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Audi Scores ALMS Victory At St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, Fla. ? Audi regained its winning form by scoring a late-race victory in Saturday?s Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, the second race of the season for the American LeMans Series.

The winning drivers were Lucas Luhr, Germany, and Marco Werner, Switzerland, and they drove the Audi Sport North America Audi AG R10/TDI. The car is in the P1 class, the top run of the ALMS ladder.

Werner went to victory lane for the 18th time and Luhr did so for the 24th time, but only the first time in P1 competition.

The pair ran first and second throughout the two-hour race around the twisting 1.8-mile street course. Several times they yielded the lead to the Porsche RS Spyder of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, who captured the 12 Hours of Sebring for owner Roger Penske.

Twice in the closing laps, Dumas passed Luhr but each time the German bounced back to regain the lead. The last pass occurred after a restart with just two minutes remaining the race.

?I had made a mistake earlier, and I was mad when the yellow came out,? Luhr said. ?There was no doubt I was going to catch him and I was either going to crash into the wall or win the race. I picked my spot and committed to it.?

Added Werner, ?It was a very exciting race for me and it was very stressful for me to watch (the closing laps) in the pits.?

Bernhard and Dumas finished second, just .8 seconds behind the victors.

?With two laps to go, I didn?t have a chance,? Dumas said. ?We did what we could but first in class (P2) is perfect.?

Third overall and second in P2 was the Acura ARX-01B of IndyCar veteran Scott Sharp and David Brabham.

Fourth place went to another Penske Porsche driven by Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long.

Fifth place went to Dyson Racing?s Guy Smith and Chris Dyson. The pair drove a Porsche RS Spyder. The twin car of Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti crashed out of the race minutes from the conclusion.

Sixth overall was the Andretti Green Racing?s Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi.

The GT1 class winner was a Chevrolet Corvette of Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin. They were eighth overall.

The GT2 class winner was a Ferrari 430 Berlinetta driven by Germans Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher.

Twenty-eight cars started the race and several were eliminated in crashes. Four full-course yellow flags slowed the race for 22 laps.

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