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"A Battle From the First to the 12th Hour"

Words from Rinaldo Capello, who along with Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish (above, in the post race news conference), won the 12 Hours of Sebring in a brand new Audi R15/TDI clean diesel powered LeMans Prototype 1 machine. McNish drove the last few laps, and benefited from the team's strategic thinking on fueling, while being chased by the Peugeot Diesel driven by Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and 4 time Champ Car Champion and present Formula One driver Sebastien Bourdais. The Audi beat the Peugeot by 22.27 seconds at the end of 383 laps--longest distance for any of the 57 editions of this race.

Adrian Fernandez was the top finishing Acura prototype--his LMP 2 ARX-01B was first in class and 4th overall.

The pole winning car driven by Scott Dixon, Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud-- the new Acura ARX-02a lasted about 9 hours before falling out with mechanical teething problems finishing 18th overall. The Acura ARX-02a driven by Dario Franchitti, Scott Sharp and David Brabham lasted a little longer, finishing 15th. So the HPD folks will get to work before St. Petersburg, in two weeks.

The Audis and Peugeots won't be seen for a while at other American LeMans Series weekends--a pity, since those cars demonstrate how a diesel can be made to run and run quickly, as well as reliably.

Normally when race cars pass where you sit, you look up to see who is going by. With both the Peugeot and Audi turbo diesels running so quiet, you would look up when you didn't hear anything.

We'll catch up with the ALMS in a couple weeks, when we get to see both Dixon and Dario Franchitti (Dario's brother Marino Franchitti runs in the ALMS) work their day jobs--driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.

We get to veg for a couple days before heading back to the office. If events dictate, we'll blog about them, but will most certainly send a Tweet on Twitter to nudge you about our "Race-Talk" and "Radio-Road-Test" programs. Here's how to find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/msrnet