2008 Petit Le Mans

The 2008 Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New Mazda6 was the eleventh running of the Petit Le Mans and the tenth round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series season. It took place at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, United States of America on October 4, 2008. This race marked the first time that the American Le Mans Series awarded victors in their Green Challenge, in preparation for a full championship in the 2009 season.

Report

Qualifying

On Friday afternoon before Saturday's race, qualifying was held in two 25-minute sessions. The two GT categories ran first, led by the lone GT1 entries of Corvette Racing. Halfway through the session, it was Johnny O'Connell's #3 Corvette which achieved the fastest time before the squad ended the session early. In GT2, much of the battle was between the various Porsche and Ferrari teams. The Porsche of Farnbacher-Loles and the Ferrari of European entrant JMB Racing led early, but Jaime Melo in the Risi Competizione was able to give Ferrari the pole position by a margin of 0.057 seconds. Marc Goossens' LG Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette was the fastest qualifier not in a Ferrari or Porsche, completing the session in seventh.

After a short break, the two Le Mans Prototype classes began their qualification session. After six minutes, Allan McNish in the Audi R10 TDI claimed overall pole position. Although Peugeot closed the gap on the Audi, McNish eventually returned to the pits to end his session. As McNish exited the car, Stéphane Sarrazin was able to better the Audi's time by 0.085 seconds and claim overall pole position for the race. In the LMP2 category, returning Penske Porsche driver Ryan Briscoe led the class early. He was eventually joined by his two Penske teammates, giving the team a lock on the top three qualifying positions in the class. Andretti Green Racing's Acura followed the Porsche trio.

Previous qualifying records for all four classes were broken in these two sessions. The top six overall qualifiers, the Peugeot, two Audis, and three Penske Porsches were also able to break an absolute track qualifying record initially set by Davy Jones in a Jaguar XJR-9 in 1992. Sarrazin's Peugeot bettered the Jaguar's record lap by approximately 2.5 mph (4.0 km/h) in average speed.

Qualifying result

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.

Pos	Class	Team	Qualifying Driver	Time[3]
1	LMP1	#07  Peugeot Sport Total	Stéphane Sarrazin	1:06.242
2	LMP1	#1  Audi Sport North America	Allan McNish	1:06.327
3	LMP1	#2  Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner	1:06.818
4	LMP2	#5  Penske Motorsports, Inc.	Ryan Briscoe	1:07.061
5	LMP2	#7  Penske Racing	Romain Dumas	1:07.149
6	LMP2	#6  Penske Racing	Sascha Maassen	1:07.401
7	LMP2	#26  Andretti Green Racing	Franck Montagny	1:07.486
8	LMP2	#66  de Ferran Motorsports	Simon Pagenaud	1:07.656
9	LMP1	#50  Team LNT	Olivier Pla	1:07.656
10	LMP1	#37  Intersport Racing	Jon Field	1:07.784
11	LMP2	#15  Lowe's Fernández Racing	Adrian Fernández	1:07.866
12	LMP2	#9  Patrón Highcroft Racing	David Brabham	1:08.064
13	LMP2	#16  Dyson Racing	Guy Smith	1:08.175
14	LMP2	#20  Dyson Racing	Marino Franchitti	1:08.446
15	LMP2	#8  B-K Motorsports	Ben Devlin	1:08.896
16	LMP1	#88  Creation Autosportif	Harold Primat	1:09.402
17	LMP1	#48  Corsa Motorsports	Stefan Johansson	1:09.504
18	LMP1	#30  Intersport Racing	Ryan Lewis	1:09.785
19	LMP1	#888  Creation Autosportif	Stuart Hall	1:09.944
20	GT1	#3  Corvette Racing	Johnny O'Connell	1:16.542
21	GT1	#4  Corvette Racing	Olivier Beretta	1:16.589
22	GT2	#62  Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo	1:19.399
23	GT2	#87  Farnbacher-Loles Motorsports	Dirk Werner	1:19.456
24	GT2	#71  Tafel Racing	Dirk Müller	1:19.795
25	GT2	#45  Flying Lizard Motorsports	Jörg Bergmeister	1:19.885
26	GT2	#99  JMB Racing	Pierre Kaffer	1:20.206
27	GT2	#61  Risi Competizione	Niclas Jönsson	1:20.667
28	GT2	#28  LG Motorsports	Marc Goossens	1:20.743
29	GT2	#007  Drayson-Barwell	Darren Turner	1:20.940
30	GT2	#21  Panoz Team PTG	Tom Milner, Jr.	1:21.419
31	GT2	#40  Robertson Racing	David Murry	1:21.438
32	GT2	#54  Black Swan Racing	Anthony Lazzaro	1:21.616
33	GT2	#18  VICI Racing	Marc Basseng	1:21.876
34	GT2	#11  Primetime Race Group	Chris Hall	1:22.302
35	GT2	#44  Flying Lizard Motorsports 44	Seth Neiman	1:23.589
36	GT2	#73  Tafel Racing	Alex Figge	1:23.096†
37	LMP1	#12  Autocon Motorsports	Did Not Participate	No Time
38	GT2	#46  Flying Lizard Motorsports	Did Not Participate	No Time

