Highcroft Racing came from the back of the 35-car grid to take victory by seven laps in an incident-packed six-hour American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca.

Having lost their front row slot when the officials judged that the minimum mileage per driver in Friday practice had not been achieved, Highcroft HPD trio David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti had to start last.

While Pagenaud made rapid progress through the field, Intersport's Clint Field took second from Klaus Graf's CytoSport Porsche off the line and then overhauled the pole-sitting Dyson Lola-Mazda further around the opening lap to take the early lead.

Field led most of the opening hour, though under increasing pressure from Graf, with whom he swapped first place a few times just before a turbo failure ended Intersport's impressive race. By that time Highcroft was up to third and soon passed Dyson for second, with a close three-way lead fight then developing until mistakes on restarts by both Dyson and CytoSport appeared to hand Highcroft an easy win.

First Memo Gidley spun the CytoSport car out of the final corner and collected debris that caused time-consuming gearbox problems. Not long afterwards, Dyson's Andy Meyrick -- who had just taken the lead in the pits - also rotated as he prepared to restart after a safety car, and collected Johnny Mowlem's PR1 LMPC ORECA in the process.

Dyson effected rapid repairs, losing just one lap, which it then caught back up thanks to some wise strategy during safety cars.

That gave Guy Smith a chance to hunt down and pass Franchitti for the lead going into the final hour, although Highcroft's decision not to change tyres at its last stop then put Franchitti ahead again. Before Smith had a chance to give chase, the Dyson Lola-Mazda expired and parked at the trackside, allowing Highcroft to cruise to the win and giving CytoSport second place after all.

Drayson Racing never featured in the lead battle, losing two laps from the outset when Paul Drayson spun into the gravel, and later retiring with gearbox issues.

The GT class saw an incredible battle that featured both Corvettes, both BMWs, the Risi Ferrari and the lead Flying Lizard Porsche and Extreme Speed Ferrari at various stages. In the end it came down to a late shootout between Flying Lizard's Patrick Long, Rahal Letterman BMW's Joey Hand and Corvette's Oliver Gavin, with the Porsche jumping the BMW at the last restart and resisting the pressure to win by just 0.365sec. Front end damage sustained during various bits of minor contact meant Risi was ultimately two laps adrift in fourth.

Level 5's Christophe Bouchut beat Genoa's Tom Sutherland by 7sec after a close race-long LMPC fight, whereas the Black Swan team had a relatively calm run to the GTC class win.

Pos  Cl  Drivers                         Car             Time/Gap
 1.  P    Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti     HPD         6h00m09.654s
 2.  P    Gidley/Graf/Maassen             Porsche         + 7 laps
 3.  PC   Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins          ORECA           + 8 laps
 4.  PC   Sutherland/Weickardt/Marcelli   ORECA           + 8 laps
 5.  GT   Bergmeister/Long                Porsche        + 10 laps
 6.  GT   Mueller/Hand                    BMW            + 10 laps
 7.  GT   Beretta/Gavin                   Corvette       + 10 laps
 8.  GT   Melo/Bruni                      Ferrari        + 12 laps
 9.  GT   Sharp/van Overbeek              Ferrari        + 12 laps
10.  GT   Magnussen/O'Connell             Corvette       + 13 laps
11.  GT   Sellers/Henzler                 Porsche        + 13 laps
12.  PC   Julian/Jeannette/Zugel          ORECA          + 15 laps
13.  GT   Auberlen/Milner                 BMW            + 15 laps
14.  PC   Pagerey/Wong/Ducote             ORECA          + 15 laps
15.  P    Dyson/Smith/Meyrick             Lola-Mazda     + 17 laps
16.  GT   Krohn/Jonsson                   Ferrari        + 17 laps
17.  GTC  Pappas/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen  Porsche        + 18 laps
18.  GTC  Richard/Villeneuve/Lally        Porsche        + 19 laps
19.  GTC  Gonzalez/Leitzinger/Junco       Porsche        + 20 laps
20.  GTC  Gonzalez/Diaz/Junco             Porsche        + 20 laps
21.  GTC  Miller/McMullen/Hines           Porsche        + 21 laps
22.  GTC  Lewis/Aschenbach                Porsche        + 21 laps
23.  GT   Robertson/Robertson/Murry       Doran Ford     + 22 laps
24.  GT   Law/Neiman/Bernhard             Porsche        + 24 laps
25.  GTC  Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders       Porsche        + 25 laps
26.  GTC  Rodriguez/Bieker/Wilson         Porsche        + 25 laps
27.  GTC  Beggs/Baron                     Porsche        + 26 laps
28.  GT   Brown/Cosmo                     Ferrari        + 43 laps
29.  GT   Dalziel/Goossens                Jaguar         + 46 laps

Retirements:

     P    Willman/Burgess/Ehret           Lola        170 laps
     P    Drayson/Cocker/Pirro            Lola        108 laps
     PC   Mowlem/Papadopoulos/Lewis       ORECA       107 laps
     GTC  Curtis/Sofronas/Borcheller      Porsche     83 laps
     P    Field/Field/Konstant            Lola        38 laps
     PC   Tucker/Wallace/Frisselle        ORECA       8  laps