Allan McNish - Laguna Seca

Allan McNish bids to sign off from the 2007 American Le Mans Series in style on Saturday (20 Oct) by winning the 12th and final race at Laguna Seca in his diesel-engined Audi.

The 37-year-old Scotsman has successfully defended the ALMS Driver’s title with Italian co-driver Dindo Capello with Audi and Audi Sport North America also assured of the Manufacturers’ and Teams’ LM P1 championships.

McNish races at the 2.238-mile Californian coastal track near Monterey aiming to retain his 100% winning record in this year’s four hour race following success in 2000 & ’06.

“Laguna Seca to date has been a good hunting ground for me with wins in 2000 and ’06,” confirmed Allan. “Having already secured the three championship titles we can release the shackles, not hold back in terms of driving or car set-up – just go out for an outright victory with absolutely nothing to lose.

“The LM P2 cars are once again likely to be a thorn in our sides. It’s an ideal circuit for them, the speeds of the corners are perfect for these cars and I’m certain that they will be extremely fast. For our Audi, the straights are unfortunately not long enough for us to stretch our legs.

“So from that point of view I think we’ll need to take a lot of risks in attempting to get the outright win but that’s what we’ll be aiming for.

“I always enjoy racing at Laguna. The track has got a real fast but safe nature to it, very much up and down, and of course featuring the legendary corkscrew section.”

Audi has won the Laguna race six times since 2000. Practice is staged on Thursday, with qualifying on Friday (2350 BST) with the race starting at 2243 BST on Saturday.