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Lola sportscars continued to score podium positions in the fifth round of the 2006 American Le Mans
Series at the all new Miller Motorsports Park circuit in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday evening.
Dyson Racing's pair of Lola B06/10 LMP1 cars finished in 3rd and 4th places in the category while
Intersports Racing's B05/40 LMP2 chassis continues to head the LMP2 points table after they
finished as runners-up.
The all-new 4.5 mile track near the salt flats of Utah saw plenty of action during the latest round of
the series with Dyson continuing to be the main rivals of the works Audi LMP1 cars and the Penske
Porsche LMP2 cars. Qualifying saw Butch Leitzinger place his blue and white Lola in a creditable
3rd place, negotiating the 24 turns of the Miller Motorsports Park in 2m22m.535s, just over half a
second away from the 2nd placed Audi of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.
With the second entry
of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith starting from 5th place, the team were satisfied with a strong qualifying
performance.
"The car is really good," confirmed Leitzinger. "It has a nice balance and tomorrow we are going to
have a nice scrap."
In the race, James Weaver had a terrific start and was running in 2nd place to McNish's Audi R10 in
the early running, after capitalising on an off-track moment for the other Audi R10 of Frank Biela.
After the pit stops and some bad luck behind slower GT traffic, Butch Leitzinger took the chequered
flag in 3rd place, heading home the Audi of Capello, who was delayed with a tyre problem. Weaver
and Leitzinger have now cemented their 2nd place in the drivers points standings and also remain just
four behind Audi in the chassis manufacturers title chase.
The sister Dyson Lola-AER of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith ran in 3rd position until its pit stop just after
the hour mark when Smith handed over driving duties to Dyson, who brought the car home in 5th place.
Both drivers turned some impressively fast lap times and Smith in particular was pleased with his opening
stint, saying:
"I just tried to take it easy for the first couple of laps. We changed the car during the warm-up and so
far it has been good. It's really great out there driving with the Audi guys and the Porsche guys. It's great
fun."
Intersport Racing retained their lead at the head of the LMP2 drivers table by a single point after finishing
in second place behind the Porsche Spyder of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr. Liz Halliday started the race before handing over to Clint Field, who in turn pitted to hand back over to
the Californian racer for the final stint. The AER powered Lola LMP2 has finished all of its 5 races this
season in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd position, reinforcing the great reliability record of the Lola.
Highcroft Racing's Lola B01/60 finished in 5th place in the LMP1 category. Duncan Dayton and Andy
Wallace had a relatively trouble free run to the chequered flag although Wallace did have some interesting
moments with his former team, Dyson Racing!
"I had a couple of close calls, said Wallace. "I was trying to come into the pits once and I got squashed
in a Dyson sandwich. And there was a car parked on pit exit when I was trying to come out of the pits,
and I had to dodge him."
Autocon Motorsports similar Lola LMP1 car was classified as the last finisher with Bryan Willman and
Michael Lewis suffering from tyre build-up problems in their front bodywork. The next race on the ALMS schedule is the Portland Grand Prix next Saturday evening.
RACE RESULTS
Pos Class Drivers Make Laps
1. P1 Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro Audi R10 TDI 65
2. P2 Sascha Maassen, Lucas Luhr Porsche RS Spyder 65
3. P1 James Weaver, Butch Leitzinger Lola B06/10 AER 65
4. P1 Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello Audi R10 TDI 65
5. P1 Guy Smith, Chris Dyson Lola B06/10 AER 64
6. P1 Duncan Dayton, Andy Wallace Lola EX257 AER 62
7. GT1 Darren Turner, Tomas Enge Aston Martin DB9 62
8. GT1 Stephane Sarrazin, Andrea Piccini Aston Martin DB9 61
9. P2 Liz Halliday, Clint Field, Jon Field Lola B05/40 AER 61
10. GT1 Ron Fellows, Johnny O`Connell Corvette C6.R 61
11. GT1 Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta Corvette C6.R 61
12. GT2 Jaime Melo, Mika Salo Ferrari 430 GT 59
13. GT2 Patrick Long, Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 59
14. GT2 Johannes van Overbeek, Wolf Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 59
15. GT2 Mike Rockenfeller, Klaus Graf Porsche 911 GT3 59
16. P2 Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard Porsche RS Spyder 58
17. GT2 Scott Maxwell, David Brabham Panoz Esperante 58
18. GT2 Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand BMW E46 M3 58
19. GT2 Gunnar Jeannette, Tom Milner Panoz Esperante 58
20. GT2 Seth Neiman, Darren Law Porsche 911 GT3 57
21. GT2 Justin Marks, Bryan Sellers BMW E46 M3 56
22. P1 Bryan Willman, Michael Lewis Lola EX257 AER 47
For more information, please visit www.americanlemans.com
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James Weaver finished third in the LMP1 class.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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Andy Wallace in the Highcroft Racing car has the inside line while the Audi of McNish is on the outside.
(Picture americanlemans.com)
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The Intersport Lola of Liz Halliday, Clint and Jon Field took the laurels in LMP2.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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James Weaver and Guy Smith discusses the setup of the Dyson Lolas.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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The Dyson cars finished third and fifth overall.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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Andy Wallace leads an Aston Martin and a Porsche.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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The Dyson cars are dwarfed by the Utah mountains.
(Picture americanlemans.com) |
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