Fernandez Team Wins Acura 12-Hour “One Make Race”

SEBRING, Fla. – The three new Acura American Le Mans Series teams took to battle Tuesday on the legendary Sebring International Raceway in a special 12-hour "One-Make Race" in preparation for Acura's factory LMP2 sports car racing debut, set for March 17 in the 55th annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.

Staged exactly as the famed 12 Hours of Sebring event, the "One-Make Race" pitted cars from Andretti Green Racing, Highcroft Racing and Lowe's Fernandez Racing powered by identical 3.4-liter, V-8 Acura engines on the tough 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit.

Honda Performance Development President Robert Clarke and his associates brought the Acura teams to Sebring to compete against each other and to gauge the engines and machines in race conditions.

After 12 hours of grueling action, the Lowe's Fernandez Racing team posted the victory in the 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. contest, with drivers Adrian Fernandez, Luis Diaz and David Martinez wheeling their Lola B04/05 car to an impressive win.

The Fernandez team, which had limited sports car racing experience entering 2007, put together a superb strategy and a solid pace to take the win over the Andretti Green and Highcroft efforts. Andretti Green's contingent of Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta and Tony Kanaan proved to be blistering fast in the first five hours of the race and led often against the Fernandez team.