McNish, Audi Back on Top at Petit Night Practice

McNish, Audi Back on Top at Petit Night Practice

Posted: September 29th, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: American Le Mans Series
Photo By: Joe Martin

Darkness fell in Northeast Georgia as the cars and stars of the American Le Mans Series came out for a two-hour night practice at Road Atlanta and Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda CX-7. And no one shined brighter than Audi Sport North America’s Allan McNish, racing for the first time at Road Atlanta since 2000.

McNish set the pace with a 1:12.531 in the No. 2 Audi R10 TDI he will share with Dindo Capello. The session began with a damp track following a late-day shower but completely dried about midway through the session.

“It is difficult with darkness falling to see where the wet patches are,” McNish said. “It’s one of those tricky situations to go either way. We were just practicing pit stops and things like that. You never know what the weather is going to be like so it’s just to be expected to work on everything.”

Next on the time chart was the No. 88 Creation-Judd of Nic Minassian, Harold Primat and Jamie Walter-Campbell. The British entry was a slim 0.022 seconds behind the diesel-powered Audi but was 0.2 seconds ahead of the No. 7 third-place Porsche RS Spyder of Romain Dumas.

Dumas’ best lap of 1:12.744 put him in the top spot of LMP2 for Penske Racing. Another half-second back was the No. 6 sister car of Sascha Maassen, Timo Bernhard and Emmanuel Collard. Fifth overall – and third in LMP1 – was the Le Mans-winning trio of Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner in the No. 1 Audi. Third in LMP2, eighth overall, was the Horag Racing Lola-Judd of Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard and Eric van de Poele.

Aston Martin Racing continued its stranglehold on GT1 with the top two spots. Tomas Enge was the fastest driver in the No. 007 Aston Martin DBR9, an effort of 1:19.138 that was a half second ahead of the No. 009 sister car of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy. The No. 4 Corvette C6.R of defending race winners Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen were third in class Thursday night at 1:23.237.

Risi Competizione’s No. 1 Ferrari F430GT paced the GT2 field. Maurizio Mediani, who will team with Anthony Lazzaro and Marino Franchitti, posted his first career fast lap in the Series at 1:23.928. The No. 21 BMW Team PTG BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen, Joey Hand and Boris said continued its stellar weekend with a second-place showing, just ahead of the other Risi Ferrari.

“The car is going pretty good. Were trying to make the car go on long runs, obviously,” Hand said. “Right now we’re making some progress. Ultimate speed is not the goal. The track was already pretty dry when we started, so we went out on slicks. Every time we get a chance we try something. On raceday I think we could be a surprise.”