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Sascha Maassen - Road America |
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Sascha Maassen notched his second American Le Mans Series prototype win on Sunday, topping the LMP2 class at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Maassen, of Raeren, Belgium, and Timo Bernhard of Dittweiler, Germany, combined for the class win in the No. 6 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder – their first prototype win together. The win gives Maassen a narrow
two-point lead in the LMP2 driver championship with three races
remaining this season.
Maassen qualified second in class, sixth overall, with a lap time of
one minute 51.393 seconds on the 4.048-mile road course. He drove the
first stint of the two-hour 45-minute race, moving up to first in
class, fourth overall. Bernhard took over at 1h11, but was delayed when
the car's airjacks failed, dropping him to second in class, 10th
overall. He regained the class lead at 1h37 and worked through the
field to finish fourth overall.
"I'm really happy we won the race. In the beginning, we had a big, big
problem with traffic. I couldn't get by and lost a lot of time,"
Maassen said. "When we changed to Timo, we had a problem with our
airjacks, so that change took a little bit longer and we lost some time
in the pits, but Timo really did a good job and the team recovered. Our
strategy was good because we didn't change tires on the last stop, so
we gained position. We were leading with half an hour to go, by 23
seconds, so it was pretty clear. And then came the yellow [caution].
But Timo did a great job, protected [his position] and he stayed ahead.
So it was good!"
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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