BRASELTON, Ga. -- For years, Audi has owned the elite LPM1 class at Road
Atlanta, but Peugeot showed up this year for the Petit Le Mans and demonstrated
immediately that the Audi team will have to hustle to extend its Petit win
streak to nine races.
Stephane Sarrazin broke the track record in a big way, turning a best lap at
138.039 mph in his Peugeot 908. That bettered the old record, set last year by
Audi's Marco Werner, by nearly six mph. And Werner had the advantage of new
pavement when he turned his lap of 132.703 mph.
It was a fast day overall as the top 15 drivers, including 10 in LMP2, all
bettered the old record. Johnny O'Connell in GT1 and Jamie Melo in GT2 also set
division track records.
Despite Peugeot's opening-day success, Audi still looks strong for today's
1,000-mile run. The No. 1 Audi, last year's winner, qualified second fastest
with Allan McNish driving. Werner's No. 2 team is third on the grid. Both Audi
and Peugeot run clean diesel-burning engines.
Sarrazin's team has raced in ALMS once this year, at Sebring where mechanical
problems beset the team. He said the key to a victory in today's 1,000-mile run
is avoiding trouble on the track and in the pits.
"If we don't make mistakes, we can win, but that's tough," he said. Audi
drivers have lost one race in LMP1 this year and have taken five overall wins,
with the Penske Racing LPM2 drivers taking three wins and the Andretti Green
LMP2 team taking one.
Penske has three teams entered in Petit, and Ryan Briscoe led the group,
putting the No. 5 Porsche at the head of the class in LMP2 and fourth overall.
His two team cars are just behind him at fifth and sixth overall.
Briscoe's team was without co-driver Helio Castroneves, who was in court in
Miami pleading not guilty to tax-evasion charges.
Briscoe said part of his challenge Friday was keeping the team upbeat about the
race and winning the class pole helped there. "[Castroneves] is definitely 'Mr.
Positive,' and we're all hoping the best for him," Briscoe said. "Hopefully we
can have a good race and be real positive for him."
Hometown driver Johnny O'Connell from Flowery Branch set the pace in GT 1
qualifying, turning a lap at a class-record 119.464 mph in the Corvette he'll
co-drive with Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows.
O'Connell is optimistic that this year's Petit will go better for him than last
year's. In that race, he never turned a lap because his co-driver Jan Magnussen
had contact with the LMP2 car driven by Bryan Herta and crashed into the
retaining wall before O'Connell took the wheel.
"Last year was depressing," O'Connell said. "But it is one of the aspects of
this race that makes it so challenging - the Prototypes sometimes use the GT
cars as a barrier."
Rick Minter writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: rminter AT
ajc.com
