ALMS : Road Atlanta : BMW Hand it to Panoz
19.9.99
The sixth race of the American Le Mans Series was a 1,000-mile affair on the Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia.
Four Ferrari 333SPs were entered. The quickest one, driven by Johansson/Dixon/Matthews, qualified in ninth place, with the other three 333s following in 10th, 11th and 12th.
As has been the trend in previous ALMS races, the more modern Panoz and BMW chassis' dominated the front of the grid and it looked unlikely that the Ferraris would be able to match their speed, although there was some hope that the durability factor would come into play.
The BMW V-12 LMR of Lehto/Muller looked to have the race sewn up but, incredibly, four laps before the end Muller went off the track and lost the lead to thePanoz of Brabham/Bernard/Wallace, which duly took the chequered flag. The Ferraris did not fare particularly well: only one finished - the Lista entry of Lienhard/Theys/Dickens - which finished eighth. The other three Ferraris failed to finish.
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