Another win for Audi, the first for Acura and Andretti Green Racing, and the most exciting finish in race history marked the start of the 2007 American Le Mans Series on Saturday. Marco Werner, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela drove to victory at the 55th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in one of the most thrilling editions of the Florida classic in its history.
It marked the second straight Sebring win and ninth victory in as many races in the short life of the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI. Werner crossed the finish line after 363 laps for his third victory in five Sebring starts. Biela won for the fourth time in America’s greatest sports car race (tied with Tom Kristensen), and Pirro won for the first time since 2000.
Porsche’s four RS Spyders found significantly more trouble. Electrical problems and other maladies set entries from Penske Motorsports and Dyson Racing back in the race’s first half. Penske’s Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Helio Castroneves weathered the storm well enough for a third-place finish in class.
In GT1, Corvette Racing won its class for the fifth time in six years as Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Max Papis took a 17-second victory over their sister car in a race that saw the two Corvettes on the same lap the entire way. Beretta and Gavin won last year with Jan Magnussen, who teamed this year with Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell.
“Like everyone knows, Sebring is a tough track and is a great test for Le Mans,” said Beretta, the Series’ all-time leader with 29 wins and a three-time winner at Sebring. We worked very well and had fantastic pit stops as usual. The car at the end of the race was like it was on Lap 1. This team knows exactly what to do. We pushed the car because we had strong competition with the No. 3 car. Everything went perfectly.”
Undoubtedly the highlight of the day was the GT2 class finish. Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo beat Jorg Bergmeister of Flying Lizard Motorsports driving Ferrari F430′s to the finish line by 0.20 seconds, the closest finish in Sebring’s 55-year history and the closest finish ever in the American Le Mans Series’ GT2 class.
Melo, who drove with Mika Salo and Johnny Mowlem, led by five seconds with 11 minutes left but by the final lap Bergmeister was tucked right behind his rear bumper. The two cars crossed the start-finish line just before Werner took the checkered flag. So instead of a one-second victory, Melo had to hold off the young Porsche factory driver for another full circuit.
The battle between the Ferrari and Porsche lasted throughout the entire day. The Ferrari survived start from the rear of the grid, a late drama in pit lane with a 20-second penalty and a Turn 17 spin at sunset for the team’s fifth win in the last seven events dating back to July of 2006 at Salt Lake City. Tafel Racing’s Porsche of Wolf Henzler, Robin Liddell and Patrick Long finished third.
“It was really tight with the No. 45 car,” Salo said. “We were absolutely flat out the entire way. The GT2 is the best racing in this Series. It’s going to be like this all year, so we have to improve so we don’t have any more finishes like this.”
“It was just awesome,” Mowlem said. “Every time we were out there, we were driving as hard as we could. To finally get to the end and have Jaime drive for two hours like he did and have that kind of final lap, he’s my hero. To win is just fantastic.”