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ALMS: Marco Werner Wins SPEEDtv.com St. Pete ‘Drive of the Race’
Written by: Marshall Pruett   
04/14/2008
Oakland, CA
 
Marco Werner takes home the SPEEDtv.com 'Drive of the Race' award after a possessed weekend of driving at St. Pete. » More Photos


It’s time to give our second ‘ALMS Drive of the Race’ award, and amazingly, all three of the judges are in complete agreement.

From Sam Collins of Racecar Engineering Magazine. “Marco. Simply Marco. There’s not a lot more to say other than Marco drove brilliantly throughout - pretty untouchable. He was just totally at home in the R10. Even McNish would have struggled to match him.”

Radio Le Mans host John Hindhaugh also saw the winner of the award clearly. “Werner for the race as well as the stunning qualifying. I still can’t get the images of 'Magic's' Audi out of my head…an Audi quicker than the IRL cars…unbelievable!”

It was just as easy for me—like Hindhaugh, it all started with Werner’s high flying assault on pole position. His ‘leave no margin for error’ attack not only netted him the top starting spot, it signaled the commitment from a driver whose intentions were to leave the rest of the field in his mirrors come race day. So much for a measured drive!

And but for yellow flags and unwilling traffic, the driving team of Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr executed their pre-race goals to perfection. Despite numerous advances by the Penske Porsche of Bernhard and Dumas, one got the sense that at the end of the St. Petersburg race, Werner and Luhr would be standing on the top step of the podium.

True to their impressive form, that’s exactly what the duo delivered, earning not only Audi’s first overall victory of the 2008 American Le Mans Series championship, but also earning our ‘Drive of the Race’ award.

While it doesn’t bring with it the same paycheck or bottles of champagne to be sprayed, we’re happy Marco accepted the award with his familiarly warm and gracious style.
Marco ground half of his end plate down on his way to pole. His attacking drive in the race would make use of the same spirited commitment. (Photo: Audi) » More Photos

“I’m absolutely surprised and delighted that I have received this award. This is rounding off in a beautiful way an extraordinary weekend. I regard it as a confirmation of our driving performances. I would also like to point out the superb effort of Lucas Luhr who has made such a tremendous contribution to the success that we’ve shared in St Petersburg.

“From my point of view, the second round of the 2008 ALMS season
has been one of the most interesting ALMS races for a few years. It has been a long-distance race, but its outcome was wide open right to the end, similar to a sprint race.

“The SPEEDtv.com Award is a nice confirmation of a weekend which has been good from the word go. It was good fun to drive the Audi R10 TDI which has been set-up well by the team. The balance of the car is the reason why I felt at ease. I’ve pointed out during the race weekend that you’ve got to like the St Petersburg track to be quick there.

“Already in Formula 3, I loved driving on street tracks like Macau, Monaco or Singen (in Germany) at that time. It is thrilling to just slightly touch the barriers or the walls. There is also an anecdote. I once drove a GT car in a Supercup race at Indianapolis. I slightly touched the walls with the mirror and the rear side panel. When I saw that the team started repainting it afterwards, I said to the guys they didn’t need to. They thought I had just been lucky to escape any major damage, but I kept telling them that I would scrape the paint off the mirror and the sidepanel again in the following sessions. They wouldn’t believe it until they saw that I repeated this exercise several times over the race weekend…”

“I think the times show how easy it felt to drive the Audi. We’ve been six tenths quicker than last year’s lap time of the Audi R10 TDI which has been developed carefully, so there are no major technical steps that would explain the difference. This advantage of nearly 0.7s ahead of the next opponent is unusual on this track, also given its total length.

“The qualifying lap in the Audi R10 TDI was amazing. I saw a replay of the lap on tape. When I slightly touched the wall it looked spectacular, also because of the fact that nobody else dared driving so closely to the barriers so that I kicked up some dust. I slightly scratched the stickers on the left-hand rear wing endplate. Stickers are, in fact, a much-needed spare part on this type of track…

“I highly estimate this SPEEDtv.com Award. For me, it is a highly valuable accolade. It’s a great idea from SPEEDtv.com to add some additional color and spice to the races in awarding the prize for best drives of the race.”