AUGUST 2001 RECAP--ALMS SERIES--PORTLAND
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August has been a busy month for American LeMans Series participants, holding three events, August 5, 19 and 25 at Portland, Mosport and Mid Ohio, respectively. With only two races left, the competition is heavy and fierce. Sears Point and Road Atlanta, Petit LeMans, are scheduled for September and October dates. Due to the cancellation in Australia, the series will end with the 1000 mile race at the Petit LeMans, October 6.
Grand Prix of Portland, August 4-6:
Audi's year-long winning streak in the American Le Mans Series was broken when David Brabham and Jan Magnussen co-drove a Panoz prototype to victory in the Grand Prix of Portland sports car endurance race. The win by the Panoz LMP-1 was the first non-Audi victory in the series since Brabham and Magnussen won a race at Germany's Nurburgring circuit in July of 2000. The Audi R8 had won 11 consecutive races.
Brabham, driving a Panoz LMP-1, pulled off a major upset in winning the pole for American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Portland, snapping a year-long, 12-race streak of poles for Audi. The Australian driver set a track record speed of 109.144 mph, just 1.5 tenths of a second ahead. "I'm really pleased," said Brabham, who won the 1999 ALMS race at the 1.944-mile Portland circuit. "This win means so much to our team, and for the series. It hasn't been good... to have the Audis winning all of the time. For us to beat the Audis is just awesome." Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell drove a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R to the GTS class win, their third in five ALMS races this season. Fellows had a strong battle early in the race with the Saleen S7R driven by Franz Konrad, but the car developed engine problems later in the race after co-driver Terry Borcheller took over. That allowed the second Corvette driven by Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim to finish second in class. However, the Collins/Pilgrim car was disqualified following a post-race inspection after it was found to be under the required 1,200-kilometer weight. That moved the Dodge Viper GTS-R driven by Shane Lewis and Jeff Altenburg to second place in the final order.
"The Saleen was a handful," said Fellows. "The track was really slippery and everyone was slipping and sliding. They gave us a great race for awhile, but fortunately for us, they had problems."
Boris Said and Hans Stuck won the GT class in a BMW M3 GTR, coming back from an incident at the start of the race when Stuck was hit by another car. "We found when we pitted that the rim was bent," said Stuck. "We were lucky the tire did not burst." The Porsche 911 GT3 R of Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen finished second in
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