Allan McNish claimed his fourth outright American Le Mans Series victory of the season when the Scotsman swept his diesel-powered Audi to a comfortable victory in Portland today to further extend his championship lead.

McNish’s Italian co-driver Rinaldo Capello began the 165-minute race from the second row of the 22-car grid and was almost spun around at the first corner on the opening lap after contact with another car causing a handling imbalance thereafter. Capello handed over to McNish in fourth place during the race’s first and only full course yellow caution period after 51mins but within two laps of the race re-starting, a determined McNish had charged in to the lead.

“The car was tricky to drive - the ‘hit’ that Dindo received on the opening lap affected the balance quite a lot,” confirmed McNish.  “But as soon as I got in to the lead at the re-start, I as able to control the gap to our ‘sister’ Audi.

“When it was required, I could press on a little more but I was able to take things quite consistently through traffic. I’m obviously pleased and proud that we’ve pulled out a victory from what looked like being a hard weekend for us.”
 

McNish and Capello now lead the ALMS title race outright and by 39-points in the LM P1 category after six races. - 22 July 2006