Acura celebrated their announcement of a P1 entry in 2009 with an outright win at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park as James Rossiter and Frank Montagny took the chequered flag for Andretti Green Racing.

Rossiter and Montagny took the lead in pitlane with 69 minutes left with Montagny holding on to beat Patrón Highcroft Racing’s David Brabham across the line by 3.985 seconds.

The win was the first for Andretti Green since taking an LMP2 victory at Sebring in 2007. That race marked Acura’s debut in the Series. Now late in its second season, Acura has passed Porsche in the race for the manufacturer championship by four points.

It was a tough weekend for the Audis with Emanuele Pirro and Marcel Fässler finishing third overall, 20.114 seconds behind the AGR entry. However their car was later excluded from the results due to being underweight. The meant that Audi team mates Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner, who crashed out of the race on Lap 21 have now clinched the P1 championship.

“Of course we would have prefered to have won the title under different circumstances,” said Luhr and Werner. “But with seven consecutive victories already this season we certainly feel we have earned the title.” 

Australian driver Ryan Briscoe returned to ALMS competition finishing sixth in the Penske Porsche he shared with American driver Patrick Long.

Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta won in GT1 to beat teammates Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnussen.

Corvette on top in their "home" race. ©ALMS Media

 The three-time and defending class champions, Gavin and Beretta took the lead early on when the No. 4 crew got the car out of pitlane ahead of the sister car during the first round of stops at the 40-minute mark. The Bell Motorsports’ Aston Martin DBR9 of Terry Borcheller and Chapman Ducote finished third in class for the third straight race.

Flying Lizard Motorsports scored its third 1-2 finish as GT2 championship leaders Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler bolstered their class lead with their fourth win of the season. The pair of Porsche factory drivers stayed clean while Ferraris from Tafel Racing and Risi Competizione had their problems, and Johannes van Overbeek was hit while leading by Penske’s Bernhard. Henzler, the class polesitter, crossed the line 6.570 seconds ahead of van Overbeek who teamed with Patrick Pilet. Mika Salo and Jaime Melo, last week’s winners at Mosport, finished third in Risi’s lead Ferrari F430 GT.

:with ALMS Media.