Petit Le Mans 2008

Stéphane Sarrazin in the second-placed Peugeot 908 HDi FAP

Spectators on race day

The eleventh Petit Le Mans , also the 11th annual Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New Mazda 6, Road Atlanta , took place on October 4, 2008 in Road Atlanta and was the tenth round of the American Le Mans Series of this year.

The race

After its introduction in 1998  - Eric van de Poele , Wayne Taylor and Emmanuel Collard won in a Ferrari 333SP  - the Petit Le Mans quickly established itself as one of the most important sports car races in North America. Strong starting fields on a varied racetrack generated great public interest. In 2008, 100,000 spectators came to the track on race day. Depending on which limit was reached, the race distance was 1000 miles or 10 hours. In 2008, the 1000-mile distance was achieved after 9: 41: 17.825 hours of racing. The race started in daylight and ended in the night hours.

During the thrilling race there were eleven caution phases and seven different vehicles took the lead. The winning team drove an amazing race in the number 1 Audi R10 TDI . After Allan McNish had an accident during the warm-up, he had to start the race from the pit lane. In the meantime, he was two laps behind the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP driven by Stéphane Sarrazin , Nicolas Minassian and Christian Klien, which led at the beginning . The Austrian Klien was the fastest driver in the race over the entire distance, but like his teammates, he was unable to translate the superiority of the Peugeot into a success. Again and again the lead of the car was destroyed by the too slow pit work. Some caution phases also resulted in the loss of clear leadership. The last caution phase was 15 minutes before the end of the race, the end of which McNish used for the best restart. At the finish line, after almost ten hours of racing, he had a four-second lead over the Peugeot with Christian Klien at the wheel. Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr's second Audi crossed the finish line another three seconds behind.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	1	Audi Sport North America	Allan McNish Emanuele Pirro Rinaldo Capello	Audi R10 TDI	394
2	LMP1	07	Peugeot Sport Total	Nicolas Minassian Stéphane Sarrazin Christian Klien	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	394
3	LMP1	2	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner Lucas Luhr	Audi R10 TDI	394
4th	LMP2	5	Penske Motorsports Inc.	Ryan Briscoe Helio Castroneves	Porsche RS Spyder	394
5	LMP2	7th	Penske Racing	Timo Bernhard Romain Dumas	Porsche RS Spyder	394
6th	LMP2	6th	Penske Racing	Patrick Long Sascha Maassen Emmanuel Collard	Porsche RS Spyder	392
7th	LMP2	20th	Dyson Racing Team	Butch Leitzinger Marino Franchitti Andy Lally	Porsche RS Spyder	391
8th	LMP2	66	de Ferran Motorsports	Gil de Ferran Scott Dixon Simon Pagenaud	Acura ARX-01b	388
9	LMP2	16	Dyson Racing Team	Chris Dyson Guy Smith	Porsche RS Spyder	384
10	GT1	3	Corvette Racing	Johnny O'Connell Jan Magnussen Ron Fellows	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	365
11	GT1	4th	Corvette Racing	Olivier Beretta Oliver Gavin Max Papis	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	359
12	GT2	62	Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo Mika Salo	Ferrari F430 GTC	358
13	GT2	45	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Jörg Bergmeister Wolf Henzler Marc Lieb	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	358
14th	LMP1	50	Team LNT	Danny Watts Olivier Pla	Ginetta-Zytek 07S	355
15th	GT2	71	Blackboard Racing	Dirk Müller Dominik Farnbacher	Ferrari F430 GTC	355
16	GT2	51	Risi Competizione	Niclas Jönsson Tracy Krohn Eric van de Poele	Ferrari F430 GTC	346
17th	GT2	99	JMB Racing	Pierre Kaffer Ben Aucott Stéphane Daoudi	Ferrari F430 GTC	344
18th	GT2	44	Flying Lizard Motorsports 44	Darren Law Lonnie Pechnik Seth Neiman	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	339
19th	GT2	73	Blackboard Racing	Alex Figge Jim Blackboard	Ferrari F430 GTC	331
20th	GT2	54	Black Swan Racing	Anthony Lazzaro Tim Pappas Andy Pilgrim	Ford GT-R	291
21st	GT2	21st	Panoz Team PTG	Tommy Milner Joey Hand	Panoz Esperante GTLM	282
Failed
22nd	LMP2	26th	Andretti Green Racing	Tony Kanaan Franck Montagny Mario Andretti	Acura ARX-01b	347
23	GT2	46	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek Patrick Pilet	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	311
24	GT2	007	Drayson - Barwell	Jonathan Cocker Darren Turner Paul Drayson	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	294
25th	GT2	18th	VICI Racing	Nicky Pastorelli Marc Basseng Francisco Pastorelli	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	291
26th	LMP2	15th	Lowe's Fernandez Racing	Luis Díaz Adrián Fernández Michel Jourdain	Acura ARX-01b	281
27	GT2	11	Primetime Race Group	Joel Feinberg Chris Hall	Dodge Viper Competition Coupe	280
28	GT2	87	Farnbacher Loles Racing	Dirk Werner Bryce Miller Jorg Hardt	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	277
29	GT2	40	Robertson Racing	David Murry Andrea Robertson David Robertson	Ford GT-R	263
30th	LMP1	30th	Intersport Racing	Ryan Lewis Luke Hines Georges Forgeois	Lola B07 / 17	227
31	LMP1	37	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Richard Berry Clint Field	Lola B06 / 10	160
32	LMP1	88	Creation Autosportif	Stephen Simpson Harold Primate Jamie Campbell-Walter	Creation CA07	138
33	LMP1	12	Creation Autosportif	Chris McMurry Tony Burgess Bryan Willman	Lola B06 / 10	122
34	LMP1	888	Creation Autosportif	Stuart Hall Liz Halliday Dean Stirling	Creation CA07	113
35	LMP1	48	Corsa Motorsports	Johnny Mowlem Stefan Johansson Gunnar Jeannette	Zytek 07S	73
36	GT2	28	LG Motorsports	Tomy Drissi Lou Gigliotti Marc Goossens	Chevrolet Corvette C6	37
37	LMP2	9T	Patron Highcroft Racing	Scott Sharp David Brabham Dario Franchitti	Acura ARX-01b	16
Not started
38	LMP2	8th	BK Motorsports	Ben Devlin Gerardo Bonilla	Lola B08 / 86	1
39	LMP2	9	Patron Highcroft Racing	Scott Sharp David Brabham Dario Franchitti	Acura ARX-01b	2

