FACTORY WAR; PORSCHE BARELY EDGES ACURA IN AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES.(NEWS)

Byline: GARY WATKINS

ACURA CERTAINLY SENT A message to Porsche at the start of the 2008 American Le Mans Series and stuck to it all year long. The Honda-owned brand redeemed its promise to continue developing its ARX-01b LMP2 prototype in its pursuit of the Penske-run Porsche RS Spyders, and the battle for the LMP2 manufacturers' prize was not decided until the final pit stop of the final race.

Acura lost the title to Porsche by just one point, while the top Penske lineup of Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard did not wrap up the drivers' title until the penultimate round, and then only because Acura's lead drivers endured a disastrous Petit Le Mans. Acura did, however, score more LMP2 wins than Porsche, outscoring the Penske operation six to five. Penske will not return to the series next year and will instead enter Grand-Am competition (see Competition, page 34) as the factory RS Spyder program comes to a close.

Honda Performance Development's Acura effort came of age over the course of its second ALMS season. An aggressive development program turned the ARX-01b into at least a match for the factory-backed RS Spyders at most circuits. Acura beat Porsche to a class win at Long Beach in April for the first time since it inherited a win during its ALMS debut, at Sebring in 2007. Thereafter, it was always in the mix, at least with one of its four single-car teams.

Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing, in particular, hit on a run of strong midseason results that brought the Connecticut-based team's drivers, David Brabham and Scott Sharp, to within two points of Dumas and Bernhard with two rounds to go.

Brabham passed Dumas a lap from the finish to secure a maiden LMP2 win for Highcroft at Long Beach. Two races later, he came from behind again to secure Acura's first overall ALMS win at Lime Rock Park, beginning a sequence of five races during which the Patron Tequila-sponsored car was never out of the top two in the class.

"We weren't in position to challenge Penske at the start of the season, Brabham said, "but after we finished second at round two at St. Petersburg, I said to Duncan that we were ready to win. We had a good result there, and after that, everything fell into place, and the car just got better and better.