Acura Schools Porsche in Debut ALMS Race at Sebring

The three new Acura American Le Mans Series teams made a spectacular debut Saturday by taking the first, second and fourth positions in the LMP2 class at the 55th annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, one of the world's most prestigious road-racing events.

The Andretti Green Racing effort, with drivers Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan, scored the LMP2 class victory over the Lowe's Fernandez Racing team of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz after the grueling 12-hour endurance contest. The AGR trio finished second overall to the factory Audi LMP1, racing on the lead lap against the more powerful German manufacturer before gearbox woes slowed the Acura ARX-01a driven by Herta in the final hour. The Fernandez team placed third overall, just two laps shy of the AGR team.

The Highcroft Racing team, with drivers David Brabham, Stefan Johansson and Duncan Dayton, placed fourth in the ALMS and sixth overall in its Acura ARX-01a sports car.

The victory was special for the staff of Honda Performance Development as the winning machine was designed and developed, in partnership with chassis specialist Wirth Research, at the HPD headquarters in Santa Clarita, Calif. It marked the first time an HPD-designed engine and car had competed in a U.S. racing event.

The overall winning Audi completed 364 laps, with the Andretti Green Acura ARX-01a finishing with 358 laps and Fernandez Racing at 356. Highcroft Racing recorded 351 laps Saturday.

The LMP2 race was set up to be a battle between the factory Porsches from Penske Racing and the three Acura factory cars. But early brake trouble for the Porsches proved to be German marque's demise.

The Acuras from AGR and Highcroft set the pace in the class while the Fernandez car had a steering issue in the first three hours. An electrical problem slowed the Highcroft car and the Andretti Green XM Satellite Radio Acura ARX-01a ran strong into the evening hours. The ARX-01a chassis will unveiled Thursday in a special media event.

Until the final hour, the AGR machine challenged the more-powerful Audi lap for lap, before the late race gearbox problem slowed Herta in the final hour.

The Acura finish was one of the most impressive debuts ever seen in the 55-year history of the famed Sebring International Raceway and set the stage for the reminder of the 12-race American Le Mans Series.

The next Acura event is Saturday, March 31, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., the three-hour Acura Sports Car Challenge.

12 Hours Of Sebring Results

LMP2 Class

1. ANDRETTI GREEN RACING (Herta, Franchitti, Kanaan)

2. LOWE'S FERNANDEZ RACING ACURA (Fernandez, Diaz)

4. HIGHCROFT RACING ACURA (Brabham, Johansson, Dayton)

golfer38 - 3/20/2007 11:57:34 AM

+1 Boost

Honda, some of the best automotive engineers on the planet.

answer - 3/20/2007 12:21:02 PM

0 Boost

Good job Acura.

I still rembember the cool NSX Spice racing car.

Now if they could just make the RL exciting.

IamEvilHomer - 3/20/2007 12:54:06 PM

+2 Boost

yes Porsche had a bad race
good job honda

Agent63 - 3/20/2007 2:30:34 PM

+1 Boost

Why is everyone deboosting people when they are giving props to Honda making a good run in the LeMans? I know a lot of us are German fans but Honda isn't a bad motor company. It's like Toyota joining the LeMans. I also think the Acura LeMans car looks beautiful.

d1sinfo - 3/20/2007 2:40:16 PM

+2 Boost

HPD and Andretti Green require the praise. They put together the engine, and chassis that won this race. Honda put out the money.

I don't want to diss Honda as I am an uber fan, but after watching the development of these Acura teams, and reading I see that it is not an in house deal.

Just my 2cents.

Lexus - 3/20/2007 3:24:13 PM

0 Boost

Good job Honda, now just put some of that technology in the up and coming NSX.

EL34 - 3/20/2007 4:16:16 PM

-1 Boost

Whatever?

chewy - 3/20/2007 6:44:03 PM

+2 Boost

I liked how Acura owned Porsche. I think the Porsche RS Spyder is not made for long races, this is why they haven't gone to Le Mans or sold any in Europe (6 hour races there) Acura did have problems, but Porsche had a lot more. But it was a very good debut.

Spyderman - 3/21/2007 6:42:00 AM

+1 Boost

Hi chewy, nice to see bad mouthing Porsches here too!
Not made for long races? - Petit Le Mans?
Porsche not selling cars to Europe has nothing to do with reliability issues,but rather financial (and possibly political) ones.
Porsche's delays in the race were not all due to reliability issues. # 20 Dyson was hit on track and lost 13 laps substituting a radiator.
The #7 Penske car also had on track contact.
All the issues (except for the brake line)were electrical, and apparently have been traced to a faulty bracket at the end of the alternator cable
however, this does not excuse the poor showing that they had, but don't forget this is still the start of the season.
BTW - The Spyders were much faster than the Acura's and only 2 thousands off Audi's best race lap time.

Spyderman - 3/21/2007 7:04:21 AM

+1 Boost

Small correction: Actually the #20 lost 24 laps (not 13)substituting the radiator, and it was the #16 car that also had on track issues.

MexicanFlash - 3/22/2007 12:36:20 AM

+1 Boost

Do not rejoice in Porsche's demise just yet.