Decent third place finish behind for the Acura
Race teams geared up with Acura vehicles like the Andretti Green Racing Team managed to make decent finishes in the weekend ninth leg of the Grand Prix of Mosport’s American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
Amongst the men behind the Acura models, Marino Franchitti and Bryan Herta, who are members of the Andretti Green Racing Team, successfully steered the no. 26 XM Satellite Radio Acura ARX-01a prototype to a third place finish in the American Le Mans Series. The Andretti Green Racing tandem of Franchitti and Herta were aiming for a top podium finish in the speed event, but was greatly challenged by strong contenders Penske Porsches on the fast 2.45-mile of the Mosport International Raceway race track. The Radio Acura ARX-01a prototype fought hard in the 45-minute contest and raced wheel-to-wheel with the Penske machines, which have six straight titles in the ALMS events overall. At the end of the of the Grand Prix of Mosports speed battle, the Andretti tandem of Franchitti and Herta settled for a decent third.
“The XM Acura was awesome today and I think we had the measure of the Penske Porsches today, but we had a couple of little electronic issues which took a few laps for me to work out,” said Franchitti. “We lost the dash and other lights but we were keeping [Romain] Dumas honest. I think we actually had a faster car but it is very difficult to pass here. The Acura ARX-01a chassis was fantastic and the AGR guys had the car right on the money today.”
Another Acura vehicle, which was a Lowes Team entry, almost pocketed a podium finish last weekend, but unfortunately faltered down the stretch of the American Le Mans Series and took the eighth to sixth finish. The no. 15 Acura, which was driven by Luis Diaz and Adrian Fernandez, suffered from an errant piece of bodywork for another race car. The misplaced body part got stuck in the front of this Acura vehicle and had to be removed on a pit stop.
The next Grand Prix of Mosport’s ALMS speed war is set on the first day of September in Detroit.