David Brabham's last-lap pole run on Friday at Lime Rock Park was trumped by his performance Saturday in the Northeast Grand Prix, round five of the American Le Mans Series.
The #9 Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-01b driver put in one of the best manoeuvres in ALMS history with a first-turn outside pass of Timo Bernhard to score the team's and Acura's first overall victory in two seasons of ALMS competition in front of massive crowd encircling the 1.53-mile road course.
Brabham, who co-drove to his second 24 Hours of Le Mans title last month, came from a 5.5-second deficit with eight minutes remaining in the two-hour, 45-minute feature to move around Bernhard's Penske Porsche on the next to last lap.
The native Australian took over the driving chores from Scott Sharp with 90 minutes to go and worked his way from fourth to second on lap 126.
The final 40 laps proved to be an all-out sprint to the chequered flag, as Brabham and Bernhard diced their way through the backmarkers in a thrilling down-to-the-wire finish.
"To get this overall win is just an amazing feeling," said Brabham. "It was a non-stop battle out there the whole race. With the sand [surrounding the course] it was very easy to go wide, which I did once. Loads of cars were going off. I am just massively relieved we won!
"And what an amazing finish - it was really a wild chase the whole way. With traffic the way it was, I was fighting for a clear lap. Although I never touched anyone or had any close calls, I knew if I had stuck my nose in close quarters, we would have been hit. It was a high-wire waiting game for the right opportunity, which I knew would come. When I came around Turn One on the second-to-last lap, and saw that the Penske had balked, I knew I could go for it.
