THE LINE

August 19, 2009

(Photo © John Thawley)
David Brabham and Scott Sharp (No. 9 Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-02a) broke de Ferran Motorsports’ four-race overall win streak last Sunday with a hard-fought victory in the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase at Road America. Brabham beat Gil de Ferran to the checkered flag by 0.461 seconds. It was Brabham and Sharp's first victory since St. Petersburg in early April. “I had very little go through my mind because I wasn’t about to choke and let that lead go,” Brabham said. “So the best thing for me to do is not to think and just drive. When you start looking in the mirrors, you think ‘Don’t screw up’, and then you end up where you were looking. So I tried not to look.” In LMP2, Lowe’s Fernandez Racing’s Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz won for the sixth time in seven races in their Acura ARX-01b with a 6.742-second victory over Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti. The Lowe’s Fernandez Acura also won its first MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge prototype trophy since St. Petersburg, a recognition for overall performance, energy efficiency and environmental impact. BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team captured its first victory with Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen leading a 1-2 GT2 finish for the new BMW M3. Auberlen and Hand were handed nearly a full lap on the rest of the field on an early-race wave-by when John Baker in one of ORBIT Racing’s Challenge class Porsches went off at Turn 12. It was BMW’s first victory in the American Le Mans Series since Petit Le Mans in 2001. Dirk Mueller and Tommy Milner placed second in their BMW M3, and Corvette Racing’s Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen placed third in their No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R. The E85-powered car also won the GT portion of the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge for the second straight event. Martin and Melanie Snow scored their second straight Challenge class victory and third in four races with their Snow Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup entry. They beat the Gruppe Orange Porsche of Nick Parker and Donald Pickering by one lap. Next up for the ALMS is the Mobil 1 presents Grand Prix of Mosport at 3:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 30. The race will air live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche and Living Timing & Scoring will be available at Racehub on americanlemans.com. Live coverage can also be heard on Sirius 126 and XM 242. Click here to see more scintillating digital images from the lens maestro, John Thawley. And click here to see John's "Postcard from Road America."

(Photo©SCCA/Mark Weber)
Tony Rivera (No. 97 Tax Masters/Brass Monkey Racing Porsche 911 GT3), of Missouri City, Texas, became the first repeat winner of the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT season, taking the Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech. Eric Curran (No. 30 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Corvette), of Easthampton, Mass. finished second, and Dino Crescentini (No. 4 StopTech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3), of Manhattan Beach, Fla. came home third. Rivera captured his second World Challenge win of the season, winning by 7.268 seconds and averaging a record 104.824 mph in the 19-lap, 76.911-mile, caution-free race. Porsche extended its lead in the World Challenge GT Manufacturers’ Championship Presented by RACER to 11 over Ford (55 to 44). Next is Chevrolet (33), Volvo (31) and Dodge Viper (18). This race will air on SPEED, Friday, Sept. 11, at 2 p.m. (EDT). Next up for the series is Road Atlanta for the Petit Le Mans weekend, Sept. 23-25.

(Mark Weber/SCCA Pro Racing)
Pierre Kleinubing (No. 42 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX), of Coconut Creek, Fla., captured his first SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car win in 16 races Saturday, taking the World Challenge Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech. Charles Espenlaub (No. 73 MAZDASPEED/StopTech/ProParts MAZDA6), of Lutz, Fla., and Patrick Lindsey (No. 57 Horton Autosport/Sloan Securities MAZDA6), of Santa Barbara, Calif., completed the top three finishers at Elkhart Lake’s Road America. Kleinubing won by 1.535 seconds, averaging 96.065 mph. Jason Saini leads Kleinubing in the Drivers’ Championship by 46 points (824 to 778) with two races left. Peter Cunningham is now third in the standings, with 736, followed by Espenlaub (707) and Seth Thomas (682). Mazda leads Acura in the Manufacturers’ Championship Presented by RACER Magazine 61 to 59. BMW is third, with 27. This race will be broadcast Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. (EDT) on SPEED. The series will be at Road Atlanta, Sept. 23-25, part of the Petit Le Mans event.

(Photo©SCCA/Mark Weber)
Todd Lamb (No. 84 AMG Racing/Traqumate/Luna-C Racing MX-5), of Atlanta, Ga., captured his record-extending - and very impressive - sixth-straight SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup win in the final race of the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase weekend at Elkhart Lake’s Road America. Marc Miller (No. 28 Team MER/MOCA/Race Now for Autism/MMP MX-5), of Holland, Mich., and Zach Ply (No. 27 Team MER/Insight Beverage Co MX-5), of Joliet, Ill. - who started 10th - completed the top three. Lamb averaged 89.692 mph for the 17-lap, 84.416-mile race and set the fastest lap of the race with a 2:40.901 (90.570 mph) on lap 15. Miller’s lead over Lamb in the Drivers’ Championship is down to 21 (404 to 383). Justin Piscitell remains third with 367 points. (All MX-5 drivers get to drop their lowest scoring race from their final point total. If dropped races were factored in following Round Seven at Road America, Lamb would be leading the points.) Next up is Round Eight at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah, Sept. 17-19.

