David Brabham edges closer to ALMS title

Australia’s David Brabham and French teammate Simon Pagenaud have kept Patrón Highcroft Racing’s perfect podium season in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) intact with second place at Canada’s Mosport International Raceway.

Brabham, who was celebrating his 100th ALMS start in Canada, will now only need to finish 6th or better in the LMP2 class at the final race of the year at Petit Le Mans to clinch back-to-back championships.

After eight races in 2010, the Highcroft team has been a model of consistency with three wins, four second places and a single third place finish.

While the team was pleased with another strong points tally, if it wasn’t for a fortunate run with safety cars, quick thinking on mid race car changes and a great run through traffic by Pagenaud – the team would have actually finished the race more than a lap adrift of its chief title rival – the Porsche RS Spyder of Klaus Graf.

Joined by Romain Dumas for this weekend, Graf’s Porsche has enjoyed a 25kg weight break since the third round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

That performance advantage came to the fore at Mosport where the Porsche was fastest in every session, led every lap and came close to lapping the entire field.

“We’re doing everything we need to do to win this championship,” said Brabham.

“We need to keep finishing and finishing well.  Second is great here today and we have a lot of data and information that we can carry into Petit for the setup and hopefully go out with a win.”

Straight after the race, Brabham was on his way to the airport in Toronto and is now on his way to Brisbane to meet up with Stone Brothers Racing in the V8 Supercar Series.

Brabham will share the #4 IRWIN Racing Ford with Alex Davison. Brabham will meet-up with the team on Wednesday before taking part in a driver evaluation day at Queensland Raceway on Thursday.

Simon Pagenaud talks about the race at Mosport Park

Check out the race ending crash

ALMS LMP Standings