Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello overcame the various challenges presented to Audi's diesel-powered R10 at Road Atlanta, taking a four-lap victory in the ninth Petit Le Mans.
The pair claimed their seventh win of the season, setting a new series record and giving Audi Sport North America the LMP1 team championship and Audi the class manufacturers' title in the process. Despite being out-paced by Creation Autosportif's CA06 in qualifying, the 2006 champions finished four laps ahead of their nearest rival, the 'works' Zytek of Stefan Johansson, Johnny Mowlem and Haruki Kurosawa.
"We knew we were only two drivers so it would be a tough race for us," Capello said, "Road Atlanta is a different track. You have to be full concentration. It was a tough race for us. We did a good job as a team all together and with the strategy. But if you look at the speed of the Zytek, I think without their problems it would have been really, really, tough for us."
Capello and McNish led for the final three hours of a race that was intensely competitive in the opening. Audi, Zytek, Creation and Porsche each led early, before Audi took over with typical efficiency on the track and in the pits. That left the Zytek and Highcroft Racing Lola of Duncan Dayton, Vitor Meira and Memo Gidley to battle for the other two podium spots.
"We were losing ground at the beginning of the race, so we were trying hard to keep up," McNish revealed, "I was stressing the car more than I would have liked to. It might have looked easy, but I can tell you, from the cockpit, it was really hard. As the race went on, and the temperature went down, though the car came to us. Fortunately, it went that way."