Wink and Libba Hartman, Sarah Fisher. IndyCar sent along this nice story about Sarah Fisher this week. The only female driver/owner in the IndyCar Series was stunned to receive a 2009 Dallara chassis as a gift from one of her sponsors. The car, an unpainted 2009 Dallara chassis lacking many of the details that distinguish it as a race car brought the IndyCar Series team owner/driver to tears in front of friends and family. "That is so awesome. I got a new car," Fisher said. "I felt like I was on the 'Price is Right.' Imagine what we'll do now. I actually thought I was coming today to shoot a Dollar General commercial," said Fisher, who drives the No. 67 Dollar General entry. "To have a spare car, it means we can be more aggressive and be able to put it on the line even more. It will make a huge difference in our racing efforts. The chassis, estimated at $300,000, was provided by Hartman Oil, a sponsor of the second-year team since May 2008. It was while Willis E. "Wink" Hartman was watching ESPN's SportsCenter that he first learned of Fisher and the fact that the team's primary sponsor for its first race had pulled out. "I didn't really at the time think much about it," Hartman said. "It was one of those things that the next morning I was sitting out on the patio and I kept thinking about Sarah Fisher and somebody backing out on her. I didn't know her, but something told me somebody needed to help her." Hartman did, and he and his wife, Libba, have become part of Sarah Fisher Racing's extended family. Hartman Oil Co., founded in 1920, is an independent oil and natural gas company involved in the development, acquisition and operation of oil and gas properties in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Oklahoma. It also operates drilling rigs, a service company and a trucking division. "Maybe there's an option now to have a second car at Indy once the first car is in solid, and it makes a huge difference in preparation," Fisher continued. "We'll be able to have a better shot at doing some road course events or some short oval events. We're building, we have some really great people and we're lucky." The first order of business is to prepare the chassis in oval configuration for the Firestone Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Oct. 10. Fisher also will compete in the PEAK Motor Oil & Antifreeze Indy 300 on Aug. 29 at Chicagoland Speedway in the team's seven-year-old car.

Joel Feinberg. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., driver swept both ends of the IMSA Lites presented by Frisby Performance Tire double-header at Elkhart Lake's Road America last weekend. After surviving a sloppy, caution-filled first race in which he set a new track record for the class, Feinberg fought a hard battle with Gary Gibson, Jonathan Gore and Lucas Downs to win the second race of the weekend and fifth of the season. “I worked as hard as I have all season to keep this one in the front. Gary was on me the whole race and I drove the tires off of it,” Feinberg said. “I wasn’t able to go as quick as yesterday, but I made all of the right moves to keep it up front.” With two wins and Matt Down’s last and 10th place finishes at Road America, Feinberg heads to rounds 11 and 12 at Mosport International Raceway in two weeks with a 31-point lead in the Lites One championship.

(Ducati North America)
Ducati North America unveiled a 175hp, 362lb two-wheeled tribute to the historic “Martini Racing” Porsches of years past at the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca last weekend. The one of a kind Martini-Ducati (shown above with a Martini Racing Porsche 908/3) was the idea of Ducati’s North American CEO and Public Relations Manager, both major fans of the Martini-Porsche competition cars. The project began life as a 1098 S Superbike and was outfitted with most of the Ducati Performance accessories catalog. Upon completion, it was decided the bike needed a special paint scheme to accent the significant modifications performed to make it the ultimate street/track weapon. Planned to be unveiled at the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races - with the honored marque being Porsche - Martini Racing colors seemed to be a natural choice. Modifications to the Ducati 1098 S include: racing camshafts, race pistons and titanium connecting rods; all connected to a lightened crankshaft. Chassis modification includes magnesium wheels, a World Superbike racing-spec gearbox, 1/4 turn throttle for instant response, billet racing footpegs, Ohlins suspension, titanium exhaust with 70mm tubing and carbon mufflers, and numerous carbon fibre panels - all from Ducati’s own performance catalog. As the project came together, several of Ducati’s friends and partners also took part in the project, including Shell, which is a partner with Ducati on the Ducati CorseMotoGP and Superbike teams.

Simona De Silvestro. The 20-year-old driver from Switzerland became the first female winner in the 40-year history of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres last weekend. De Silvestro (No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds) captured her fourth win of the season and now leads the Formula Atlantic Championship 156-135 over 18-year-old American John Edwards with just three races left on the schedule.

(ALMS) 

Drayson Racing will debut a new Judd-powered Lola B09/60 coupe in the American Le Mans Series' Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6. Team owners Lord Paul Drayson and Lady Elspeth Drayson unveiled the team’s plan to move to the LMP1 class. Paul Drayson, Minister of Science and Innovation for the United Kingdom, and full-season teammate Jonny Cocker will race the closed-top prototype in the 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic. They will be joined by two-time Le Mans Series GT2 champion Rob Bell on the Dale White-managed team. The car also will contest the Series’ season finale – the Monterey Sports Car Championships at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Editor's Note: Peter's friend Jeff Zwart sent along these pictures from the Monterey Historics where he ran his beautiful Porsche 906. Needless to say, we wish we could have been there! - WG

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