Laguna
Seca ALMS
22nd September 2002
Race
Audi
Sport UK Press Release, 23rd September: Britain’s Johnny
Herbert has closed the gap on American Le Mans Series leader
Tom Kristensen following the latest race yesterday.
The
Brentwood-born ace, partnered by fellow former Grand Prix driver
Stefan Johansson, steered their ADT Champion Audi home to second
place at Laguna Seca under hot Californian sunshine. Johansson
started the 165-minute race from fifth place on the 31-car grid
but Herbert took over from the Swede in third place after an
hour’s racing.
The
factory Audis of Emanuele Pirro/Frank Biela and Rinaldo Capello/Tom
Kristensen began the race from the front row of the grid and
dominated the early stages but the second-placed Capello/Kristensen
a lot of time making suspension repairs dropping them to eighth.
Herbert,
who finished second in the corresponding race last year, thus
inherited second and spectacularly reduced the gap to the leading
Pirro/Biela Audi to 16secs with just 15 minutes remaining but
took the chequered flag 25.7secs behind in front of the 50,000
crowd.
“We
pitted under a full course yellow caution period which saved
us a lot of time,” confirmed Herbert. “We’d suffered a handling
imbalance throughout the weekend and so to finish second and
close the gap in the title race on Tom is a bonus at this
stage.”
The Cadillac of J J Lehto/Max Angelelli completed the top-three
a lap down on the top-two with the recovering Capello/Kristensen
Audi just 2.9secs behind in fourth. With just two races remaining
in Miami and Atlanta next month, Kristensen is three points
clear of Capello with Herbert still third but now 18-points
behind Kristensen and two points ahead of Biela.
Race
results:
1. (1) Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela; Audi R8 (LMP 900), 112,
2:46:08.915, 25.799 seconds.
2.
(5) Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson; Audi R8 (LMP 900),
112.
3. (3) Max Angelelli and JJ Lehto; Cadillac Northstar LMP 02
(LMP 900), 111.
4. (2) Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello; Audi R8 (LMP 900),
111.
5. (7) David Brabham and Jan Magnussen; Panoz LMP-1 (LMP 900),
110.
6. (6) Bill Auberlen and Bryan Herta; Panoz LMP-1 (LMP 900),
110.
Preview
Audi
Sport UK Press Release, 15th September: Johnny Herbert resumes
his American Le Mans Series challenge when the Briton teams-up
with Stefan Johansson, of Sweden, in an ADT Champion Audi for
a race at Laguna Seca on Sunday. Brentwood-born Herbert, who
has spent the last two weekends racing a 1957 DKW saloon car
at Goodwood and commentating for BBC TV at the Rockingham 500
Champcar race, lies third in the standings.
Johnny
commented: “I finished second in the corresponding race at
Laguna last year, under two seconds behind the winning Audi
after 120 laps despite a 20-seconds time penalty. This will
be my second race at Laguna and I love the track while Audi
has won there for the past two years. Having finished fifth,
third and second in the last three ALMS races, I'm hoping
to record that so far elusive maiden ALMS win.”
Herbert
lies 23-points behind series leader Tom Kristensen with the
Dane's "factory" Audi co-driver Rinaldo Capello second. The
Laguna Seca circuit is situated only close to the Californian
coastal city of Monterey in rolling countryside and is regarded
as especially challenging.
Every
effort is made to ensure factual accuracy but no
responsibility is accepted for the information on these pages.
News and photos
from Audi Sport © and from
AmericanLeMans
used by kind permission.
This page last updated Monday, 20-May-2002 08:00:27 BST
|
