Lime Rock Park - ALMS Round 4

This does not happen. Ever. With a bumper sticker reading My Other Car is a Diesel, five and a half years of anti-Audi rules against it, the chassis already used for over two years, and a car introduced in 2000 and retired today in its final race, the Audi R8 pulled it off one more time. Impossible. Absolutely impossible.


Overall: Audi. Strong over the bumpy course, an error free race led the R8 to its final victory. Allan McNish is king of the R8. Nobody drives that well. Simply amazing.

LMP1: Dyson's horrible luck continued with one car starting from pit-lane and the other's clutch exploding on the grid, but some very fast times from the Lolas hint at what could have been. Autocon led a lap then had some serious problems. Audi won (again).

LMP2: Penske had a shot at the win, even led for most the race, but an error under yellow at minute 44 necessitated a second driver change, and they settled with an LMP2 class 1-2. Intersport came third after some problems. Mazda wrecked.

GT1: After the 2 hour 45 minute sprint race, it did not come down to the final turn, rather, the final straight away. The charging #3 Corvette was up alongside the Aston as the Aston crossed just ahead. The #4’s streak was snapped in a muddy off with a Dyson that brought out a full-course caution. Aston finished 1 and 3.

GT2: The second story of the race is here. After totaling their car when Jorg Bergmeister put it in a tyre-wall hard at Le Mans, Petersen/White Lightning got a new car Monday. A series of all-nighters to get it into ALMS trim paid off when Jorg Bergmeister took it home first today. Flying Lizard had one side of the rear-wing 4mm too high after qualifying pole and started from the back to finish second. Risi put their brand new Ferrari into the wall at turn 8, opening the way for BMW to put an M3 third and fourth, a great finish for that team.

The bullring proved exciting. I was late for work because of the globecast. Congratulations to all the teams involved – racing this soon after Le Mans on a different continent is tough at best.