Lambo 4th in ALMS
Incredible debut for the Murciélago whilst second car crashes
In a tense battle fought all the way to the finish line in todays second round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the Krohn-Barbour Racing Lamborghini Murcilago R-GT of Peter Kox and David Brabham missed out on a third place finish by just 0.679 of a second after two hours and 45 minutes of racing.
This was the first appearance of the Krohn-Barbour Racing team and the US race debut of the Lamborghini (which has only raced once before in Europe).
The second Krohn-Barbour Racing Murci lago R-GT, to be driven by Scott Maxwell and team co-founder Tracy Krohn, was unable to start the race because of damage sustained in Fridays test session. Just ten minutes before the end of a 90-minute test session, with Krohn at the wheel, the number six Lamborghini ran wide through a turn, bumping along the curbs at the circuits edge; as Krohn steered the car back towards the ideal racing line, it was hit hard by a following Porsche 911 GT3. Both cars half-spun to a halt. The blow taken by the Lamborghini was severe enough to damage its right rear suspension and chassis
The Lamborghini of Dutchman Kox and Australian Brabham qualified in fifth place in the GTS-class. Kox drove the first stint in the race, moving up to third after little more than an hour when the rival Saleen S7R of Terry Borcheller/Johnny Mowlem had a lengthy pit stop. The Saleen was the faster of the two cars, but was further delayed when it banged doors with one of the two pacesetting Corvettes, briefly skating off the circuit and then having to pit.
Kox said: I tried to get a reasonable, consistent pace, so we could keep learning about the car. I wasnt pushing 100 percent because at that stage in the race there was no point and what we needed most with a brand-new cars was miles and a finish.
Brabham drove the Lamborghini for the remaining 90 minutes of the race, staying in the car during its second scheduled pit stop. With 35 minutes of the race to go, the Saleen was just 30 sec behind Brabham and closing fast enough to be right on his tail in the final ten minutes. Brabham picked up his pace, driving the car as hard as I could. This cars not very nice on the edge, because we still have to sort its handling, but thats where I had to take it.
Brabham held onto third place until just three minutes from the checkered flag, when the Saleen was in his mirrors. Soon as he caught me, Brabham said, I knew hed pass. The Saleens much quicker on the straights and better on the brakes.
Brabham thrilled the crowd by fighting back, twice closing up on the Saleen as it caught slower cars on the last lap. At the line, the Lamborghini was denied third place by less than seven-tenths of a second. But as Tracy Krohn commented, "We've met our first objective - the car reached the finish."
The two GM Racing Corvettes of Ron Fellows/Johnny OConnell and Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta, the pre-race favourites in the GTS class, claimed first and second places (and third and fourth overall).
Team manager and co-founder Dick Barbour commented, "Its not being beaten to third place that bothers me, its being beaten to first! This team is here to win. We all know weve got a lot of hard work ahead of us. But the team performed really well at its first event, and from taking delivery of two cars in the week we went out there and finished an international sports car race. Lamborghinis built a very beautiful car and now we have to start development work on it."
Ooooops 
Suffering sunstroke here!
.Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff