News

- Number seven Penske Porsche RS Spyder wins with new direct-injection 3.4-liter V-8 engine -

LEXINGTON, Ohio (July 19, 2008) – Last week, it was the Brabham/Sharp Acura that ran down the No. 7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder with 90 seconds left to score a victory at Lime Rock Park, but the roles were reversed today in the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as Romain Dumas (France) held off Brabham to score the Porsche tandem’s fourth win in six American Le Mans Series races and extend their LMP2 driver points lead to 28.

Dumas, who felt constant pressure from Brabham for the last 30 minutes of the race, could pull away from the Acura when he had an open track, but was slowed traffic around the course, cutting his lead to less than a second several times before the end.  The final margin of the LMP2 victory for the Porsche was six-tenths of a second.  The two Audi R-10 TDI diesels finished first and second overall and won the LMP1 class.

“These races with the Acura have been very tight since the beginning of the year,” said Dumas, who, with Timo Bernhard (Germany), has won the LMP2 class for the third year in a row.  The pair also won the LMP2 championship with their Penske Porsche RS Spyders in 2007, including eight overall wins in 11 races and class podium finishes in every event.

“We started the race several positions back from the leaders, but never gave, and worked our way to the front.  The Penske crew pulled off a great pit stop near the end to give us the lead, and we ran well to the end,” said Dumas.

The exciting event will be telecast on a delayed basis on NBC-TV at noon EDT on Sunday, July 20.  This is a recent change announced earlier in the week by NBC, which will also extend its usual two-hour broadcast to two hours, 30 minutes.

This was also the first event that both the Dumas/Bernhard RS Spyder, along with the Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) number six Penske Porsche RS Spyder, used the newly-developed direct-injection 3.4 liter, V-8 race motor.  The main feature of direct injection is that the power has gone up, and the fuel consumption has gone down – an important element of endurance racing.  This technology, already introduced on Porsche street vehicles including the Porsche 911 and the Porsche Cayenne, is the first direct injection motor ever developed that can rev to more than 10,000 rpms.  Horsepower goes from 476 to 503 (370 kw) at more than 10,000 rpm.  Torque improves from 370 nm (273 ft. lbs) @ 7500 rpm to 385 (284 ft. lbs) nm @8500 rpm.  The engine was developed in conjunction with the Porsche 911 and Porsche Cayenne direct injection technology

The other three Porsche RS Spyders finished fourth, fifth, and sixth in class, with the #6 Penske Porsche of Maassen/Long running as high as second in class late in the race, but traffic entanglements allowed two Acuras to get by them and they had to settle for fourth place.  The six top LMP2 finishers were on the overall lead lap.

Porsche leads Acura by 17 points in the LMP2 manufacturer’s contest.

Acura Sports Car Challenge
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course / 2.258 miles
July 17-19, 2008 / Lexington, Ohio
ALMS Provisional Race Report

Pos / Class Pos / Car No / Class / Drivers / No Laps / Diff / Total Time / Best Time / In Lap / Make / Status