† - The #73 Tafel Racing was penalized due to a rule infraction during a pit stop in qualifying. The car was therefore moved to the back of the starting grid.

Race

Just twenty minutes short of the ten-hour limit, the #1 Audi of Allan McNish completed the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) endurance just 4.5 seconds ahead of the #07 Peugeot of Christian Klien. The second Audi finished the overall podium, also on the lead lap. In LMP2, rookie Petit Le Mans entrant Hélio Castroneves led the trio of Penske Porsches past the checkered flag, locking out the podium. Porsches finished in five of the top six positions in the LMP2 class, joined only by the de Ferran Acura in fifth.

After earlier mechanical problems with the #4 Corvette, its #3 teammate led to victory in the GT1 class unchallenged. The GT2 class was won by a Ferrari for the first time in the event's history, the #62 car of Risi Competizione leading the marque. It was followed by several seconds by the championship-leading Flying Lizard Porsche.

In the first ever Green Challenge, Penske Racing and Corvette Racing won in their respective categories. The #6 car was the most efficient of the LMP cars, while the already victorious #3 Corvette was also the most efficient amongst GTs.

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tire	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	1	Audi Sport North America	Emanuele Pirro   Rinaldo Capello   Allan McNish	Audi R10 TDI	M	394
					Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)
2	LMP1	07	Peugeot Sport Total	Nicolas Minassian  Stéphane Sarrazin   Christian Klien	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	M	394
					Peugeot HDi 5.5 L V12 (Diesel)
3	LMP1	2	Audi Sport North America	Marco Werner  Lucas Luhr	Audi R10 TDI	M	394
					Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel)
4	LMP2	5	Penske Motorsports, Inc.	Hélio Castroneves  Ryan Briscoe	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	M	394
					Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8
5	LMP2	7	Penske Racing	Timo Bernhard   Romain Dumas	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	M	394
					Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8
6	LMP2	6	Penske Racing	Patrick Long  Sascha Maassen  Emmanuel Collard	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	M	392
					Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8
7	LMP2	20	Dyson Racing	Butch Leitzinger  Marino Franchitti  Andy Lally	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	M	391
					Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8
8	LMP2	66	de Ferran Motorsports	Gil de Ferran   Simon Pagenaud   Scott Dixon	Acura ARX-01B	M	388
					Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8
9	LMP2	16	Dyson Racing	Chris Dyson  Guy Smith	Porsche RS Spyder Evo	M	384
					Porsche MR6 3.4 L V8
10	GT1	3	Corvette Racing	Johnny O'Connell  Jan Magnussen  Ron Fellows	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	M	365
					Chevrolet LS7-R 7.0 L V8 (E85 ethanol)
11	GT1	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin  Olivier Beretta  Max Papis	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	M	359
					Chevrolet LS7-R 7.0 L V8 (E85 ethanol)
12	GT2	62	Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo  Mika Salo	Ferrari F430GT	M	358
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
13	GT2	45	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Jörg Bergmeister  Wolf Henzler  Marc Lieb	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	358
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
14	LMP1	50	Team LNT  Conquest Racing	Danny Watts  Olivier Pla	Ginetta-Zytek 07S	M	355
					Zytek 4.5 L V8
