It was a similar story for the sister R10 TDI of Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner. After running fourth in the early stages of the race, Werner would slip back to ninth place following contact with Stefan Johansson's Acura/Honda. The damage necessitated a change of nose for the #2 machine, but the German duo succeeded in battling their way back to third position at the close, holding a similar four tenths of a second margin over the pole-sitting Porsche Spyder of Sascha Maassen and Ryan Briscoe.
“I'm very thankful to Dr Ullrich that he gave me the chance to compete here,” ‘Rocky' remarked. “It was a great final race of the season for me and I'm happy with my performance. Despite being very careful at the beginning of the race, I quickly moved into fourth position. After the first pit-stop I pushed and was able to match the pace of the three cars in front of me. That was a nice feeling.”
“That was exciting!” enthused co-driver Werner. “This was for sure not the best race for us, but it was one of the best races I have driven in recently. The fight with the Porsche in the closing stages was great and real fun, and I'm happy about the third position.”
The victory also ensured the revolutionary R10 TDI remains unbeaten in LMP1 since its debut at Sebring back in March of last year, and marked the fourth outright success of its 2007 ALMS campaign, statistics not lost on Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich and Audi Sport North America team director Dave Maraj.
“This has been an ultra-exciting race,” Ullrich enthused. “The fans have seen sportscar racing at its best. Of course I'm happy we were able to score an overall victory on a track which was not perfect for the heavier LMP1 sportscars – it was a great performance from the entire team, and it's nice to finish the season with a victory and a third-place finish.”
“Another heart-stopping, close race,” agreed Maraj. “It was an intense battle from start to finish. For the second consecutive race, Dindo had to withstand amazing pressure in the closing stages, and all four drivers produced great drives to finish one-three overall. The team worked very hard for this win; everything had to be perfect in the pits for Audi to achieve this victory. It's a dream ending to a tough season.”
