JJ Lehto and Marco Werner methodically went about their business at Road Atlanta to make it two wins from two in the 2005 American Le Mans Series.
The reigning champions followed up their at Sebring with another win for the Audi R8 – the 22nd class win of Lehto’s career good enough to tied Sascha Maassen for the ALMS’ all-time record.
What had looked set to be a close race during the opening two hours turned into a comfortable victory for the Champion Racing pair after James Weaver and Butch Leitzinger were forced to retire. The #16 Dyson Lola had held a strong grip on the race until the closing stages when Leitzinger spun twice – the second time due to a mechanical failure with just ten minutes remaining which put the car out of the race.
That left the sister Dyson car of Andy Wallace and Chris Dyson to take second place, but Lehto and Werner were nearly 45 seconds up the road celebrating victory.
"It was really tough," Lehto said after his fourth straight Road Atlanta win. "There were so many things going on in the race. I thought it was going to be really tough catching the #16. But the yellows played mostly in our favour. Without the yellows, we never could have made up that 45-second or so gap. It was a race of tactics, and we really took advantage of the pit stop strategy."
In LMP2, the #37 Telesis Intersport Racing Lola of Clint Field and Jon Field posted a six-lap victory over the #8 Mazda-powered B-K Motorsports Courage, which was making its race debut with the revolutionary rotary engine.
"We had a loose alternator belt that cost us a few laps," Clint Field said. "Other than that, the Lola ran smoothly."
Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows joined Lehto and Maassen in earning their 22nd career class victories as they teamed to win the GT1 title in the #3 Corvette Racing C6-R. The duo posted a one-lap victory over the sister car of Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin.
