Porsche wins 2 of 4 ALMS classes

Porsche entered today’s Monterey Sports Car Challenge, the final round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series, with the LMP2 prototype drivers championship and the GT2 production-based drivers championship already clinched, but the manufacturers titles in both classes were still up for grabs. But, when the checked flag fell on the four-hour sports car classic early Saturday evening, a Porsche race team in each class scored a third point finish – good enough for the marquee to win both manufacturers championships.

In a race which featured 13 yellow flags and a racing surface which lost its grip due to excessive gravel on the track from the many racing incidents, the 2007 and 2008 LMP2 drivers champions, Romain Dumas (France) and Timo Bernhard (Germany), overcame an off- track incident of their own to guide their Penske Porsche RS Spyder to a third-place finish – just high enough to edge Acura by a single point in the final standings. Porsche ended up with 214 points, and Acura, with its one-two finish at Laguna, finished second with 213.

Penske Racing had previously clinched their third straight LMP2 team title, In the production-based GT2 class, Porsche had a more comfortable lead of 15 points going into the last event, but a strong contingent of Ferraris threatened to overcome those points with a sweep of the top position in the four-hour finale. But the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Patrick Pilet (France)/Johannes van Overbeek (USA) finished fourth in class to seal the manufacturers championship, 220 – 215.

Originally, Dirk Werner (Germany)/Bryce Miller (USA) in the Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR had finished third, but the car was excluded at post-race tech for a ride height violation due to a broken right front spring. Previously, Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler (both Germany) had clinched the drivers championship in their Flying Lizard Porsche, and Flying Lizard Motorsports had sealed the team title – their first. Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport, couldn’t have planned the season any better for the final result.