BETTER NEWS FROM MOSPORT
M o s p o r t

Already just two more rounds to go in the American Le Mans Series! After a weekend to for- get at Road America, Romain Dumas travelled to Canada for the 8th round of the championship. On the very rustic but nonetheless very deman- ding Mosport circuit, the driver from Alès was determined to put an end to a less than fruitful summer season, during which he had certainly finished several times on the podium but had lost several precious championship points.

For Round 8, the Penske team lined up the same driver pairings as at Road America, that's to say that Romain was again co-driving with Lucas Luhr. Things got off to a very good start when Romain set the fastest time overall ahead of the two Lola- AER's and both Audi R10's in the first free practice session. The following morning, the LMP1 cars took their rightful place at the top of the time-sheets. These practice times took on even more impor- tance when heavy rain fell over this part of Ontario, forcing the organisers to cancel official quali- fying! So Sunday's starting grid was decided by the times set by the teams during second practice, which suited Romain very well as he had fastest in the LMP2 class in that session!

So it was that the Porsche Spyder RS no. 7 began the race from third on the grid just behind the two Audis, with Lucas Luhr at the wheel. He could not keep the Lola-AER's behind him and so held fifth place for most of his stint. He pulled into the pits after 65 minutes to hand over to Romain. The no.6 sister car also stopped very shortly after, and Romain was back into the lead of LMP2. He stopped again 50 minutes before the end of the race for all 4 tyres to be changed, the race order remai- ning unchanged. Romain then put in a series of fast, consistent laps, setting the fastest lap of the race to boot, and maintained his fifth place and first in LMP2.at the chequered flag, his third win of the year.

"There's never an easy win, but it's true this one was not particularly difficult! We had thought the weather was going to be slightly different, so we had chosen a tyre compound a bit too hard for our settings, I think. But it all worked ok in the end. Pole, fastest lap, my 3rd win of the season, that's the sort of weekend I'd like every time! Now we have to prepare for the Petit Le Mans race on 29 September with a major test session next week" Romain said post-race, now equal on points in the championship with Timo Bernhard and heading the standings in the LMP2 category.

Romain DUMAS