No points but a very promising start

The Sebring 12 Hours represented for Romain Dumas more than just simply the starting point of his 2006 season.
On his fourth participation in the classic American race, for the driver from Alès in southern France it was a new chapter in his racing career.
The first round of the American Le Mans Series in effect marked Romain's official competition debut at the wheel of the Porsche Spyder RS.
This was an exceptional event for the works driver, who had not driven a prototype since 2004, but more importantly, had never had such a powerful car at  his  disposal  nor  been  part  of  such  a  professional  team.  
"It's no exaggeration to say that working with the Penske team is like being on a different planet!" Romain said. "Penske has had major success at the highest level in all forms of motor sport and has a fantastic track record. It really struck me when I first met Roger Penske. He is very charismatic and his passion for motor sport is as huge as his business empire".
After the various test sessions held since December, the Penske team approached the first race with several dif- ferent objectives, the main one of which was to judge the performance of the Porsche Spyder RS against the other prototype entries. After arrived in Sebring more than a week ahead of the race for the free practice days, Romain and his team-mates, Patrick Long and Timo Bernhard, knuckled down to spending as much time on track in order to fully get to know their new car.
The No. 6 sister car crewed by Maassen, Collard and Luhr encountered a few minor problems but the Dumas-Bernard-Long No. 7 car was trouble-free up to the start of the race itself. Timo Bernhard set the fourth fastest time overall just 2 seconds off the best time of the Audi 10 in pole position. This was a very encouraging performance which augured well for a competitive race, parti- cularly as the leading cars in the LMP1 class, notably the Audis and the Team Dyson Lola, didn't seem to be fully reliable. Indeed, the pole-position Audi had to start from the pit-lane.
At the wheel for the off, Timo had a good start and was battling for the lead of LMP2 and also for a place in the top 3 in the general classification. After a double stint, he came in to the pits to hand over to Romain. But during refuelling, the Penske mechanics discovered a major water leak and decided to change the radiator. The team finally got Dumas back out onto the track … a full thirty minutes after coming in. Having lost 15 laps, the Porsche Spyder RS No. 7 car was back in 33rd place.
But with almost 10 hours still to go, the race was far from being run. Despite the setback, Romain and his team-mates refused to give up. The Frenchman picked up the pace and pulled the car back from 33rd to 15th spot during his first double-stint in the Porsche Spyder RS.
"During my two runs, there were two full-course neutralisations and the tyres and the brakes soon cooled down, so you had to be very careful at that time. Marco Werner, in the Audi, overtook me but then I managed to keep up with him for a long time. Then Patrick (Long) did his double-run and got the car up to 7th. But just after Timo took over again, a drive-shaft broke. The car stopped a long way from the pits and it was impossible to get it back to repair it.
 So retirement was inevitable" explained Romain. "It was a shame we had to retire, especially after all the effort we made to recover, but with a new car in its early development, such things can happen. It's cost us a few points but the season has only just begun and we know now that the car is very competitive.
We have to work on the car's reliability  so we can aim for concrete results".
Before the next round at Houston in mid-May, Romain and the Penske team will travel to Mid-Ohio next month for three days of testing.

Romain DUMAS