Second podium finish for Aston Martin Racing in American Le Mans Series

03 Oct 2011

Aston Martin Racing clinched third place in the 1,000 mile/10 hour Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta on October the 1st, the final round of the American Le Mans Series and penultimate round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

In qualifying the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60, retrospectively renamed a DBR1-2, of Adrian Fernandez/Harold Primat/Stefan Mucke took eighth place on the grid, third fastest of the petrol-fuelled cars behind the Nicholas Prost/Neel Jani/Andrea Belicchi Rebellion Lola B10/60-Toyota and the OAK Pescarolo 01-Judd of Olivier Pla/Alexandre Premat/Jean Franois Yvon; the Lola B08/62-Aston Martin (also now called a DBR1-2 by AMR) of official partner Muscle Milk, driven by Lucas Luhr/Greg Pickett/Memo Gidley, qualified 11th. Predictably, the works diesel-fuelled Audi R18 TDIs and Peugeot 908 HDis occupied the first four positions, led by an Audi, with the previous generation ORECA Peugeot 908 HDi FAP in fifth.

After all the works-entered diesel-fuelled runners had suffered various issues in the opening stages of the race, dropping one Audi down the field, and followed by the retirement of one Peugeot, the works Aston Martin DBR1-2 had climbed to a steady fourth place and first of the petrol-fuelled cars at half distance; sadly the Muscle Milk Lola-Aston Martin had retired after two hours with engine problems. A subsequent clash in the eighth hour between the leading Peugeot and second placed Audi, delaying the latter, had then seen the DBR1-2 move into a strong third place behind the ORECA Peugeot as the race entered its final quarter.

And that’s where the DBR1-2 would remain to the flag, it and its Aston Martin V12 cylinder engine having run faultlessly throughout, to take its second consecutive podium place in the ALMS – having won at Laguna Seca the previous month – six laps down on the winning Peugeot 908 of Franck Montagny/Stephane Sarrazin/Alex Wurz, but just one lap down on the Nicolas Lapierre/Nicolas Minassian/Marc Gené ORECA Peugeot and a full four laps ahead of the Pla/Premat/Yvon OAK Pescarolo-Judd. Meanwhile, the Gulf AMR Middle East V8 Vantage GT2 of Fabien Giroix/Rob Kaufmann/Michael Wainwright, which had qualified last of the six GTE-AM runners, comfortably finished fourth in the class.

Peugeot’s victory handed it the manufacturers’ title of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup with one round left to run on November the 12th at Zuhai in China, where Aston Martin Racing will be hoping to be once again the fastest of the petrol-fuelled runners.