2009 Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg

The 2009 Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg was the second round of the 2009 American Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Streets of St. Petersburg, Florida on April 4, 2009. The Acura ARX-02a earned its first overall victory under the Patrón Highcroft Racing team after early leader de Ferran Motorsports suffered mechanical issues. Acura also won the LMP2 category with Lowe's Fernández Racing, while GT2 was won by the Porsche of Flying Lizard Motorsports.

Report

Qualifying

In qualifying solely for the GT2 category, due to the lack of GT1 class competitors for this event, Jaime Melo in the Risi Competizione Ferrari led the pack before a red flag stopped the session due to an incident involving eventual fifth place qualifier Patrick Long in the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche. Farnbacher-Loles and the two BMWs completed the top of the GT2 grid.

In prototype qualifying the Acura of Simon Pagenaud dominated by earning de Ferran Motorsports a pole position by nearly a second over the other Acura of Patrón Highcroft Racing. Acura also led the LMP2 category as the Lowe's Fernández Racing car was piloted by Luis Díaz to third overall, beating the closest Dyson Lola-Mazda by three tenths of a second.

Qualifying result

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.^[1]

Pos	Class	Team	Qualifying Driver	Lap Time
1	LMP1	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	Simon Pagenaud	1:03.776
2	LMP1	#9 Patrón Highcroft Racing	Scott Sharp	1:04.722
3	LMP2	#15 Lowe's Fernández Racing	Luis Díaz	1:05.178
4	LMP2	#16 Dyson Racing Team	Guy Smith	1:05.464
5	LMP2	#20 Dyson Racing Team	Marino Franchitti	1:05.666
6	LMP1	#37 Intersport Racing	Chapman Ducote	1:09.044
7	GT2	#61 Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo	1:12.892
8	GT2	#87 Farnbacher-Loles Racing	Wolf Henzler	1:13.173
9	GT2	#90 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	Joey Hand	1:13.267
10	GT2	#92 BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	Dirk Müller	1:13.458
11	GT2	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	Patrick Long	1:13.465
12	GT2	#21 Panoz Team PTG	Dominik Farnbacher	1:14.109
13	GT2	#40 Robertson Racing	David Murry	1:14.281
14	GT2	#28 LG Motorsports	Eric Curran	1:14.633
15	GT2	#11 Primetime Race Group	Joel Feinberg	1:15.938
16	GT2	#22 Panoz Team PTG	Tom Sutherland	1:15.996
17	GT2	#44 Flying Lizard Motorsports	Seth Neiman	1:18.592

Race

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).^[2]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tire	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	9	Patrón Highcroft Racing	David Brabham Scott Sharp	Acura ARX-02a	M	93
					Acura AR7 4.0 L V8
2	LMP2	15	Lowe's Fernández Racing	Adrian Fernández Luis Díaz	Acura ARX-01B	M	93
					Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8
3	LMP2	16	Dyson Racing Team	Chris Dyson Guy Smith	Lola B09/86	M	92
					Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4
4	LMP2	20	Dyson Racing Team	Butch Leitzinger Marino Franchitti	Lola B08/86	M	91
					Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4
5	GT2	45	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	88
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
6	LMP1	37	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Clint Field Chapman Ducote	Lola B06/10	D	88
					AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8
7	GT2	92	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	Tommy Milner Dirk Müller	BMW M3 GT2	D	86
					BMW 4.0 L V8
8	GT2	21	Panoz Team PTG	Ian James Dominik Farnbacher	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Y	86
					Ford 5.0 L V8
9	GT2	28	LG Motorsports	Lou Giglotti Eric Curran	Chevrolet Corvette C6	D	85
					Chevrolet LS3 6.3 L V8
10	GT2	44	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Darren Law Seth Neiman	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	84
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
11	GT2	40	Robertson Racing	David Robertson Andrea Robertson David Murry	Ford GT-R Mk. VII	D	83
					Ford 5.0 L V8
12	GT2	87	Farnbacher-Loles Motorsports	Wolf Henzler Dirk Werner	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	M	74
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
13 DNF	LMP1	66	de Ferran Motorsports	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Acura ARX-02a	M	66
					Acura AR7 4.0 L V8
14 DNF	GT2	11	Primetime Race Group	Joel Feinberg Chris Hall	Dodge Viper Competition Coupe	D	38
					Dodge 8.3 L V10
15 DNF	GT2	22	Panoz Team PTG	Tom Sutherland Ryan Phinny	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Y	38
					Ford 5.0 L V8
16 DNF	GT2	90	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	Bill Auberlen Joey Hand	BMW M3 GT2	D	28
					BMW 4.0 L V8
17 DNF	GT2	62	Risi Competizione	Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer	Ferrari F430GT	M	27
					Ferrari 4.0 L V8

References

1. "ALMS Qualifying" (PDF). International Motor Sports Association. 2009-04-04. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
2. "ALMS Provisional Race Report" (PDF). International Motor Sports Association. 2009-04-04. Retrieved 2009-04-04.