penultimate lap, Dirk Werner in the Farnbacher Loles Porsche 911 GT3 RSR passed leader Mika Salo in the Risi Competizione #61. Shortly thereafter Salo tried to catch up to the Porsche however spun braking for turn #5. After Salo spun off the Farnbacher Loles Racing team went on to take their first GT2 victory in the Series. It was an emotional win for drivers, Dirk Werner, Richard Westbrook and Bryce Miller. “The car was fantastic today and the team deserves it,” Miller said. “The last couple of laps were amazing driving by Dirk.”

After the race Fassler remarked on the move by Brabham, “It was pretty close between Brabham and the wall. But I said to myself: Now or never! It worked out. I am very happy that I was able to give the second place to the team. It ran very well from the beginning,”

Werner wasn’t going to be touched as he avenged the race the Audi team gave away to the Penske Porsches last year. Fassler crossed the finish line second. Brabham ended up winning the P2 class over the #7 Penske Porsche. In GT1 it was the #4 Corvette finishing over #008 Aston Martin who finished second (17th overall). The #87 Farnbacher Porsche 911GT3 RSR finished seven seconds ahead of the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche #45 of Jorge Bergmeister. GT2 polesitter Muller was third in the Tafel Racing Ferrari.

Co-driver, Luhr was happy with the win, “The strategy that we had in our minds before the race did not work out because of the many yellows. Nevertheless I was able to pull away quite well. Unfortunately we always lost the advantage we had due to the caution periods. Thank God in the end it was still enough to win. I’m more than happy. Marcel (F

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