Peugeot claimed an historic one-two in the 13th running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Ultimately it was the quickest car in the race, the No. 08 Peugeot 908 of Stephane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Pedro Lamy that took the win, although it was only in the final two hours that the result was not in doubt.
Up until then the Audi R15 of Allan McNish/Dindo Capello/Tom Kristensen had a very real chance of winning, while the second 908 of Anthony Davidson/Marc Gene/Alex Wurz was waiting in the wings on the lead lap. But when Capello was briefly blinded when his balaclava slipped over his eyes, causing him to concede the lead to Montagny and then to pit out of sequence and thus drop off the lead lap, the cards fell perfectly into Peugeot's hands.
A full-course yellow offered a chance of getting back on the lead lap, so when Andrea Robertson brought out the safety car by lightly shunting her Ford GT, Peugeot wisely split its strategy, pitting the No. 08 car, leaving the No. 07 car in the lead and keeping the Audi off the lead lap.
With the cars running reliably from there on in, it was game over. Sarrazin brought the lead 908 home a lap ahead of Davidson, who ended up with a similar advantage over Tom Kristensen.
The 2010 LMP2 champion Highcroft Racing celebrated in style with an easy class win and fourth place overall. David Brabham brought the car home, but it was a top-rate effort from Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti too.
GT2 provided the most exciting racing, with the lead changing hands multiple times.
The Risi Ferrari 430 of Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni was in touching distance of the win when the car ran dry with just a couple of corners to go, gifting victory to the Corvette of Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen/Emmanuel Collard and second to the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari of Scott Sharp/Johannes van Overbeek/Dominik Farnbacher. The victory in the American Le Mans Series finale was the first win of the season for the Corvette squad.
In LMP Challenge, Level 5 Motorsports won in class and claimed the first season championship. Scott Tucker, Marco Werner and Burt Frisselle took the LMPC race victory in their ORECA FLM09 with Tucker winning the driving title. Intersport Racing's Kyle Marcelli, and Chapman and David Ducote placed second in class. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports came home third with the driving trio of Luis Diaz, Ricardo Gonzalez and Ryan Lewis.
TRG won in GT Challenge, but Black Swan Racing won the team championship as did BSR's Tim Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen in the driver standings. The TRG Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Andy Lally, Henri Richard and Duncan Ende won by 5.283 seconds over the Black Swan Porsche for the team's second win of the year. Sebastiaan Bleekemolen co-drove the Black Swan car.
Magnus Racing, making its first Series start, placed third with the trio of Andrew Davis, John Potter and Ryan Eversley.