SEBRING, FLA. (March 17, 2007) – America’s oldest and most prestigious sports car race celebrated a 55th year in grand style, making history on several fronts. The revolutionary Audi R10 TDI turbo diesel backed up its historic victory here in 2006 by taking the overall win to kick off the 2007 American Le Mans Series season. The winning #2 Audi R10 TDI driven by Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner completed 364 laps of the challenging 3.7 mile Sebring circuit.

ACURA SCORES STUNNING 1-2 IN LMP2 CLASS DEBUT
Making a historic ALMS competition debut were three new Acura powered entries in the ruggedly competitive LMP2 class. Taking the class victory and second place overall was the #26 Andretti Green Racing XM Radio Acura ARX-01 driven by Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan. Taking second in the class and third overall was the #15 Lowes Fernandez Racing Lola B06/43 Acura driven by Adrian Fernandez, Luis Diaz and David Martinez .

Defending Sebring champions, Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the Audi #1 finished fourth overall.

Completing the LMP2 class podium and taking fifth overall was the #7 Porsche RS Spyder of Penske Racing, driven by Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Helio Castroneves.

The #9 Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01 driven by Stefan Johansson, David Brabham and Duncan Dayton finished fourth in LMP2 class and sixth overall.

“We want to extend our congratulations to Acura on achieving such a tremendous result in their first race,” said Silvia Mammone, manager of motorsports for Michelin North America, Inc. “Their talents and tremendous effort in developing their entire package are truly impressive. We are enjoying working with Acura and their three outstanding teams. We look forward to continuing to develop and grow our relationship. This is a great way to start their first season.”

CORVETTE TAKES GT1
Taking the GT1 class victory and seventh place overall was the #4 Corvette C6.R driven by Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis.

A special #3 Corvette C6.R, painted white to celebrate the recently introduced Ron Fellows limited edition Corvette production car, was driven to GT1 runner-up honors and eighth place overall by Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen.

GT2: FERRARU VS. PORSCHE ROUND ONE ENDS IN PHOTO FINISH
A highly exciting GT2 class went to the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT driven by Jaime Melo, Mika Salo and Johnny Mowlem by the slimmest of margins over the #45 Flying Lizards Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Joerg Bergmeister, Johannes Van Overbeek and Marc Lieb.

The two cars traded the lead six times in the final quarter of the race and were separated by just 2.2 seconds after 1,000 miles of competition and by just .202 of second at the line as Bergmeister mounted a furious challenge in the closing stages.

The GT2 battle produced some fascinating strategies and tire tactics in the final hours according to Karl Koenigstein, motorsports technical team leader for Michelin North America, Inc. “The Risi Ferrari team decided to make Jaime Melo their driver for the final two and one half hours of the race and then to double stint their final set of Michelin tires to the finish. The Flying Lizards Porsche team decided to go with a fresh driver, Joerg Bergmeister, and give him a fresh set of Michelin tires to make a charge to the finish. Both were great strategies and produced one of the best races in our ALMS history and underscored the importance of our Michelin tire engineer assigned to work with each team. Both teams put everything they had into it and the fans won,” said Koenigstein.

ADDING TO THE 12 HOURS OF SEBRING HISTORY

The overall victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring was the record eighth consecutive overall win for Audi and the fourth Sebring win for driver Emanuele Pirro.
Claiming their first ever class victories at Sebring were Andretti Green Racing in its Sebring debut, and longtime entrant, GT2 winners Risi Competizione
Michelin added to its Sebring record by posting an unprecedented ninth consecutive overall race win, matching the Michelin overall record string at the 24 Hours of Le Mans as Michelin technical partner teams swept the top 13 positions overall, claiming victory in all four ALMS classes.
The .202 second margin of victory in GT2 was the closest finish in Sebring race history.

what a great race in gt2, i had the TV cranked the whole way up and i was standing the whole time; aahhhh the anxiety.

i love when Melo's teammate commented about his finish with Berg and said something along the lines of, "im glad it was him because i couldnt have done it (that)".

GT2 was obviously the race of the 1/2 day, but I wouldn't call it a "photo finish". That doesn't mean I wasn't yelling at the screen, though!

Melo and Bergmeister leaned as hard on each other as any two drivers I've seen in a long time. They said Bergmeister wanted a rough driving penalty for Melo, but ALMS did the right thing by saying "that's just good hard racing".

I'm amazed how over the past 10 years, a 12 hour endurance race has become more like a 12 hour sprint race. It says a lot about the car and team quality.

I loved the O'Connell interview afterward, he was asked if he and his teammate were in the same position as Bergmeister and Melo at the end, side by side, would he lean on him like Melo did to Bergmeister? O'Connell gets a big smile, and says "you KNOW I would!".....classic.

After 12 hrs & GT2 came down to a drivers race at the finish line!!!!
absolutely spectacular racing :buttrock

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2HF-sFLnc

Pretty impressive and agressive driving by Mika Salo. Maybe all you need in F1 is a good car after all :dunno:

Great race. Speed had more coverage then last year. I stood up in amazement at the Gt2 finish. Very good to see a pure driver's race at the end. I do think the tires were going out on the Ferrari in the end and Jorg was pushing very hard with fresher tires. One of the best endings I've seen in a long time.

