THE LINE

August 12, 2009 

Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud (No. 66 de Ferran Motorsports XM Radio Acura ARX-02a) went flag-to-flag Saturday to win the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio, their fourth consecutive overall victory in the American Le Mans Series. Team owner de Ferran qualified on the pole, and the duo won at Mid-Ohio for the first time in their careers. De Derran finished 8.358 seconds ahead of David Brabham (No. 9 Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-02a), co-driven by championship points leader Scott Sharp. De Ferran also announced his retirement at the end of this season to concentrate on his team, which he hopes to expand to the IRL. “I have been coming to Mid-Ohio for many years,” de Ferran said. “It has been a great reception. It is also great for the championship. We have to win every time out. It is very hard because I have a lot of respect for Patrón Highcroft and their drivers. They are a fantastic team and a great opponent.” De Ferran's team also won its fourth straight MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge prototype trophy for overall performance as well as fuel and environmental efficiency. Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz (Lowe’s Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01b) won their fifth LMP2 race of the year and were third overall. Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister tied a Series record with their fifth straight GT2 victory, putting Corvette Racing's vaunted GT2 debut in perspective in the process. Long and his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR beat Corvette’s Johnny O’Connell by 21 seconds finishing 7th overall. O’Connell drove the new No. 3 Corvette C6.R with Jan Magnussen, and they did manage to win the GT portion of the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge for the second time this year. The winning Porsche made just one pit stop in a calculated gamble, and Long said the Porsche’s fuel pressure light came on with less than two laps to go. “When the Corvette came back in during the last caution, I called Thomas (team strategist Thomas Blam) and asked him if I missed the call to pit,” Long said. “He didn’t even answer me but said to get ready for the last restart. Toward the end, I kept asking Thomas ‘Do you want me to save fuel?’ He told me to keep being smart and safe. So on the next-to-last lap, the fuel light came on as I was going up to the Keyhole. He said no problem, just go to the reserve.” Next up is the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase set for 2 p.m. CDT on Sunday, August 16 at Road America (roadamerica.com) in Elkhart Lake, WI. The race will air live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche and Live Timing & Scoring will be available at Racehub on americanlemans.com. Click here to see another great gallery of spectacular images from John Thawley.

Scott Dixon. Adding to his rapidly accruing resume, Scott Dixon - the most dominant IndyCar driver of the past several seasons - scored another scintillating win last Sunday in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by Westfield Insurance, earning his record 20th IndyCar Series victory. Dixon, who was competing in his 109th IndyCar Series race (all with Chip Ganassi's team), passed Sam Hornish Jr. for the series record. Dixon also tied teammate Dario Franchitti for 19th on the all-time career list (sanctioning by AAA, USAC, CART, Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League) with 21 (he picked up one victory at Nazareth in CART). A.J. Foyt is the all-time Indy car victory leader with 67. Dixon, driving his No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-powered Dallara, also moved back into the series championship points lead - by three over Ryan Briscoe and 20 over Franchitti - with his victory, his fourth of the season. It's the 12th time in 13 races that the points lead has changed hands. Briscoe (No. 6 Team Penske D/H/F) finished second and Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing D/H/F) third at Mid-Ohio. Ryan Hunter-Reay gave A.J. Foyt Racing its best finish in more than a year with fourth after starting seventh in the No. 14 ABC Supply Co. machine, and Hideki Mutoh (No. 27 Andretti Green Racing Formula Dream D/H/F) finished fifth, his third top-five finish of the season. For the record, the all-time Indy car wins list (includes sanctioning by AAA, USAC, CART, IRL, CCWS) has A.J. Foyt with 67, Mario Andretti - 52, Michael Andretti - 42, Al Unser and Paul Tracy - 38. Helio Castroneves has 22, and Franchitti and Dixon have 21 each. Next up is the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway on Aug. 23, which will be telecast live in High Definition at 5 p.m. (EDT) by VERSUS. A one-hour qualifying show will be telecast by VERSUS at 6 p.m. on Aug. 22. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 211. The radio broadcast also will be carried on www.indycar.com.

(Shawn Payne/IRL)
Chip Ganassi congratulates Scott Dixon on his 20th win in the IRL.

(Dana Garrett/IRL)
James Davison (No. 21 People*s Liberation/Vision Racing) led all 40 laps and won the Firestone Indy Lights Mid-Ohio 100 for the second year in a row last Sunday morning. It was the first victory for Vision Racing, five weeks after Davison gave the team its first pole at Watkins Glen. James Hinchcliffe (No. 7 Hinchtown/Sam Schmidt Motorsports) finished 4.0420 seconds back, and Firestone Indy Lights points leader J.R. Hildebrand finished third (from the third starting position) in the No. 26 ARPRO machine for AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing. "It was awesome," Davison said afterwards. We didn't really have any pressure from behind. The whole team effort was awesome. I'm really happy. The tires started to wear off, losing front grip and rear grip, but it's the same for everybody. We were able to pull away from the next car behind us, so I gather we were the quickest car on the track."

(©SCCA/Mark Weber)
Brandon Davis (No. 10 Applied Computer Solutions/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang Cobra), of Huntington Beach, Calif., won the Toyo Tires Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by Dish Network last Sunday. Davis finally broke through for a win after five trips to the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT podium this season. Tony Rivera (No. 97 Tax Masters/Brass Monkey Racing Porsche 911 GT3), of Missouri City, Texas, and James Sofronas (No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3), of Newport Beach, Calif., completed the top three for Round Seven at Mid-Ohio. Davis cruised to his fourth-career SPEED GT win by 1.396 seconds, averaging 91.677 mph during the 29-lap, 65.481 mile-race. Davis now leads the Drivers’ Championship with 733 points, followed by Sofronas (656), Rivera (643), Andy Pilgrim (596) and teammate Randy Pobst (568). Porsche leads the SPEED World Challenge GT Manufacturers’ Championship Presented by RACER Magazine with 45 points followed by Ford (41), Volvo (30), Chevrolet (26) and Viper (16). This race will air on SPEED, Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 2 p.m. (EDT). Next up is the World Challenge Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech, Aug. 14 – 16, in ELkhart Lake, WI.

(Mark Weber/SCCA Pro Racing)
Cleveland native Jason Saini (No. 74 MAZDASPEED/StopTech/ProParts MAZDA6), of Fort Worth, Texas, came from eighth on the grid to win his third SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race of 2009 at the Toyo Tires Mid-Ohio Grand Prix Presented by Dish Network. Peter Cunningham (No. 1 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX), of Milwaukee, Wis., and Pierre Kleinubing (No. 42 Acura/RealTime/Red Line Oil Acura TSX ), of Coconut Creek, Fla., completed the top three. Saini - a native of Cleveland, OH - beat Cunningham to the checkered flag by 4.719 seconds, averaging 71.455 mph in the race slowed by two cautions. With his second-straight win, Saini extended his point lead to 63 over Cunningham (733 to 670). Kleinubing is third (649), followed by Seth Thomas (614) and Kuno Wittmer (595). This race will be broadcast Sept. 1 at 2 p.m. (EDT) on SPEED. Next up is the Road America Grand Prix Presented by StopTech next weekend, Aug. 14-16, at Elkhart Lake, WI.

Todd Lamb (No. 84 Atlanta Motorsports Group Traqmate/Luna-C Racing) will be going for his sixth straight win in the SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup at Road America this weekend. Uh, nice background, Todd!

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, August 13, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.

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