Record seven straight wins for McNish

Published on Monday 2 October 2006 00:13

ALLAN McNish clinched victory in the annual 'Petit Le Mans' race at Road Atlanta to set the seal on another American Le Mans Series record.

Already crowned ALMS champions earlier this month, McNish and co-driver Dindo Capello claimed a record seventh LM P1 class win of the season with a four-lap victory in the 1,000-mile race in their diesel-powered Audi.

The Scottish-Italian combination earned Audi their seventh consecutive annual 'Petit' race triumph in front of a record crowd of 100,000.

"It was an extremely hard race from the start," said McNish, going on to explain: "The race came to us as the ambient temperature dropped and our car got quicker and quicker. It feels good to have scored a first 'Petit' win in a diesel car, and I'm very proud to have achieved a record seven class wins in a season."

Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner looked set to claim second in their 'sister' Audi. But an unfortunate contact with a backmarker 13 minutes from the chequered flag caused front suspension damage, relegating them from second to seventh place.

The final round of the competition takes place at Laguna Seca, California on 21 October.

• Troy Bayliss won his second World Superbike title yesterday with fifth place in the opening race at Imola in Italy. The Australian, who also won the title in 2001, took the championship for Ducati Xerox, then celebrated in style by winning the second race ahead of Brazilian Alex Barros, who had won the first.