Asian Motor Sports

A1 Grand Prix’s last race winner, Tomas Enge, has been posting more impressive results, this time in the third round of the American Le Mans Series at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Enge and team mate Darren Turner battled their way to third in the GT1 class, despite a series of set-backs including a puncture while leading their class.

The team ran an aggressive strategy which allowed Turner to lead the GT1 class at the end of his opening stint. The British driver was the last to pit and hand over driving to his partner, Enge, but the Czech driver returned to the pits almost immediately when he suffered a puncture. A fantastic pit stop by the team meant that Enge re-joined in third position and set about closing the gap to the leaders with a series of fast laps. Unfortunately a third safety car period dropped the number 007 car to a lap behind the winners at the chequered flag.

Enge said ‘I was pretty happy with my run. Darren did a good job at the beginning of the stint. We had a different strategy to the 009 car and at the end of the race, Pedro was putting some very good lap times on slightly newer tyres, and I was trying to save fuel. We took third place, but we know that it could have been so much better with no problems.’

A1 Team Lebanon driver, Graham Rahal, celebrated his first Champ Car Atlantics race victory in Monterrey, Mexico yesterday, claiming the win from a pole position start. In winning, he became the youngest-ever winner in the 33-year history of the Atlantic Championship.

Rahal easily captured pole, posting a time nearly two-tenths-of-a-second quicker than the next-fastest series qualifier, a time which also put him in the record books, with the fastest Atlantics qualifying lap at the Mexican circuit. In addition, his pole brought him the accolade of being the second-youngest pole-winner in the 33-year history of Atlantic competition.

Rahal admitted that his prior experience of the track, gained from racing with A1 Team Lebanon earlier this year, helped him to pole position. He says, ‘We’ve been quick all weekend. When we were here with A1GP, it rained basically the entire weekend and this is a different car. That was 550 horsepower, this is 300, so it’s a bit different. It might be a little bit of an advantage (having raced at this track before), but more of these guys have been here than you would think. Stephen (Simpson), David (Martinez) and I have all raced here before with A1GP. It helps, but I don’t think it’s a huge advantage I’m just going to go out there and try my hardest.’

The young star certainly did, leading every lap from the green flag. Rahal lapped consistently, withstanding pressure from second place man Simon Pagenaud and recording the fastest lap of the race on his way to taking the chequered flag.

Rahal said after the race, ‘It was good to come here and take the win, after a tough event at Houston last week when we ran up front but didn’t finish. I’ve had a great weekend, with the car really performing well. Today I just kept putting in the fast laps and eventually wore out everyone else. My crew worked really hard and gave me an excellent car. It’s great to have scored my first Atlantics pole and win in the same weekend. We’re definitely in the championship hunt.’

Graham’s father, Bobby Rahal, former CART champion, was on hand to watch his son drive to his first Atlantic victory, taking on the pit board duties during the race.