AUDI REBOUNDS AFTER SEBRING.(Competition)

Audi's Lucas Luhr passed Penske Porsche RS Spyder driver Romain Dumas on a restart with three minutes remaining in the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg, giving Audi its first overall American Le Mans Series win of the season. Luhr teamed with Marco Werner to win his first ALMS race overall by 0.818 second.

A caution period preceded Luhr's winning move. Dyson Racing's Butch Leitzinger spun after contact with Penske's Patrick Long with 15 minutes left, a crash that also damaged Jorg Bergmeister's Flying Lizard Motorsports GT2-class Porsche. Dumas took the lead under green with 19 minutes to go but had no answer for the Audi R10's torque after the final caution period. When the green flew, Luhr passed him heading to turn one. Dumas and co-driver Timo Bernhard scored their eighth-straight LMP2-class win. David Brabham and Scott Sharp finished third overall in their Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b LMP2 prototype. The second Penske Porsche, of Long and Sascha Maassen, finished third in class and fourth overall, but the drivers were docked three points for the Leitzinger incident.

In GT1, Corvette Racing's Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta led flag to flag for their second consecutive St. Petersburg win. Beretta qualified on the class pole and never gave up his advantage, as Gavin beat Corvette teammate Jan Magnussen across the line by 4.754 seconds. Bell Motorsports' Aston Martin DBR9 finished third in GT1 but retired after Terry Borcheller collided with Joel Feinberg's Dodge Viper.

GT2 Ferrari F430 drivers Dirk Mueller and Dominik Farnbacher gave Tafel Racing its first ALMS win, but electrical problems and contact sidelined Risi Com-petizione's Ferrari F430 and Flying Lizard Motorsports' Sebring-winning Porsche. Mueller crossed the line more than 13 seconds ahead of Flying Lizard's other 911 GT3 RSR, driven by Johannes van Over-beek and Patrick Pilet. The Farnbacher Loles Racing Porsche of Dirk Werner and Marc Basseng took third in class.

PEUGEOT TOPS AUDI

Peugeot made up for its failure to win the Sebring 12 Hours last month with a dominant win in the opening round of the Le Mans Series in Europe. Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian claimed a clear victory at Barcelona in Spain on a day when the French manufacturer's 908 HDi turbo-diesel proved both faster and more reliable than the rival Audi R10 TDI.

Peugeot's pole-position mark, set by Stephane Sarrazin, may have been nearly a second and a half ahead of the fastest Audi in qualifying, but the best of the R10s kept the 908s honest for the first two hours of the race. A combination of Allan McNish's prowess in traffic and the Joest Racing team's pit work had him leading when a slow puncture sent him to the pits.