Things couldn't have gone any better for Allan McNish after last week's close-fought victory in the championship finale at Laguna Seca in California. The magnificent win in his diesel-engined Audi brought the Scot driver's triumphant American Le Mans Series to a glorious close.
The Capello/McNish Audi finished just 0.923-secs ahead of the second-placed LM P2 #7 Porsche after a tense battle. Their outright win, Audi's third of the 2007 ALMS season, marked the German car manufacturer's eighth consecutive Petit victory at the undulating 4.088 kilometer (2.540 miles) track where Audi remain unbeaten since their Petit debut in 2000 and the third and fourth Petit wins for McNish and Capello respectively, reported Motorsport.
Already assured of a third ALMS driver's title, McNish started from the third row of the 30-car grid bidding to win the four-hour race at the 2.238-mile Californian coastal track for a second consecutive year and the third time in his career.
"This victory is a superb and fitting way to end the season - we pulled a rabbit out of the hat to achieve this win," McNish said. "We came out on top of a hard fight against both Penske Porsches which lasted the entire four-hour duration. We always managed to get back ahead of them after the pit-stop sequences and control the race and that was the difference in finishing first or second. I'm very proud of the entire Audi team."
McNish grabbed the lead after 15 minutes and handed over the leading Audi to co-driver Dindo Capello after almost two hours during the race's third full-course yellow - the Italian resuming in second place behind the LM P2 Porsche of Romain Dumas/Timo Bernhard.
The event saw Capello re-start after a fifth and final caution period from second place but grabbed the lead at once for a concentrated final 33-minute fight with the Porsche to the chequered flag. The Italian driver finished just 0.410 seconds ahead after the dynamic duo swapped positions twice in the closing laps.
The sister Audi Sport North America R10 TDI driven by Marco Werner and Mike Rockenfeller, started the 12th and final round of the 2007 ALMS championship from seventh place and finished third overall - second in LM P1 after 157 laps - 21.498 seconds behind the winning Audi.
The second Audi, meanwhile, had necessitated a front nose change after contact with another car when running third overall with 90 minutes to run. Rockenfeller deputized for Werner's regular co-driver Emanuele Pirro who was not considered fully race fit after his accident during practice for the preceding race.
To note, the result gave the manufacturer of fourth overall ALMS victory of the season, the German automaker's 22nd consecutive LM P1 ALMS class success and their eighth consecutive Petit win since 2000.
