Although they have been the team to beat in recent races, Penske Porsche insist they are still only focused on claiming the LMP2 title as they head into the eighth round of the American Le Mans Series at Road America.
Penkse have defied their status as a ‘second-class' competitor by out pacing the likes of Audi and winning the last five races. However, they were demoted back behind their rivals in qualifying for the race around Elkhart Lake as they suffered on the longer straights.
Nonetheless, Romain Dumas, who has won three races so far this season with Timo Bernhard, claims overall victory is not the ultimate aim for the team. Instead, triumphing over high-profile LMP2 rivals Acura is merely their target for this season, something they are well on course to do
“We will do like we have all season: compete for the class win and we will see about the overall race," he said. "We have to expect competition from the Acuras because they are very close. You can see in GT2 that there has been great competition in GT2 with
Ferrari, Porsche and Panoz. It is the same now in P2."
However, while their advantage over the Audis by being nimble has often helped them around the typical majority of tight and twisty American circuits, Road America poses a tougher challenge for the lesser powered RS Spyders.
"We are quicker in the fast corners, and here you have a lot of them. That's where we pick up time. We all the time compare all the cars together, including Audi. We want to see where we are losing time and in what corners. We are always looking to gain a little bit of time."
