M i d O h i o
A
class winner in his last two outings at Mid-Ohio, Romain Dumas did not show
any concern going into the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series, even
if the average lap speed should have in principle given an advantage to the
Audi R10’s. After the relatively minor disappointment of Lime Rock, where victory
just slipped through their grasp, Romain and his co-driver Timo Bernhard had
firm hopes of putting things right at the Lexington track.After the two uneventful practice sessions, the Team Penske team-mates knew their hopes were well-founded. At the wheel of the No 7 Porsche RS Spyder, Timo then set pole position time and Romain was quickest in the warm-up. So all was set for a good result in Round 7, run on Saturday afternoon in very sunny conditions.
Slotted
in front of the second Team Penske Porsche, Timo made a perfect start while
the Audi of Emanuele Pirro charged up quickly behind him. It took only
a few minutes for the German LMP1 car to take over the lead as the leaders caught
up with the backmarkers. Although the Italian driver’s pass for the lead looked
very easy, the change at the head of the race was only the first warning sign
of warning that the Audi A10’s would gradually disappear from the
fight for the first place, particularly noticeable just before the end of the
first hour, when Timo handed the wheel of the Porsche over to Romain. “Thanks to very good work
by the Penske team mechanics, I was able to get out ahead of the Audi. Unfortunately
he almost immediately caught up again and then overtook me”
Romain explained. “I then waited for almost
half my stint, preserving my tyres, before I upped the pace again and I was
able to catch back up with the Audi. At our last stop the pit crew again worked
fabulously and I was able to get back out on the track ahead of Werner in the
R10. From that point on, our main opponent was not the Audi but rather our own
team-mates! Briscoe caught up with me little by little because I was really
concentrating on saving my tyres for the end of the race. The strategy worked
perfectly because 10 minutes from the end I could put my foot down again but
the tyres on Briscoe’s car were more-or-less shredded to pieces”.
Romain was able to finish the race in style and the icing on the top of the
cake was that he was able to set the fastest lap of the race on the very last
lap of the race! A very rare phenomenon which all the opposition could
not have failed to notice!