Motors revved up for competition in Tooele

By Daniel Souza

TOOELE – Porsche’s Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe claimed an almost predictable career-first overall win at the fifth race in the American Le Mans Series at Miller Motorsports Park this past Saturday.

A gamble on fuel strategy paid off and gave the team and Porsche its third straight overall victory in the American Le Mans Series with a 10-second victory over Audi's Allan McNish.

"The gas was a bit of concern, but the engineers in the box told me what number to conserve to and they were working with me on that," said Australian native Briscoe, who scored his second career class win.

The Penske team lengthened its final fuel load while Briscoe took the lead in the No. 6 LMP2 Porsche RS Spyder with 40 minutes to go when McNish pitted his diesel-powered No. 1 LMP1 Audi R10 TDI for a final splash.

"On my second lap of the stint I was saving a lot of fuel. They kept me updated as we were going. We knew we at least had the second-place buffer. After the first yellow flag Roger called the best strategy, which put us in the right place," said Briscoe.

The Aussie drove the final 75 minutes relying on a single set of tires and tank of fuel. The sister Penske Porsche of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas won overall at Long Beach and Houston. Maassen was one of six cars to pit at the 18-minute mark following an early caution period when a GT2 car became stranded on the track.

But with four different races within the same race, it was Tomas Enge and Darren Turner’s GT2 Ferrari F430 GT that snapped a four-race winning streak for Risi Competizione and its No. 62 Ferrari—also a F430.

The championship-leading car of Jaime Melo and Mika Salo broke a driveshaft with a little more than an hour to go. It was an ill-fated result as the car failed to complete 70 percent of the overall winner's laps to receive points.

And Vegas-based Petersen Motorsports seemed to have a winning plan, besides adversity. Switching from their traditional Porsche entries to the Ferrari F430 GT, the team relied on its driver duo to bring the win home.

“I knew I couldn’t go more than an hour because of my physical condition, but what a nice car to drive,” exclaimed a grinning Enge who two months earlier had smacked the outside wall in St. Petersburg, FLA, suffering a concussion, injuring his ribs, partially collapsing his lungs and fracturing an elbow.

“My worry was on how well I would do. I have to thank everybody for this result,” said Enge who raced with a protective brace on his left forearm.

“When you see a team do what these guys go, it gives you a tremendous lift,” said Enge.

Many of the ALMS teams that competed at Miller Motorsports Park will race next in the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 16-17. The next ALMS race will be the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, July 7 at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park.

*Photos by Jeremy Henrie