News

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (August 23, 2008) - Romain Dumas (France), driver of the No. 7 DHL Penske Porsche RS Spyder, turned the “perfect lap” en route to a new class record, smashing his own fastest qualifying lap from last year by 1.6-second to earn the LMP2 pole for Sunday’s Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport. The two-hour, 45-minute event will get the green flag on Sunday, August 24 at 3:00 PM EDT, and will be telecast live on SPEED TV.  

Dumas, who, with his co-driver Timo Bernhard, has been fastest since the cars started practice on Friday, said he went all-out to set the fastest time.  Although he and Timo were the fastest car on the track in practice both yesterday and this morning, the LMP1 Audi took the first two positions overall on the grid, showing their 150 horsepower advantage.  But Dumas and Bernhard, who are in the LMP2 points battle with the Acuras, accomplished their qualifying goal.

“The RS Spyder was very quick this afternoon, and I was pushing to the maximum to get   the LMP2 pole," said Dumas.  "I made no mistakes, and was not slowed by any traffic, so the results were good.  And the track record?  Our new DFI (direct fuel injection) engine has to get the credit for that, as the power over a bigger range and the increased horsepower gave us greater speed.”

Dumas earned the 16th pole of his ALMS career by averaging more than 137 miles per hour over the 2.459-mile circuit - regarded as one of the quickest and most difficult on the American Le Mans Series calendar.

The power output of the successful 2006 and 2007 championship winning Porsche RS Spyder 3.4-liter V8, which has so far claimed victory from four of the seven races run this year, increased with the new engine from 476 to 503 hp (370 kW) at 10,000 revs per minute. Maximum torque rose from 370 Nm (273 ft. lbs.) at 7,500 revs to 385 Nm (284 ft. lbs.) at 8,500 revs. 

The most compelling feature of the DFI version of the successful Porsche 3.4-litre V8  motor  is  its  improved  energy  efficiency  –  an  important element  in  endurance  racing.  Despite  an  improved  power  output,  fuel  consumption  was significantly reduced.  

The four Acuras took the next four LMP2 class positions, followed by the No. 6 DHL Penske Porsche RS Spyder, qualified by Sascha Maassen and co-driven by Patrick Long.

Grand Prix of Mosport
Mosport International Raceway / 2.459 miles
August 22-24, 2008 / Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
ALMS Qualifying

Pos  Class Pos  Car No.  Class    Drivers      Best Time   Speed   In Lap   Diff.   Laps   Make

1 1 1 P1 Capello/Pirro 1:04.094 † 138.116 5 -.--- 7 Audi R10 / TDI
2 2 2 P1 Luhr/Werner 1:04.188 137.914 6 0.094 7 Audi R10 / TDI
3 1 7 P2 Dumas/Bernhard 1:04.318 † 137.635 3 0.224 9 Porsche RS Spyder
4 2 9 P2 Brabham/Sharp 1:04.603 137.028 2 0.509 10 Acura ARX-01B
5 3 26 P2 Rossiter/Montagny 1:04.619 136.994 11 0.525 15 Acura ARX-01B
6 4 15 P2 Fernandez/Diaz 1:05.153 135.871 12 1.059 14 Acura ARX-01B
7 5 66 P2 de Ferran/Pagenaud 1:05.156 135.865 15 1.062 15 Acura ARX-01B
8 6 6 P2 Maassen/Long 1:05.166 135.844 13 1.072 14 Porsche RS Spyder
9 7 20 P2 Franchitti/Leitzinger 1:05.170 135.836 4 1.076 15 Porsche RS Spyder
10 8 16 P2 Smith/Dyson 1:05.429 135.298 3 1.335 14 Porsche RS Spyder
11 3 37 P1 J.Field/C.Field/Berry 1:06.133 133.858 5 2.039 9 Lola B06/10
12 4 30 P1 Lewis/Faulkner 1:07.228 131.677 14 3.134 16 Lola B06/10
13 9 8 P2 Devlin/Bonilla 1:07.742 130.678 4 3.648 7 Lola B07 46 Mazda
14 1 3 GT1 O'Connell/Magnussen 1:13.878 119.825 5 9.784 6 Chevrolet Corvette C6R
15 2 4 GT1 Beretta/Gavin 1:13.947 119.713 4 9.853 6 Chevrolet Corvette C6R
16 3 008 GT1 Borcheller/Ducote 1:15.611 117.078 7 11.517 8 Aston DBR9
17 1 62 GT2 Melo/Salo 1:16.863 † 115.171 5 12.769 8 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT
18 2 87 GT2 Werner/Kaffer 1:17.053 114.887 5 12.959 9 Porsche 911 RSR
19 3 71 GT2 Mueller/Farnbacher 1:17.232 114.621 4 13.138 8 Ferrari 430 Berlinetta GT
20 4 45 GT2 Bergmeister/Henzler 1:17.566 114.127 6 13.472 7 Porsche 911 RSR
21 5 46 GT2 van Overbeek/Pilet 1:17.932 113.591 4 13.838 7 Porsche 911 RSR
22 6 21 GT2 Sutherland/Milner/Sellers 1:18.406 112.905 4 14.312 5 Panoz Esperante
23 7 18 GT2 Basseng/N.Pastorelli 1:19.692 111.083 4 15.598 7 Porsche 911 RSR
24 8 73 GT2 Figge/Tafel 1:19.942 110.735 9 15.848 10 Ferrari F430GT
25 9 11 GT2 Feinberg/Hall 1:20.336 110.192 3 16.242 4 Dodge Viper
26 10 44 GT2 Pechnik/Neiman 1:20.517 109.944 12 16.423 14 Porsche 911 RSR
27 5 12 P1 McMurry/Burgess -.--- --- 0 0 Creation CA06H-001
28 11 007 GT2 Drayson/Cocker -.--- --- 0 0 Aston Martin Vantage GT

Fastest Drivers:
GT1 Johnny O'Connell
GT2 Jaime Melo
P1 Dindo Capello
P2 Romain Dumas
† New qualifying lap record