There are two races that define sport cars racing in the US: The 24 Hours of Daytona and the Petit Le Mans in Road Atlanta. Both of them had attracted world announce racecar drivers, but it is the Petit the international teams rushed to sign up to race; and there will not be a racing series more technological advance until Formula 1 comes back to the US in 2010. The IMSA calls this year’s Petit Le Mans the “Green Challenge” with the entire field of race cars running on environmentally friendly alternative fuels. Thus it will not solve the gasoline problem nor it will fix our shitty economy, the 1,000 mile race in Road Atlanta did get the fans’ blood pumping hard it their veins by feeding them 10 hours wheel to wheel hardcore action.

Breaking the rules, breaking the records:

Road Atlanta became the battle ground of the diesel once again as the French brought the Peugeot 908 HDi for another rematch with the German’s Audi R10 TDI. Friday qualifies rewrote the Petit history book with all four classes set qualifying records, highlighted by Stephane Sarrazin's run to the overall pole position. Sarrazin, in his first race at Petit Le Mans since 2006 with Aston Martin Racing, was driving the diesel-powered Peugeot 908 HDi for the second time in the American Le Mans Series this season ran a 1:06.242 (138.039 mph) and nipped Audi Sport North America's Allan McNish by 0.085 seconds as the battle between the two marques intensified even more.

The fight for the overall pole was a rerun of the 24 Hours of Le Mans of the past two years for Peugeot and Audi. Peugeot was focusing on a different target in Road Atlanta than Sebring (in March) with improvements and experiences on the 908 HDi. The top 15 qualifiers were all under Marco Werner's pole-winning time of 1:08.906 (132.703 mph) from 2006, and Sarrazin was 2.564 seconds off the old mark. Sarrazin's time Saturday also set an all-time Road Atlanta speed record. Davy Jones held the previous mark at 135.563 mph in a TWR Jaguar XJR-9 from 1992. The six fastest cars - both LMP1 and LMP2 entries - Friday were quicker than Jones' speed.

It was all glory for the French automobile giant on Friday and most of the race day Saturday. The 2008 Petit Le Mans started with a dramatic formation lap with front roll starter Allan McNish crashed the No.1 Audi R10 TDI on the grid prior to the race. The Audi team got the Scot on track two laps behind the field.


Unbelievable 10 hours in Green Challenge Saturday:

While McNish’s No.1 Audi slowly crawled its way back to the pit lane, a train of prototype cars led the field and ran down the hill behind the safety car for the last time for the green flag in a rolling start. 36 cars streaming through the Start / Finish line led by Nicolas Minassian in the Peugeot 908 HDi along side with Marco Werner in the No.2 Audi TDI. The two diesels LMP1 broke away from the rest of the field before entering Turn 3 followed by a big train of yellow LMP2 Penske Porsches. By the end of the first lap, the running order was Peugeot, Audi, Porsche, Porsche, Porsche, Acura, Acura, Acura, and then the No.37 Lola B06/10 AER from Jon Field third of LMP1.

Thirty minutes after the start, Scott Sharp drifted the No.9 Acura ARX-01B from 16th overall at Turn 10b, the LMP2 Acura continued on sideways and into the wall under the bridge. Sharp got out of from the cockpit and walked towards the support pit entry after letting the car roll down the hill. By rule, the driver is not supposed to go more than 10 meters from the car. This has huge championship implications in which Sharp and Brabham trailed Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas by 4 points with 55 points remaining.

Nicolas Minassian pitted the leading No.07Peugeot followed by Marco Werner, 2nd overall, in the No.2 Audi 28 minutes into the race; the overall lead fell into the hands of Ryan Briscoe in the No.5 Penske Porsche RS Spyder, an LMP2 car, for another 20 minutes until 12:00 pm when Danny Watts in the LMP1 No.50 Ginetta Zytek 07S passed Briscoe going into Turn 9.

The overall lead changed hands a couple of times in the next 30 minutes resulted by pit stops, from Watts to Briscoe, then to Marco Werner in the No.2 Audi, and back to the No.07 pole setting Peugeot 908 piloted by Stephane Sarrazin.

The first major accident played out at 1:06pm (1:50:00 in running), Stefan Johansson shot the No.48 Zytek 07S straight into the tires wall at Turn 12 near the flag stand. The car was sitting with the front end on top the tires and the rear of the car in the gravel. Stephan Johansson climbed out, ran across the pit back to the paddock, and ended his day early.

Drama strikes Mr. Bad Luck, Mika Salo, once again in the beginning of the 2nd hour. The No.62 Ferrari F430 GT was on hold in the pits with the Ferrari’s crew working on its sticking throttle caused by a piece from the drinking system under the pedal.

Meanwhile, Allan McNish in the No.1 Audi had passed the Romain Dumas, the overall leader, in the No.7 Penske Porsche at Turn 1 to put himself back on the lead lap and 8th overall. Dumas handed the overall lead to McNish’s teammate, Lucas Luhr, 2 minutes later when the LMP1 No.2 Audi R10 TDI powered down the LMP2 No.7-P2 Porsche RS Spyder on the straight. McNish handed the No.1 Audi to the hands of Emanuele Pirro at the end of the 2nd hour. Pirro then slowly closed the gap between himself and the overall all leader to 12 seconds in the next hour.

The GT2 battle heated up at the end of the 3rd hour with Joerg Hardt in the No.87 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR trailing class leader, Marc Lieb, by 0.350 seconds in the No.45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR who was running in 15th overall.

