by Chris Hayes
Reigning LMP2 champs Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas were unable to convert pole into victory and maintain their eight win streak in class after David Brabham battled his way past the Penske Porsche RS Spyder in the dying laps of the third round ALMS race at Long Beach.
The Penske duo, who smashed the lap record in qualifying to start from pole, had emerged as overall leaders after the pit-stops only to be surpassed by the LMP1 class Audi R10 TDI of Marco Werner in the final caution period.
Then with four laps to go, Highcroft Racing's David Brabham in the Acura ARX-01b hustled his way past Romain Dumas to take the LMP2 victory, crossing the line a mere 1.036 seconds ahead of the Porsche.
Bernhard cited the yellow flag periods as a chief cause for the disappointment.
"The yellow flags and race traffic - our friends at many of the races last year when we won the championship - worked against us today," reflected the German.
"We had bad luck in traffic, especially overtaking the slower GT1 and GT2 cars - and did not want to risk the important points we earned to gain a position when the conditions were not safe," he said.
The second place finish breaks a 13-race LMP2 winning streak for the Penske Porsches which began more than a year ago at the 2007 St. Petersburg's event.
Hartmut Kristen, head of Porsche Motorsport world-wide, nonetheless found time to praise his drivers' efforts under difficult circumstances.
"The Penske Porsche drivers gave maximum effort, and we still had a chance for victory right up to the chequered flag," he said.
Bernhard and Dumas retain their lead in the LMP2 championship albeit with a reduced advantage of 10 points over the Highcroft pairing of David Brabham and Scott Sharp.
Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen in the sister Porsche RS Spyder were able to fend of the rival Acuras to finish third in class behind Bernhard and Dumas.
In the early stages Long was even leading the race after a blistering start which catapulted the Porsche into P1.
Despite pressure from the more powerful LMP1 Audi of Lucas Luhr, Long held the overall race lead for all 55 minutes of his stint, turning the car over to Sascha Maassen with 45 minutes left to go in the 100-minute event. However, the Penske pairing lost out in the pit-stop reshuffle and were forced to settle for third.
