ALMS LMP2 Championship Chase Continues For Penske Porsche
August 22, 2008
BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (August 22, 2008) – For the only race in the American Le Mans Series outside the United States, the Penske Porsche RS Spyder teams have arrived at Mosport International Raceway on the outskirts of Toronto for round eight of the 11-race circuit, and the championship chase has never been closer.
The two-hour, 45-minute event will get the green flag on Sunday, August 24 at 3 p.m. EDT, and will be telecast live on SPEED TV. Also, for the first time, Saturday’s qualifying session will be covered live with streaming video on www.americanlemans.com starting at 2:35 p.m. EDT.
As always, all on-track session starting on Friday will feature live timing and scoring as well as audio coverage on American Le Mans Radio on www.americanlemans.com.
Drivers refer to the 2.459-mile circuit - regarded as one of the quickest and most difficult on the American Le Mans Series calendar - with great respect.
“I know of no other track with so many fast corners back to back,” says Romain Dumas (France), who celebrated a phenomenal overall victory in Mosport last year with co-driver and co-LMP2 class defending champion Timo Bernhard (Germany). With their success in the No. 7 DHL Penske Porsche RS Spyder, they were not only faster than their LMP2 class rivals, but also outpaced the Audi R10 with 200 horsepower more and a considerably better power-to-weight ratio.
“This track is a huge challenge. I hope we can show our strengths against our class opponents again this time,” said Dumas. The most important goal for Bernhard/Dumas is to increase their lead in the drivers’ classification, which they secured with overall wins at the Sebring 12 Hour race as well as class wins in St. Petersburg, Salt Lake City and Mid-Ohio.
“Our top priority is to successfully defend our title,” says Timo Bernhard, “and we will be totally concentrating on this at the last four races of the season.”
Porsche also holds the points’ lead in the manufacturers’ classification (chassis and engine) with Penske Racing leading the team classification.
The highly successful team of Roger Penske fields a second RS Spyder in Mosport with the No. 7 entry, piloted by Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA), who presently rank third in the championship. The Penske Racing RS Spyder vehicles compete with the new DFI (direct fuel injection) engine, which celebrated its race debut in Mid-Ohio with a class victory.