Capello, Dyson Lolas Show the Way at Portland Test

Capello, Dyson Lolas Show the Way at Portland Test

Posted: July 20th, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: American Le Mans Series
Photo By: Eric Gilbert

Rinaldo Capello last competed at the Grand Prix of Portland in 2001. He showed little rust in his return Thursday to the Rose City, posting the best time in Thursday’s test session for Round 6 of the 2006 American Le Mans Series.

Capello turned a lap of 1:03.383 in the diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI he will share with Allan McNish. The two lead the Series LMP1 championship standings heading into Portland and are hoping to return to their winning ways following a third-place finish at Utah a week ago.

Dyson Racing’s two AER-powered Lola B06/10s were in hot pursuit and sat 1-2 for a good portion of the session. Eventually, the No. 16 entry of Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver turned a 1:04.185, good for second on the time sheets. The No. 20 sister car of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith was less than 0.2 seconds behind.

In LMP2, Lucas Luhr and Penske Racing’s No. 6 Porsche RS Spyder was the quickest car in class. The German turned in a time of 1:04.683 and was fifth overall behind the two Audis and two Dyson Lolas. Luhr, who won at Utah with Sascha Maassen, was in a dead heat with Intersport Racing’s Lola of Clint Field, Jon Field and Liz Halliday. The championship-leading Lola trailed by just 0.007 seconds and was a half second better than the other Penske Porsche of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard.

Corvette Racing moved back to the top of the time chart in GT1, thanks to Olivier Beretta’s best lap of the 90-minute session at 1:09.249. The class championship-leading Corvette C6.R was 0.408 seconds clear of the No. 009 Aston Martin DBR9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy.

The two Corvettes made an Aston Martin sandwich on the time sheets as the No. 3 entry of Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell turned in a lap of 1:09.784. The Corvette was 0.4 seconds clear of the second Aston Martin of Darren Turner, Tomas Enge and Andrea Piccini.

Once again in GT2, the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430GT posted the quickest lap in GT2 at 1:12.634 courtesy of Jamie Melo. The Brazilian and Mika Salo were winners last weekend at Miller Motorsports Park and are hoping the team has gotten over the hump having won for the first time in 2006. Melo, who has two class poles this season to go along with three fastest race laps, turned in the time on the 50th lap of the team’s 56-lap run Thursday.

Next up was defending class champion Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing with Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long driving the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The team’s time of 1:13.036 was 0.268 seconds better than the BMW Team PTG BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand.