ALMS Race Story

BRASELTON, Ga. (October 6, 2001) -- Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela led more than half of the way in cruising to a three-lap win in Saturday's American Le Mans Series Audi presents Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. With the win, Italy's Pirro also won the series driving championship for the season.

The 1,000-mile sports car endurance race, which lasted nine hours and 15 minutes on the 2.54-mile road racing circuit, saw many of the top contenders fall by the wayside before the halfway mark. Polesitter Tom Kristensen was eliminated in a crash while leading after only 26 laps, while David Brabham tangled with a slower car and crashed while battling Biela for the lead less than an hour later.

Stefan Johansson and Patrick Lemarie finished second, while Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace were third, giving the Audi R8 a sweep of the top three.  Andy Pilgrim, Kelly Collins and Franck Freon won the GTS class in a Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, but Terry Borcheller won the class championship with a second-place finish. Ron Fellows, who had led the points all season in the GTS class, failed to score any points after a mechanical problem sidelined his Corvette after only two laps.

Milka Duno, John Graham and Scott Maxwell won the LMP 675 class in a Reynard 01Q-Judd, while the BMW M3 GTR of Bill Auberlen, Boris Said and Hans Stuck won the GT class. Jorg Muller, who finished second in GT, won the class championship.