15	GT2	71	Tafel Racing	Dominik Farnbacher  Dirk Müller	Ferrari F430GT	M	355
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
16 DNF	LMP2	26	Andretti Green Racing	Franck Montagny  Marco Andretti  Tony Kanaan	Acura ARX-01B	M	347
					Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8
17	GT2	61	Risi Competizione  Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn  Eric van de Poele  Niclas Jönsson	Ferrari F430GT	M	346
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
18	GT2	99	JMB Racing  Aucott Racing	Ben Aucott  Pierre Kaffer  Stéphane Daoudi	Ferrari F430GT	D	344
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
19	GT2	44	Flying Lizard Motorsports 44	Darren Law  Seth Neiman  Lonnie Pechnik	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	339
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
20	GT2	73	Tafel Racing	Jim Tafel  Alex Figge  Pierre Ehret	Ferrari F430GT	M	331
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8
21 DNF	GT2	46	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek  Patrick Pilet	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	311
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
22 DNF	GT2	007	Drayson-Barwell	Paul Drayson  Jonny Cocker  Darren Turner	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2	D	294
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8 (E85 ethanol)
23 DNF	GT2	18	VICI Racing	Nicky Pastorelli  Francesco Pastorelli  Marc Basseng	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	K	291
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
24	GT2	54	Black Swan Racing	Tim Pappas  Anthony Lazzaro  Andy Pilgrim	Ford GT-R Mk.VII	F	291
					Ford 5.0 L V8
25	GT2	21	Panoz Team PTG	Tom Milner, Jr.  Joey Hand  Andreas Wirth	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Y	282
					Ford (Élan) 5.0 L V8
26 DNF	LMP2	15	Lowe's Fernández Racing	Adrian Fernández  Luis Díaz  Michel Jourdain, Jr.	Acura ARX-01B	M	281
					Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8
27 DNF	GT2	11	Primetime Race Group	Joel Feinberg  Chris Hall	Dodge Viper Competition Coupe	H	280
					Dodge 8.3 L V10
28 DNF	GT2	87	Farnbacher-Loles Motorsports	Jörg Hardt  Dirk Werner  Bryce Miller	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	277
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
29 DNF	GT2	40	Robertson Racing	David Robertson  Andrea Robertson  David Murry	Ford GT-R Mk.VII	D	263
					Ford 5.0 L V8
30 DNF	LMP1	30	Intersport Racing	Ryan Lewis  Luke Hines  Georges Forgeois	Lola B07/17	K	237
					Judd GV5.5 S2 5.5 L V10
31 DNF	LMP1	37	Intersport Racing	Jon Field  Clint Field  Richard Berry	Lola B06/10	D	160
					AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8 (E85 ethanol)
32 DNF	LMP1	88	Creation Autosportif	Jamie Campbell-Walter  Stephen Simpson  Harold Primat	Creation CA07	D	138
					AIM (Judd) YS5.5 5.5 L V10 (E85 ethanol)
33 DNF	LMP1	12	Autocon Motorsports	Chris McMurry  Bryan Willman  Tony Burgess	Lola B06/10	D	122
					AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8
34 DNF	LMP1	888	Creation Autosportif	Liz Halliday  Dean Stirling  Stuart Hall	Creation CA07	D	113
					AIM (Judd) YS5.5 5.5 L V10 (E85 ethanol)
35 DNF	LMP1	48	Corsa Motorsports	Gunnar Jeannette  Johnny Mowlem  Stefan Johansson	Zytek 07S	D	73
					Zytek 2ZG408 4.0 L V8
36 DNF	GT2	28	LG Motorsports	Lou Gigliotti  Tomy Drissi  Marc Goossens	Chevrolet Corvette C6	D	37
					Chevrolet LS3 6.0 L V8
37 DNF	LMP2	9	Patrón Highcroft Racing	Scott Sharp  David Brabham  Dario Franchitti	Acura ARX-01B	M	16
					Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8
DNS	LMP2	8	B-K Motorsports	Gerardo Bonilla  Ben Devlin	Lola B08/86	D	-

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