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Mosport International Raceway

Gran Turismo 3 Grand Prix

19/08/2001

Quick

Race Report

© Tom Kjos

Mosport, Ontario, Canada--Emanuele Pirro held on to deliver a very-much-in-doubt victory for Audi Sport North America today in a race that started wet and ended fast and dry.

The wet weather had its impact as incidents on the slippery first lap ended any chance for victory for the #1 Audi R8 and the #51 Panoz. Jan Magnussen took the lead by the end of the first lap, after jumping between the silver Audis at the start. The Dyson Racing Riley & Scott's troubles continued into the race from practice and qualifying, as Weaver and Leitzinger started from the pit lane, then quickly moved as high as third, only to be later delayed by the same problem, a non-starting engine in the pit. Still, the pair had a shot at third, just having passed a Cadillac into fourth, when Butch Leitzinger had an off course excursion with just five minutes to run.

The winning Audi did not have this race easily won by any means, with Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace in and out of the lead during the race with Panoz and the Joest Audis all day, and Herbert had closed to just four seconds behind with fifteen minutes to go. That is when Herbert lost the Champion R8 into the tire barrier in turn two, finally clinching the victory for Beila and Pirro.

Although pushed hard by their teammates and by the Saleen S7R all day, Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell brought the #3 Corvette C5R from a back-of-the-pack start for a win. That takes the yellow GM cars another step closer to the team and driver championships in GTS and validates the decision to race the season out.

In GT, BMW GTRs swept the first three places, but it wasn't all that easy for them either. The #42 BMW Motorsports car started at the back of the grid after a tech disqualification but moved to the front within the first hour and then drove away. Hans Stuck was as good as expected in the rain, grabbing an early lead, but the PTG car faded after the track dried, into the clutches of the Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3-RS of Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr. Boris Said was just able salvage third from the pressing Porsche. The #43 Schnitzer GTR of Dirk Müller and Fredrik Ekblom finished second in GT.

This was a race that was won by the Audi Sport North American team--again. But it was also a race that very much reinforced the message sent by Panoz two weeks ago at Portland. Panoz can win again. Champion can win. And the real fascinating result. It won't take much more than they showed here to put the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott Mark IIIC on an ALMS podium. Some luck would help, for a start.

In short, more great ALMS racing.