Gil de Ferran brought his stellar career to a close with a closely fought win at Laguna Seca to close the 2009 American Le Mans Series.

De Ferran and co-driver Simon Pagenaud won the Monterey Sports Car Championship after a thrilling duel with Adrian Fernandez in the final 30 minutes of the four-hour classic.

De Ferran beat his long-time open-wheel rival by just 0.662 seconds earning the Brazilian his fifth win of the season.

“It certainly wasn’t easy. There wasn’t much time to think about anything else,” an emotional de Ferran said after the race. “Coming into the weekend, there were a lot of different thoughts going through my head. But I had a job to do as a driver. It was a tough weekend from that standpoint. In a way, the race was so intense that I never had time to think of anything else.”

The Patrón Highcroft Acura finished second in class and third overall, to secure the LMP1 driver championship for Australia’s David Brabham and US co-driver Scott Sharp.

Autocon Motorsports’ Tony Burgess, Chris McMurry and Bryan Willman placed third in P1 and fourth overall in the best finish for the team’s Lola B06/10-AER this season.

Back in LMP2, Diaz and Fernandez closed their championship year in grand style, tying a class record for victories (8) in a season with their Acura ARX-01b. They combined for seven pole positions and five fastest race laps including one of each for Diaz on the weekend. It made up for a third-place finish two weeks ago at Petite Le Mans.

“After Road Atlanta, the guys at the shop decided we had to come back this weekend and show what we can do,” Diaz said. “We had such a great car. A lot of P1s passed me at the start but we kept going and made no mistakes; it worked itself back out. Adrian had such a good race out there, I don’t remember so many times yelling so much at a race. We were pushing so hard at the end and it was exciting to watch.”

It was an emotional victory for Fernandez who has announced the closure of the team due to a lack of sponsors next year.

Team Cytosport’s Porsche RS Spyder of Greg Pickett and Klaus Graf finished second in class despite retiring late in the race with suspension problems. Dyson Racing’s Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti placed third in their Mazda-powered Lola B09/86.

The GT2 finish was was a thriller and ended in controversy. Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR,to give them the class driver championships.

Bergmeister finished 1.037 seconds ahead of Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen after the two cars banged side-to-side coming out of the final turn. As they beat on each other toward the finish, Magnussen went around hard into the outside wall just before the start-finish line.

“I’m definitely sorry Jan went into the wall,” Bergmeister said after the race. “I didn’t want that to happen. But it was a banging game. I’m glad he’s OK. It was tough racing. The Corvette passed me the first time at the hairpin but he went in way too deep and I was able to get back around him. He was a little quicker I have to say. I wasn’t trying to figure out where he was gaining time on me. I was trying to stay on track and in front.”

The championships – fourth for Bergmeister and second for Long – were assured when Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F430 GT retired prior to the two-hour mark. Pierre Kaffer made contact with Marc Goossens in the new RSR Jaguar XKR, an incident that damaged the Ferrari’s front end including the radiator.

Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Wolf Henzler and Pierre Ehret was third in class.

Despite a year of great racing, the future of the series looks uncertain. 2010 will see just one prototype class and one GT class but with Fernandez out of the picture and the future of the de Ferran and Patron Highcroft teams looking shaky one wonders whether the series can survive despite it’s status as one of the Worlds most exciting and technically diverse.