Great finish in GT2...it's a shame someone has to lose in that situation.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: ACURA AND ANDRETTI GREEN RACINGhttp://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007114432125_Image1_Thumb.JPG
Andretti Green Racing's Bryan Herta, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti gave Acura its first LMP2 victory at Sebring.
Click here for Hi-Res (http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007114432125_Image1.JPG)
In a race full of storybook moments, Acura and Andretti Green Racing had one of the best. The newest manufacturer in the American Le Mans Series wasted no time in getting to Victory Circle with a fantastic debut win in LMP2 at Saturday's Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring behind the Andretti Green crew and drivers Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan.

Acura took the top two positions in class as Lowe's Fernandez Racing finished second in its Acura-powered Lola with Adrian Fernandez, Luis Diaz and David Martinez. The emotion and joy following the endurance classic was overwhelming to say the least.

Robert Clark, president of Honda Performance Development:
"I can't put it in words. I would rate it as one of the highest emotional experiences I've had. So much work went into this program. It was one of my wild ideas and it went all the way from 'Hell no' to our result today. It has been a long road, not just for HPD but for Acura, our team, sponsors, drivers, everyone who is involved in the program.

"I couldn't have been so bold as to dream of this result. I could go on about the laundry list of things that could go wrong. I knew we would get to the end of the race one way or the other."
http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007115057156_Image2_Thumb.JPG
The Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX finished first in LMP2 and second overall in its debut American Le Mans Series race.
Click here for Hi-Res (http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007115057156_Image2.JPG)
"We hoped to earn the invitation to Le Mans. It is more important to us to convince ourselves that we are deserving of that. We'll know if we deserve the opportunity come the end of the season."

Michael Andretti, Andretti Green Racing co-principal
"This was a fun race except for those last 20 laps. It was a great way to start out in Acura's first factory sports car race. It was a tough race and we knew it coming into this weekend. But the 12-hour simulation race last month here helped us, and all of the Acura teams were prepared for today's race. Obviously it paid off for all three teams."

Dario Franchitti
"I want to reiterate about the effort that everyone put in. As drivers we have the easy job. Everyone put in such a good effort. I have heard about Sebring my whole life. It's something I've always want to do. It's something my brother (Marino) has done a lot and he said it was so much fun. And I'm happy to come here and win one."
http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007115057156_Image3_Thumb.JPG
Lowe's Fernandez Racing's Acura-powered Lola was second in LMP2 and third overall.
Click here for Hi-Res (http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3192007115057156_Image3.JPG)
Tony Kanaan
"We've been testing a lot. It's been almost seven years since I've been coming to America. Bryan and Dario took me around at 10 o'clock (Friday) night and now I really understand what this race is. I have won many races before and championships, but this one is going to be very nice to remember."

Bryan Herta
"I really couldn't catalog all the problems from the last hour. Right from the beginning we were having battery voltage problems so we couldn't use a lot of the electronics. Then we had problems with the gearbox. I think in the last 10 laps the car shut off half a dozen times and refired. We were thinking things were looking great to, 'Oh no, not here', to the high of 'We're gonna win!'

"I have to take my hat off to the group, I have never seen a group that has worked so hard and put in so much effort. You wouldn't believe how many problems we had in testing and it's a testament to bring it here and to bring us this result. This is my most special victory for many reasons, one because I got to share it with my friends Tony and Dario."

The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg. The race will start at 5:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 31. SPEED will provide a same-day broadcast event from 8 to 11 p.m. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.</B>

Does anyone think Joerg kinda ran wide at the last turn? It was pretty clear that Melo was going for the inside line, seemed to me that Joerg kinda gave it to him. Had Joerg protected the inside, the result might have been different.

Does anyone think Joerg kinda ran wide at the last turn? It was pretty clear that Melo was going for the inside line, seemed to me that Joerg kinda gave it to him. Had Joerg protected the inside, the result might have been different.

I'm sure he ran wide....that corner is tough a little off line when the track is clean...I can only imagine what it's like after 12 hours of racing, and you know he went in deep to begin with.

that was a sweet end...i didnt catch this race, but i did watch the australian F1 season opener...that was shweet to. :D

I was hoping Tom would stop in and tell us a story or 2. Its a shame they had radiator problems on the opening lap andhad to head out to the grarge. They came back to make a pretty good finish considering the circumstances.

:)

Pretty uneventful race for us. We lost 12 laps replacing the radiator and front bumper and finished 10 laps out of 3rd place. We just kept plugging away knowing others would have trouble. First lap incident was just bad luck. Tafel car spun in 5 causing others to stack up behind him and Ralf was sort of last in the line of the accordion and hit the 22 Panoz in the back. Nothing he could do.

After the first lap incident we never once had any other issues with the car or with the drivers (:D). I had issues with some slow P1 drivers though. No damage. Just 5 slow laps having to pass and then repass a slow P1 car.

Watched the PWL Ferrari go up in flames which was pretty spectacular. Came around 6 and drove through a big puff of white smoke and caught the Ferrari exiting 7, the hairpin. I noticed the flames under the car as he stayed left off the race line. Then, as he started to go to throttle, a huge plume of smoke and fire started to emit from the back of the car leaving a trail of fire as wide as the car and as long as the car itself. I was amazed to come all the way around once and as I exited 16 onto the back straight I could see him up ahead, still driving the car, this time with no fire.

We weren't quite on pace with the Tafel and Lizard cars though we think we know why. Combination of a couple things could certainly have been at the root of that. They'll address them for St. Pete and we expect to be on pace with the other Porsche's. Should be interesting to see how the new car does on a street circuit. The Ferrari, being 200lbs lighter, should have the advantage here but we'll see. The Porsche puts down power incredibly well.