Jan Magnussen survived a furious late charge by Johnny Herbert to win the American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Sonoma presented by Fosters Sunday at Sears Point Raceway.
Magnussen and co-driver David Brabham led most of the two-hour, 45-minute sports car endurance race in a Panoz LMP-1 Prototype. However, Magnussen, while driving the final stint, withstood an assault by Herbert, who tangled with a lapped car while challenging Magnussen at the finish line on the last lap.
The Audi R8 that was co-driven by Herbert and Tom Kristensen was credited with second place, just .482 second behind the winner. Herbert, who withdrew from making a qualifying attempt at the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday morning and flew to California to race at Sears Point, took over the series point lead after two of 10 races.
Bryan Herta and Bill Auberlen finished third in another Panoz LMP-1, giving former CART standout Herta his first podium finish in sports car racing.
Ben Devlin and Dave McEntee drove a Lola B2K-Ford and scored a two-lap win in the LMP 675 class for smaller Prototypes, while Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell led all the way in a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R to win the GTS class by a lap. Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen won the GT class in a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
The race started under rain conditions, but the rain stopped and the 2.53-mile circuit was dry for the final third of the event.
