Audi wins Le Mans

The Audi team became the first winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France with a hybrid engine after accidents in the fourth hour hit Toyota’s return to the race. Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer drove an Audi R18 e-tron Quattro to victory, covering 378 laps of the 8.5-mile circuit southwest of Paris. Audi also took second with its other hybrid in the field, while one of its R18 Ultra diesels was third. Race organizer Automobile Club de L’Ouest changed the rules for the top class last year to allow part-electric engines, allowing a boost of recouped energy from braking at the expense of a smaller fuel tank. The Audi power train also included a flywheel developed by Formula One team owner Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd. It’s the eighth victory in nine years for Audi, the first winner with a diesel car in 2006. Toyota, at its first Le Mans race since 1999 and also using two hybrids, was the only other team owned by a major carmaker. Both Toyotas failed to finish. The team’s chances of victory evaporated just after driver Nicolas Lapierre had taken the lead by passing Audi’s Treluyer on the Mulsanne straight. A few seconds later, the other Toyota TS030 driven by Anthony Davidson was clipped by amateur racer Piergiuseppe Perazzini’s Ferrari 458. Davidson’s car flipped in the air and smashed into a tire barrier. Davidson, 33, suffered two broken bones in his back, Toyota said. The fractures should heal in about three months, according to a team statement.

Seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher ended a 32race winless streak Sunday in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway. Ron Capps topped the Funny Car field, and Mike Edwards won the Pro Stock competition. Schumacher beat Doug Kalitta in the final. Schumacher’s reaction time was four-hundredths better than Kalitta’s, leading to Schumacher’s slower but winning 3.819-second pass at 342.28 mph. In Funny Car, Capps raced to his second win of the season in his sixth final-round appearance in a row since adding veteran turner Rahn Tobler to the team. Capps edged rookie Alexis DeJoria in the final with a 4.076second pass at 312.35 mph. Edwards claimed his fourth victory in a row at Bristol Dragway with his holeshot victory over local favorite Allen Johnson in the final. Edwards used his better reaction time with his 6.674-second pass at 206.16 mph to beat Johnson’s quicker but losing 6.661 at 207.05.