At the same time on the other side of the track, the two diesel LMP1 cars ran into a fight for the overall lead once again with Christian Klien in the No.07 Peugeot 908 and Lucas Luhr in the No.2 Audi R10. The diesel powered German made the best of the slower traffic and passed the French auto for the overall lead near Turn 2.

Luhr then led the field for about 15 minutes in the No.2 Audi and was blocked at the last

corner by a GT2 car. As a result Christian Klien made a great run in the No.07 Peugeot to the inside and took the overall lead going into Turn 1. Same drama happened to the No.1 Audi almost instantly when Jim Tafel’s No.73-GT2 Ferrari F430 GT ran wide in the last turn and spun back onto the track right in front of Emanuele Pirro. Pirro braked the No.1 Audi and missed the Ferrari by a hair.

The LMP2 Acura had led overall a couple of times when the LMP1 Peugeot and Audi and the LMP2 Porsche were in and out of the pits. It was Marco Andretti who held the overall led in the No.26 Acura ARX-01B during his steak with a refueling pit stop and a full course yellow at the first half of the 4th hour. Young Andretti’s LMP2 was lacked of torque to hold the LMP1s behind him during the restart 4 hour 30 minutes in running, and was quickly powered down by Marco Werner in the No.2 Audi and Christian Klien in the No.07 Peugeot. The ex-Formula 1 driver bested the restart to took the overall lead and set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:07.056 at lap 175 in the Peugeot 908.

We finally saw some GT1 actions (in the pits) at the end of the 5th hour when Oliver Gavin’s No.4 Corvette C6.R was troubled by a throttle lever linkage problem. His crew also changed the wind screen while the car was in the pits which caused Gavin 5 laps to his teammate.

With the throttle problem fixed, Mika Salo found himself back in the game in the No.62 Ferrari F430 GT leading the GT2 class and into a heat pits battle with runner-up Marc Lieb in the No.45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR at the beginning of the 7th hour. With an extra driver change for the Ferrari crew, Marc Lieb got out of the pits first to resume the lead in class for about 15 minutes before Jaime Melo passed him again in the No.62 Ferrari at Turn 10a.

In the middle of the 8th hour when Georges Forgeois spun the No.30 LMP1 Lola B07-17 Judd and stopped in the middle of the hill after Turn 11 facing traffic. The headlights were not on when the car stalled. Patrick Pilet came over the hill and drove the No.46-GT2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR straight on into the stopped prototype before making his way down to the bottom of the hill. Franck Montagny, leader in LMP2 in the No.26 Acura ARX-01B, drove through the debris of both cars, tearing the left front suspension off the Acura before stopping at the bottom the hill. All three cars are heavily damaged. Forgeois was taken to the medical center but walked in under his own power.

The chaos brought out a long full course yellow followed by the best battle of the race: The battle for the overall lead like a mirror image of last year’s GT2 lead battle, but this one was between the LMP1 diesel powered monsters.

Green flag dropped at the beginning of the final hour of the race with Marco Werner leading the field in total darkness in the No.2 Audi AG R10 TDI. Christian Klien’s No.07 Peugeot 908 was less than 2 seconds behind with Allan McNish on a hot pursuit on his tail in the No.1 Audi. While McNish flashed his highlight on the Peugeot 908, Klien went side-by-side and passed Werner for the overall lead at the end of the 362 lap.

The two Audis swapped positions with Allan McNish pulled almost the same move on teammate Marco Werner a lap later at the same Turn 10a. McNish in the No.1 Audi has being the No.1enermy of Peugeot all year: He ruined their plan of winning Le Mans by getting around them in the first corner, ruined their plan in Sebring, and ruined their chance in Silverstone; caused them three championships.

9 hours 2 minutes into the race, Allan McNish’s No.1 Audi was heading toward Christan Klien’s No.07 Peugeot for the overall lead. There was less than 1 second separated the first 3 lead cars and traffic ahead of them. McNish had a look from the inside going into Turn 6 and passed Christian Klien using the GT2 traffic.

Christian Klien’s No.07 Peugeot 908 was clocked at 204 mph at Turn 9 on the last lap, still running 2nd overall after 367 laps. Allan McNish in the No.1 Audi AG R10 TDI took the checkered flag 4.512 seconds ahead of Christian Klien at 8:57pm (9 hours 41 minutes running), after starting the race from the pits after crashing on the formation lap. It was Audi’s 9th straight Petit Le Mans and 11th straight victory at Road Atlanta.

Penske Porsche swept in LMP2 with a 1-2-3 finish. Helio Castroneves in the No.5 Porsche RS Spyder won in class followed by Timo Bernhard in the No.7 Porsche and Sascha Maassen in the No.6.

Jan Magnussen and the No.3 Corvette C6.R took GT1 class victory and Jaime Melo in the No.62 Ferrari F430 GT won GT2 in class followed by Joerg Bergmeister’s No.45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Dirk Mueller’s No.71 Ferrari F430 GT.

So it had all come down to this, 37 cars at the start, 11 safety car interventions, 394 laps and 10 hours of the exacting, hilly American circuit. Now all eyes are on the American Le Mans 2008 season finale, the Monterey Sports Car Championships in the world famous Laguna Seca. Peugeot had defeated twice by Audi in ALMS, but we are sure they had graduate from school in America and will be back for a blood bumping rematch next year.