JJ Lehto and Marco Werner survived a gruelling 1000 miles to win the American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, heading home a Champion Racing 1-2 that confirmed the remaining class titles for the Audi team.
Lehto and Werner helped the German marque clinch its fifth consecutive manufacturers' championship, and also earned a first teams' title for Champion. The Florida-based enjoyed a sweep of the top two, as Johnny Herbert and Pierre Kaffer finished second in the #2 sister car - the first time that Champion had run two R8s in competition.
Class told in other categories too, with popular Corvette drivers Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell clinching the GTS drivers' title for a second straight year. The pair, so-driving with Max Papis, finished second in the GTS class behind team-mates Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen.
While LMP1 and GTS may have been sewn up, however, the drivers' battles in both LMP2 and GT remain alive as the series heads to next month's Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca finale, after the Intersport Lola and Alex Job teams claimed victory in their respective categories.
The first few hours of the 1000-mile race featured a hot contest involving five prototypes in the LMP1 class, with the Dyson Racing Lola-AER of James Weaver leading much of the early going after starting on the pole.
The two Champion Audis mixed it with the Creation Autosportif DBA-Zytek of Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter and the two Dyson Lolas, while the LMP1 Intersport Lola B01/60 of Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Mike Durand kept a watching brief. However, one by one, most of the contenders encountered problems, including the Weaver car, which became stuck in fifth gear and then spent time behind the wall for repairs. The Creation machine retired with engine failure, and the Dyson-Lammers car fell several laps behind.
![Marco Werner celebrates after winning Petit Le Mans [pic credit: ALMS/Rick Dole]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/112939.jpg)
