Homestead Miami Speedway - Race Report
From Zero To Hero -
Auberlen drives to first career DP win from the back

Saturday's Linder Komatsu Grand Prix at Homestead Speedway had run to a typical Rolex Series format after eighty laps with much banging, close racing, seven full-course cautions and four lead changes among four drivers. With 11 laps to go Bill Auberlen chose the right time and right place to make himself responsible for the fifth and final lead change of the 2.5 hour event. Auberlen in the Sigalsport BMW Riley snookered race leader Max Angelelli, ducking inside while late-braking for the tight turn six righthander, and drove on to a 1.7 second win. Sigalsport, Auberlen and co-driver Matthew Alhadeff won their first career DP event in just eight tries.

No one within the team said it but there was certainly thoughts of revenge on people's minds as Auberlen upon the final restart tucked himself hard under Angelelli's wing for several laps before making his race-winning pass. During the previous Rolex round at Mexico City Angelelli's teammate Jan Magnussen accidentally punted Auberlen out of a very strong third place. Bill vociferously voiced his displeasure on live television after the Dane's inadvertent tap, stating there would be payback. Billy wisely kept it clean, as he knew he had the legs to out-run Angelelli, but only if the California native could get by "Max the Axe".

" I was much faster than him, but it was like he drove in his mirrors" Auberlen said. "Everywhere I went, that's where he wound up. I was like, 'I can't go by, so I have to make myself invisible'. I tucked right up behind him to where I knew he couldn't see me, waited for his brake lights to come on, and when he did that, I went just a second longer. It was too much for him."

Magnussen being the ultraquick Dane had driven to a clear 10 second lead after starting the Suntrust Pontiac-powered Riley on pole. "I got away cleanly at the start and got a big gap. Everybody else was fighting behind me. I had a clean run. My car today was just great. Then I gave it over to Max and it was a really exciting race until the finish."

" Obviously, I'm very happy for the team," Magnussen said. "It looked for a while there like we were going to win this race, but Bill (Auberlen) was very strong at the end and got a run on Max after the (Lap 80) restart." The Suntrust duo are only one point behind series points leader Scott Pruett who has 93 points.

Alhadeff had started from 15th on the grid and went backwards from there after taking evasive action to avoid some argy-bargey in front of him. Frustrated, Alhadeff gave the car to Auberlen on lap 22 during the second caution. With good pit strategy, additional cautions, and slick work behind the wheel, Auberlen had leapfrogged into fourth by lap 65, behind race leader Ian James and 2nd-placed Scott Pruett in their Lexus powered Rileys, with Angelelli third. Pruett got alongside James one lap later but was forced to back out of it when he ran out of room going into Nascar 3 (IRL 3?) nearly collecting James. This allowed both Max and Bill to sweep into first and second, setting the table for Bill's excellent adventure.

Porsche-powered chassis were strong at Homestead as Christian Fittipaldi in the re-designed Fabcar Porsche of Cheever Racing led several laps after not pitting during the second caution on lap 20. Darren Law led 20 laps in the #58 Brumos Red Bull Porsche Riley before finishing sixth. The sister Brumos car of Hurley Haywood/JC France finished fifth while the Ruby Tuesday Crawford Porsche of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister came ninth after a spin brought on by contact with Colin Braun's Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley. Both #58 and Pat Long, along with Braun, had been running in the top five early on.

Patrick Carpentier continued his strong 2007 performance with a fourth-place performance in the No. 11 CITGO/SAMAX Pontiac Riley, along with co-driver Milka Duno. It was their second top-four result of the season - they finished second in the Rolex 24 At Daytona - and kept Carpentier and Duno within 13 points of Pruett in the point standings. Duno announced at Homestead her Indy 500/IRL plans with Citgo sponsorship and Peter Baron's SAMAX. She will likely only do one or two more Rolex Series races in 2007.

The GT class also mixed it up in wild fashion in between the seven FCYs, with the Speedsource Madza RX-8 of Nick Ham and Sylvain Tremblay earning its second straight GT class win by just holding off a hard-charging Andy Lally in The Racers Group Porsche GT3.

Dirk Werner, Farnbacher Racing's hotshoe from Porsche Carrera Cup ranks, came from the back after suffering a cut tire to pass his mentor Wolf Henzler on the final lap for third place. Werner's co-driver Leh Keen started the GT3 Porsche from pole, with Nick Ham starting the buzzy Mazda GT winner alongside on the front row.

Andy Lally took over the TRG Porsche from teammate RJ Valentine with only three laps expired. He promptly drove past all but the leader on more than one occasion as the TRG crew worked to keep fresh tires under their defending Rolex Series GT co-champion.