Lamborghini comes close to debut podium.
In a tense battle, fought all the way to the finish line at Mid-Ohio, the Krohn-Barbour Racing Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT proved that the reliability seen over the opening two days of competition was no fluke.
Peter Kox and David Brabham missed out on a third place finish by just 0.679secs after two hours and 45 minutes of racing, having challenged more established runners throughout. The race, round two of the 2004 ALMS, marked the first appearance of the Krohn-Barbour team and the US race debut of the Lamborghini, but that didn't stop the newcomers from threatening an upset.
The crew qualified in fifth place in the GTS class, and moved up to third early in the race as Kox drove a strong first stint. Helped by the rival Saleen S7R of Terry Borcheller and Johnny Mowlem - the car that Brabham had shared at Sebring - enduring a lengthy pit-stop and then going off track following a door-banging episode with one of the two pace-setting Corvettes, the Lamborghini consolidated its position by the time the drivers changed over.
“I tried to get a reasonable, consistent pace, so that we could keep learning about the car," Kox said, "I wasn't pushing 100 per cent because, at that stage in the race, there was no point. What we needed most with a brand-new cars was miles and a finish.â€
Brabham drove the Lamborghini for the remaining 90 minutes of the race, staying in the car during its second scheduled pit-stop. With 35 minutes of the race to go, the Saleen was just 30secs behind and closing fast enough to be right on the Aussie's tail in the final ten minutes. Brabham picked up his pace, driving the car 'as hard as I could', but revealed that the Italian car 'was not very nice on the edge, because we still have to sort its handling'.
Brabham held onto third place until just three minutes from the chequered flag, when the Saleen was in his mirrors.
“As soon as he caught me, I knew he'd pass," the sportscar veteran admitted, "The Saleen's much quicker on the straights and better on the brakes.â€
Despite falling to fourth, Brabham thrilled the crowd by immediately fighting back, twice closing up on the Saleen as it caught slower cars on the last lap. At the line, however, the Lamborghini was denied third place by less than seven-tenths of a second. The two GM Racing Corvettes of Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell and Oliver Gavin/Olivier Beretta - pre-race favourites in the GTS class - claimed first and second places, and third and fourth overall.
“It's not being beaten to third place that bothers me, it's being beaten to first!" team manager and co-founder Dick Barbour commented, "This team is here to win, although we all know we've got a lot of hard work ahead of us. But the team performed really well at its first event and, from taking delivery of two cars in the week, we went out there and finished an international sportscar race. Lamborghini's built a very beautiful car and now we have to start development work on it.â€
The second Krohn-Barbour Racing Murciélago R-GT, to be driven by Scott Maxwell and team co-founder Tracy Krohn, was unable to start the race because of damage sustained in Friday's test session at the Mid-Ohio circuit, when it was in collision with a Porsche 911 GT3.