Provided by ALM 2002 RACE HIGHLIGHTS
The 2002 Laguna Seca ALMS race produced a victory for the Audi factory team’s Audi R8 driven by Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro; they won by 25.799 seconds over the Champion Audi of Johnny Herbert and Stefan Johansson. The Joest-run Audi led “flag to flag” from the pole won by Pirro as Emanuele led the first forty-two laps and Biela the final seventy laps of the 112- lap event! Third, one lap down, was the Cadillac LMP02 of J.J. Lehto and Max Angelelli. Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen finished fourth, also a lap down, in the other factory Audi R8; Kristensen set Fast Lap. The Panoz LMP01 entries finished fifth and sixth, with David Brabham and Jan Magnussen fifth and Bryan Herta and Bill Auberlen sixth, each Panoz two laps down. LMP675 was won by the KnightHawk Lola EX257-MG of Chad Block, Steve Knight, and Claudia Hurtgen. The trio started second in class and finished seventh overall, only three laps behind the overall winners! They won the class by a lap over the LMP675 runnerup finishers, the Dyson Racing Lola EX257-MG of Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver. Butch and James finished eighth overall; Weaver won the LMP675 pole. Peter Kox and Tomas Enge drove a Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello to the 2002 Laguna Seca GTS victory; they finished thirteenth overall, eight laps behind the overall winners, with the GTS runnerup finishers Franz Konrad and Terry Borcheller in the Konrad Saleen S7R fourteenth overall and on the same lap. Enge won the GTS pole and also set GTS Fast Lap; the Konrad Saleen started second in GTS. Kelly Collins and Andy Pilgrim started third in class and placed third in GTS although they retired two laps short of the finish and placed fifteenth overall. Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RS drivers Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen won GT in the 2002 Laguna Seca race, finishing sixteenth overall (twelve laps behind the overall winners) and one lap ahead of the GT class runnerup drivers, Ralf Kelleners and Anthony Lazzaro in a Risi Ferrari 360 Modena. The Ferrari started third in class. The Ferrari finished nineteenth overall. Luhr won the GT pole; Alex Job teammate Timo Bernhard set GT Fast Lap but Timo and codriver Jorg Bergmeister finished seventh in class, four laps behind their teammates. Third in GT, one lap behind the class winners and twentieth overall, was the Racers Group Porsche 911 GT3 RS of Kevin Buckler and Brian Cunningham.