| The two car team of Team ADT Champion Racing will start tomorrow's four hour endurance race, the final race of the American Le Mans Series season, in 2nd and 3rd positions. JJ Lehto, driving the No. 38 Audi R8 will start on the outside of the front row while the No. 2 "sister car" qualified by Johnny Herbert will start behind the pole sitter of Nicolas Minassian from the Creation Autosportif team.
The top five qualifying LMP1 prototypes are all extremely close in time thus ensuring an-all out battle as each team strives to be victorious and stand on top of the podium. The extended race (4 hours versus the usual 2:45) will add excitement as pit-stop strategy and fuel conservation will play a major role in determining the winner.
Another significant difference is the fact this event will be partially run in darkness. Long before the checkered falls at 8:00 p.m., darkness will have descended upon the Monterey Peninsula and the American Le Mans Series drivers will circulate the 2.238-mile track aided only by their headlight beams and whatever ambient lighting there is around the circuit.
The Audi Sports Car Championships event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will get the green flag at 4 p.m. (PDT) on Saturday, October 16. The American Le Mans Series Radio Network will have live coverage that can be heard online at www.americanlemans.com, and MotorsTV will have live flag-to-flag coverage that can be seen in Europe beginning at 24:00 (UK) and 01:00 (Paris).
In North America, NBC Sports will have coverage of the event on a one-day tape delay beginning at 2 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, October 17.
Driver quotes:
JJ Lehto (Finland): "I'm satisfied with where we qualified today. Everyone, especially the top five cars, are really close. We knew the Creation team would be strong and in fact we expected the Dyson cars to do better than they did. The set-up we have is good. Now we just need to keep concentrating on the tires. "
Marco Werner (Germany): "On the front row of the grid is very good for us for tomorrow's race. I won here last year so I definitely would like so to do so again. It would be a great ending to a great season."
Johnny Herbert (England): "I made a mistake on one lap in qualifying and then had traffic on another but I'm content with third place. This will be my fourth race at Laguna with Champion Audi and I'm still searching for my first win - I've never won a race in California but I'm still dreamin'. I recorded second place in 2001 and '02 and fourth place last year. On Thursday I was feeling really unwell - Sushi in San Francisco the previous night - but I'm getting better with each day!"
Pierre Kaffer (Germany): "Over the past two days I have learned the track - it is very nice - very impressive, especially the Corkscrew of course. Despite my inexperience here, I feel very optimistic and confident for the race. The Champion Audi team has done a good job and I'd like to reward them with a victory. This is my first-ever visit to California and I love it."
DRIVERS TEAM TIME SPEED
1) N. Minassian/J. Campbell Creation 1:15.893 1:06.160
3) J. Lehto/M. Werner ADT Champion Racing 1:16.111 1:05.856
2) J. Herbert/P. Kaffer ADT Champion Racing 1:16.285 1:05.656
4) J. Weaver/B. Leitzinger Dyson Racing 1:16.481 1:05.344
5) C. Dyson/A. Wallace Dyson Racing 1:17.249 1:04.296 |
