Trois-Rivières, August 3, 2002
This is what you won´t see every day: Audi drivers Rinaldo Capello and Tom
Kristensen drove to victory in round six of the American Le Mans Series
(ALMS) in Trois-Rivières, Canada, despite starting from 20th position on the
grid. Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro and Johnny Herbert/Stefan Johansson
completed a convincing Audi 1-2-3 victory finishing second and third.
On the short 1.5-mile but extremely demanding street circuit, the Audi R8
sportscars where a class of their own. In all practice sessions and during
the entyre 3-hour race distance one of the three R8 cars was in front. In the
opening stages of the race, Tom Kristensen needed just 25 laps to move
from 20th on the grid to second position behind Emanuele Pirro. And
despite Johnny Herbert being hit at the start by a competitor, the Champion
team had to change the rear bodywork and Herbert dropped to the back of
the field, the Briton had moved into the top three again in the 2001-spec R8
after one third of the race.
Herbert and teammate Stefan Johansson had the chance to take the first
victory of an Audi customer team in the ALMS. However, a
stop-and-go-penalty cost Johansson a lap and sealed third position for the
Champion team.
After that, the victory was decided between the two Infineon Audi R8
sportscars of Team Audi Sport North America. For a long time, Emanuele
Pirro and Frank Biela looked like the winners. In the final stages of the race,
however, the two Audi teams choose different strategies: While Biela made
his final fuel stop without taking new tyres, Capello shortly afterwards
profited from a caution period, using it for a “full service” including tyre
change. With the new rubber, Capello recorded faster lap times and finally
won thanks to the pit strategy.
Capello´s teammate Tom Kristensen defended his lead in the American Le
Mans Series with his second victory of the season. Rinaldo Capello,
however, is only two points behind.
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