A BLISTERING...2ND PLACE
R
o a d A t l a n t a
Considered
as one of the two major events of
the season, together with the Sebring 12
Hours, the Petit Le Mans race held this
weekend, marks the high-point of the second half of the American Le Mans Series.
On the wonderful Road Atlanta circuit, some teams and drivers were looking to
improve upon their results at the Sebring 12 Hours. It was certainly the case
of the Penske Motorsport team, who did not
have great success in Florida in March.
While Porsche were launching the new version
of the Spyder RS at the Paris Motor
Show Romain Dumas, Lucas Luhr and their
team-mate for the weekend, Mike Rockenfeller, were quietly
getting on with their preparations for the penultimate round
of the season. They certainly seemed to get off to a
good start as the No 7 Spyder set fastest time in the
LMP2 class in the night qualifying session
on Thursday evening, and again the following
mor- ning and in official qualifying. "Mike
had tested with us the previous week and
got on very well. And
the car was performing well to, so we knew
we were in good shape" summed up Romain, originally from Alès in the
south of France.
The start of the race confirmed
the French driver's hopes. From the outset of this 10
hour sprint, Lucas Luhr put the car in the wheel tracks of
the usual LMP1 prototypes, together with a few others
come over from Europe especially for this race. The German driver
kept pace with the LMP1 cars for two
hours before handing over to Romain. During the rounds of fuel-stops,
the Frenchman found himself provisionally in
the lead of the race after 2 hours and 45 minutes of racing. But then
the car faltered ... During a
full-course yellow period, Romain was forced to shoot into the pits…
However the mechanics didn't dive under the engine cover but into the cockpit!
"In fact, a fuel-line had broken somewhere and petrol was leaking around
my seat. I stopped first in the pitlane but given the nature of the problem,
the team decided to push the car into the paddock where they could repair it
more easily. The repairs took about a dozen laps", explained Romain, who
after handing the car over to the mechanics, had to visit the medical centre
to check for any petrol burns to his
buttocks. So Mike Rockenfeller took over
the car after it had been repaired.
Once
the car was back on track, there were no more problems and after a energetic
climb-back through the field, the No.7 car finished a fine second place in LMP2.
"The Intersport Lola, who we're battling with in the championship, also
had its own problems during this long and difficult event. Our sister car won
and we were second, so Penske Motorsport has taken the team title in LMP2. That's
the important thing and I'm very happy for the whole Penske team, who performed
best during the pitstops" were Romain's thoughts after
the race. The last round of the season
will be held at the Laguna Seca circuit
in California on 22 October.Romain DUMAS