At the final round of the American Le Mans Series, Porsche aims to win the last championship title still up for grabs on the circuit where the success streak of the RS Spyder began in autumn 2005: In Laguna Seca the race is on for the manufacturers’ title in the LMP2 class, where Porsche competes as title defender and current points leader after claiming the 2008 drivers and team championship at the penultimate round two weeks ago.
‘It would be a wonderful conclusion to a very successful season if we could win the manufacturers as well,’ says Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche motorsport. ‘Having already won the other titles, we can now concentrate totally on this goal.’
On the 3.6 kilometre Laguna Seca Raceway, two hours’ drive south of San Francisco on the Pacific coast, five of the 503 hp RS Spyder sports prototypes take up the hunt for the title. Penske Racing fields three of the prototypes with direct fuel injection (DFI): Sharing the #7 RS Spyder are the former and new champions, Timo Bernhard (Dittweiler) und Romain Dumas (France). Manning the cockpit of the #6 racer are Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA). Returning to lend their support to the Penske squad are Helio Castroneves (Brazil) and Ryan Briscoe (Australia). At their first race together in the #5 RS Spyder two weeks ago in Road Atlanta, the successful IndyCar pilots secured their first class victory. The Porsche-supported privateer team, Dyson Racing, contests the final with two of the Weissach developed and built sports prototypes: Chris Dyson (USA) and Guy Smith (Great Britain) share the #16 racer, Butch Leitzinger (USA) and Marino Franchitti (Great Britain) the #20.
The signature feature of the race track near Monterey, regarded as one of the most interesting and diverse in the USA, is Corkscrew Corner. It snakes downwards like a corkscrew with the drivers approaching the crest at high speed virtually blind. ‘You need a reliable car and a good dose of courage to keep your foot down and stay on the ideal line,’ says Timo Bernhard, who with his team mate Romain Dumas took off into the season with an impressive overall victory at the Sebring 12 hour classic. On the way to successfully defending their title, the German-French duo followed up with class wins in St. Petersburg, Salt Lake City and Mid-Ohio. Romain Dumas comments: ‘It was much harder to defend the title against strong competition than it was to win it. We are now looking forward to the final.’
Despite having already achieved their personal goal with the title victory, they will certainly not slow down in Laguna Seca. On the contrary – the pair are determined to help Porsche retain the manufacturers’ title (engine and chassis) in the race series featuring the world’s fastest sports cars. Timo Bernhard: ‘We’re a team. The most important thing is success for Porsche. We received such tremendous support this season that we want to do everything to give something back to the team. It would also be incredible to secure all the titles for Porsche again this year.’
In the GT2 class for slightly modified standard sports cars, Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler (both Germany) also claimed the championship title at the penultimate round in Road Atlanta. With the 911 GT3 RSR run by the former and new team champions Flying Lizard Motorsports, they won the races in Sebring, Salt Lake City, Lime Rock and Detroit this season. Their team mates Johannes van Overbeek (USA) and Patrick Pilet (France) also hold good chances to conclude the season with a class win, as do Dirk Werner (Germany) and Bryce Miller (USA) in the 911 GT3 RSR of Farnbacher Loles Racing.
The race in Laguna Seca starts on Saturday, 18th October 2008, at 14.45 hours local time (23.45 hours CEST) and runs over four hours. “
Looking for more? Have a look below.
