After no one on the Penske Porsche Racing team thought that the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix could possibly match the excitement of qualifying the day before, a combination of flawless driving and incisive pit strategy gave the team's RS Spyders a one-two overall win at Miller Motorsports Park.
Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard took the lead for good with 35 minutes to go in the two-hour 45-minute event after the leading de Ferran Motorsports Acura had to pit for fuel and tyres. The #7 Porsche had done its normal pit-stop duties with a little more than an hour to go, and was poised for a non-stop finish.
The #6 sister car of Sascha Maassen and Patrick Long also made up a place in class when the Acura stopped, and moved up two places overall to second when both LMP1 Audis suffered on track incidents, restricting them to class honours.
It's been a while since our historic win at Sebring, and it was great to have another overall victory but, more importantly, it was important to extend our lead over the Acuras, which have shown again that they are very competitive," Penske president Tim Cindric commented, "We now have a good LMP2 points lead, but it took a perfect stint from each of our four drivers - plus a good strategy and great pit work - to get a one-two finish.
For Bernhard and Dumas, who took the chequered flag in the winning #7 car, it was a third LMP2 win in four events but, while admitting that overall wins were nice, they admitted that they had the knack of being in the right place at the right time.
We get important points and win championships by defeating our competitors in class, but we enjoy the satisfaction of besting the Audis," Dumas commented, "It was fun racing with Lucas [Luhr] and the Audi but, at the end, we had to be careful to make sure we finished."
Bernhard, who shared the LMP2 title with Dumas in 2007, admitted that it was tough for the drivers to follow the strategy when they saw their competitors ahead of them on the track.
