A jubilant HAYANARI SHIMODA piloted his Zytek 04S to the chequered flag and his first-ever American Le Mans Series victory after co-driver TOM CHILTON had put the car on pole at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Monterey Sports Car Championships.
Zytek ran the race in 4hr 00min 01.47secs for 164 laps, with three pit-stops and a best lap of 1min 16.480secs. Shimoda turned the fastest LMP1 race lap and the team's average race speed was 91.775mph The duo became the youngest-ever ALMS overall victors.
Side note here. The British Zytek team has won three Le Mans-sanctioned races since its entry for the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans race was refused - the Spa 1000km, the Nurburgring 1000km and now the Laguna ALMS race. Zytek had a chance for a good finish at Petit Le Mans, but was unfortunately eliminated by a crash with JJ LEHTO's Audi in the first corner.
Although Chilton started first, he was 'jumped' by BUTCH LEITZINGER's Thetford/Norcold Lola on the first lap. The overall lead changed seven times. Zytek led three times for 99 laps, the most of any team. Leitzinger and co-driver JAMES WEAVER finished sixth overall, two laps down. After the race, Chilton joked that "as you could see at the start, I didn't not want to finish the race. We've come to America three times and two of those times, we didn't finish the race."
Second in LMP1 class were EMANUELE PIRRO and FRANK BIELA, who had already won the class championship. The Dyson team of ANDY WALLACE and CHRIS DYSON finished third, one lap down.
Penske Motorsports routed the LMP2 class, being fastest in every session, breaking the qualifying record and winning its first ever ALMS race. It led the class all evening and climbed as high as second overall, before finishing sixth, one lap down. The drivers were LUCAS LUHR and SASCHA MAASSEN. Luhr turned the fastest LMP2 lap, and the team's average race speed was 91.015mph, just 0.060secs slower than the overall winner's average speed. Maassen drove most of the race - about five minutes short of the maximum allotment of three hours.
