A race that promised much ultimately delivered very little for David Brabham, Scott Sharp and the Patron Highcroft team, as the joy of victory last time out in the American Le Mans Series turned to dust at the Utah Grand Prix.
Starting from fourth on the grid, Sharp kept the #9 Acura ARX-01b near the head of the field for roughly half an hour of round four of the American Le Mans Series but, coming through turn one on an early restart, the Highcroft car was clipped by Butch Leitzinger's Dyson Porsche. As Sharp spun from the impact, he was tagged by Christian Fittipaldi's Andretti Green Acura, severely damaging the rear suspension.
"I slid down underneath the Dyson car," the American recalled, "Everything was fine but then, all of a sudden, snap - I think I had a little help there. Then Christian came around, and I was hoping he was going to miss me, but he happened to hit me at an angle that just clobbered the rear suspension. It's a real shame. The guys have done an amazing job all week."
Sharp managed to haul the injured Highcroft car back to the pits, where the team worked feverishly to get it back in the contest.
"We had just a great car," the former IndyCar pilot said after handing off driving duties to team-mate Brabham, "We had a little electrical problem at the start of the race, where the car wouldn't accelerate properly, especially coming out of the low-speed corners, but we made a few adjustments in the cockpit, changed some settings and we were able to get it running normally. By then though, I was about six or seven seconds behind.
"However, for the team to do a major front suspension change on the first test day so quickly, then change the rear suspension today and get us back out there so fast, really shows how tightly this team is working. Even though we were relegated to just running for points, thanks to their efforts, at least we'll be able to score some."
