BOWMANVILLE, CANADA (Aug. 27, 2007) – Taking the lead with just seven minutes remaining in the Grand Prix of Mosport, the #7 Penske Porsche RS Spyder, driven by Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas, extended their team’s race winning streak to seven with a victory here today, leading a Michelin sweep of all four American Le Mans Series classes.Finishing second with a malfunctioning gearbox after leading 96 of the 125 laps of the 2.459 circuit was the #1 Audi R10 driven by Allan McNish and pole winner Rinaldo Capello. Finishing third was the #6 Penske Porsche RS Spyder driven by Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe, followed by the #2 Audi R10 driven by Marco Werner and Emanuele Pirro.
Rounding out an all-Michelin top five was the #26 Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01a driven by Bryan Herta and Marino Franchitti.
COMMENTS
“We were in very good position and had the Porsches covered until we had a big problem coming out of the hairpin and the car got stuck in a gear,” said a disappointed Allan McNish. “The Michelin tires were working quite well and we were controlling the gap until then.”
“Mosport is a drivers’ track; very fast and very challenging,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin manager of motorsports N.A. “The confidence the drivers and teams have in their Michelin tires was obvious as we saw great competition and a number of new lap records in both qualifying and the race. The track changed over the weekend due to rain early in the weekend, but our teams and our Michelin engineers helped meet every challenge.”
CORVETTE SHOW IN GT1
Taking GT1 class honors was the #3 Corvette C6.R driven by Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen. They were followed by their teammates Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta and the special Arctic White #33 Corvette C6.R driven by ‘The Mayor of Mosport’ Ron Fellows and Andy Pilgrim.
“The car was very good and the (Michelin) tires were absolutely great,” said GT winning co-driver Jan Magnussen. “
RISI 1-2 in GT2
Taking a major step in the GT2 team, driver and manufacturer championship battles, the Risi Competizione #62 Ferrari 430GT of Jaime Melo and Mika Salo scored their sixth victory of the season and leading an impressive 1-2 with their teammates Gianmaria Bruni and Eric Helary in the #61 Risi Ferrari. Following up their GT2 runner-up finish at Road America with another podium spot was the #18 Rahal-Letterman Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Ralf Kelleners and Tom Milner.
“Thank you, Michelin, the tires helped us adjust the car from yesterday and it was very good,” said Mika Salo.
COMMENTS
Driver Romain Dumas on being part of the Penske Porsche RS Spyder program:
“Porsche made a very nice car last year and an even better car this year. The Penske team is one of the best in racing, they work very hard to make everything perfect and don’t forget the tires, Michelin has done a great job! Again today, everything was perfect.”
RISING STARTS IN FORMULA BMW
Canadian star Daniel Morad, a 17 year-old native of Toronto, capped off a great season with his sixth victory of the year and claimed the 2007 Formula BMW USA championship. Morad, the 2006 F/BMW Rookie of the Year, follows in the footsteps of his Eurointernational 2006 teammate Robert Wickens.
Esteban Gutierrez, 16, of Monterrey, Mexico took the Rookie of the Year honors based on his four race wins, nine poles, and runner-up spot in the championship. Michelin is the official tire of the Formula BMW championships worldwide.
Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy-duty trucks, motorcycles and the space shuttle. The company also publishes travel guides, hotel and restaurant guides, maps and road atlases. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America (www.michelinman.com) employs more than 22,000 and operates 19 major manufacturing plants in 17 locations.
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For more information, visit www.michelinmedia.com // From Tonya Polydoroff (Michelin N.A.) and EMC Public Relations
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