¹ accident during training ² accident during training

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
40	GT1	008	Bell Motorsports	Terry Borcheller Chapman Ducote	Aston Martin DBR9
41	LMP1	08	Peugeot Sport Total	Stéphane Sarrazin Pedro Lamy Alexander Wurz	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP
42	LMP1	10	ECO racing	Ben Collins Harri Toivonen Simon Wright	Radical SR10

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Allan McNish	Emanuele Pirro	Rinaldo Capello	Audi R10 TDI	Overall victory
LMP2	Ryan Briscoe	Helio Castroneves		Porsche RS Spyder	Rank 4
GT1	Johnny O'Connell	Jan Magnussen	Ron Fellows	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	Rank 10
GT2	Jaime Melo	Mika Salo		Ferrari F430 GTC	Rank 12

Racing data

• Registered: 42
• Started: 37
• Rated: 21
• Race classes: 4
• Spectators: 100,000
• Race day weather: warm and dry
• Route length: 4.088 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 9:41: 17.825 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 394
• Total distance of the winning team: 1610.567 km
• Winner's average: 166.239 km / h
• Pole position: Stéphane Sarrazin - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (# 07) - 1: 06.242 = 222.152 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Christian Klien - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (# 07) - 1: 07.056 = 219.457 km / h
• Racing series: 10th round of the 2008 ALMS season

literature

• John Machaquiero, Robin Thompson, Janos Wimpfren, Marshall Pruett, John Dagys, Gary Horrocks: American Le Mans Series Season Yearbook 2008 TPP Publishing Inc, ISBN 0981539025 .

Web links

Commons : Petit Le Mans 2008  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Race report at Motorline
• Results

Previous race 2.45 Hours of Detroit 2008

American Le Mans Series

Succession race 4-hour race at Laguna Seca in 2008