1 1 2 P1 Luhr/(Werner*) 111 -.--- 2:45:19.458 1:10.034 ‡ 7 Audi R10 / TDI Running
2 2 1 P1 (Capello*)/Pirro 111 7.717 2:45:27.175 1:10.315 32 Audi R10 / TDI Running
3 1 7 P2 Dumas/(Bernhard*) 111 11.272 2:45:30.730 1:10.532 32 Porsche RS Spyder Running
4 2 9 P2 Brabham*/(Sharp) 111 11.881 2:45:31.339 1:10.200 91 Acura ARX-01B Running
5 3 15 P2 Fernandez/(Diaz*) 111 18.519 2:45:37.977 1:10.685 92 Acura ARX-01B Running
6 4 6 P2 (Maassen*)/Long 111 32.798 2:45:52.256 1:11.561 92 Porsche RS Spyder Running
7 5 16 P2 Smith/(Dyson*) 111 52.516 2:46:11.974 1:11.812 92 Porsche RS Spyder Running
8 6 20 P2 Franchitti/(Leitzinger*) 111 56.665 2:46:16.123 1:12.291 93 Porsche RS Spyder Running
9 1 71 GT2 Mueller/(Farnbacher*) 104 7 Laps 2:45:25.209 1:21.175 ‡ 5 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta Running
10 2 46 GT2 van Overbeek/(Pilet*) 104 7 Laps 2:46:29.344 1:21.663 11 Porsche 911 RSR Running
11 3 45 GT2 Bergmeister/(Henzler*) 104 7 Laps 2:46:29.803 1:21.190 5 Porsche 911 RSR Running
12 4 87 GT2 Werner*/(Westbrook) 104 7 Laps 2:46:30.474 1:21.329 95 Porsche 911 RSR Running
13 5 62 GT2 (Melo*)/Salo 103 8 Laps 2:45:32.278 1:21.276 5 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta Running
14 7 26 P2 (Matos)/Montagny* 103 8 Laps 2:45:42.381 1:11.263 84 Acura ARX-01B Running
15 3 30 P1 (Lewis*)/Faulkner 103 8 Laps 2:46:04.120 1:12.046 9 Lola B06/10 Running
16 6 61 GT2 (Brix)/Friesacher* 102 9 Laps 2:45:25.525 1:22.173 87 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta Running
17 7 21 GT2 Sutherland/(Milner*) 102 9 Laps 2:45:51.623 1:23.133 3 Panoz Esperante Running
18 8 73 GT2 Figge/(Tafel*) 101 10 Laps 2:46:20.252 1:22.889 81 Ferrari F430GT Running
19 9 18 GT2 F.Pastorelli/(N.Pastorelli*) 101 10 Laps 2:46:35.748 1:23.962 3 Porsche 911 RSR Running
20 8 8 P2 (Devlin)/Bonilla 99 12 Laps 2:45:20.018 1:12.100 5 Lola B07 46 Mazda Running
21 1 3 GT1 (O'Connell*)/Magnussen 98 13 Laps 2:45:28.731 1:18.269 86 Chevrolet Corvette C Running
22 2 4 GT1 (Beretta*)/Gavin 98 13 Laps 2:45:47.218 1:18.068 16 Chevrolet Corvette C Running
23 10 007 GT2 (Drayson)/Cocker 94 17 Laps 2:45:21.712 1:25.910 79 Aston Martin Vantage Running
24 11 40 GT2 D.Robertson/A.Robertson/(Murr 93 18 Laps 2:46:52.911 1:23.610 8 Doran Ford GT-R Running
25 4 12 P1 (McMurry*)/Willman 92 19 Laps 2:45:55.734 1:17.135 6 Creation CA07-002 Running
26 9 66 P2 (de Ferran*)/Pagenaud 67 44 Laps 1:35:30.954 1:10.915 9 Acura ARX-01B Fire
27 12 11 GT2 (Feinberg)/Hall* 43 68 Laps 1:12:47.224 1:25.670 6 Dodge Viper Drive train
28 13 44 GT2 Pechnik*/(Neiman) 37 74 Laps 57:00.774 1:24.912 30 Porsche 911 RSR Mechanical
29 14 54 GT2 Lazzaro*/(Pappas) 27 84 Laps 1:08:36.360 1:25.181 6 Doran Ford GT-R Electrical
30 5 37 P1 J.Field/(C.Field*)/Berry 23 88 Laps 30:37.220 1:13.197 6 Lola B06/10 Engine
*Qualifying Driver (Starting Driver)

Lap Leaders
Laps / Car
1-4 66
5-111 2

Fastest Drivers:
GT1 Olivier Beretta
GT2 Dominik Farnbacher
P1 Marco Werner
P2 David Brabham
‡ New race lap record

Cautions
Laps Reason
1 - 1 Yellow start
39 - 43 Car 11 off course
57 - 61 Car 11 off course
67 - 79 Car 30 off course
Margin of victory: 7.717 sec
Time of race: 2:45:19.458