ELKHART LAKE, WI, Sunday, August 22, 2010: Patrón Highcroft Racing captured its seventh consecutive podium finish at Road America today in a dramatic finish to the latest round of the American Le Mans Series.

After a series of mid-race safety car periods, the race turned into a fuel saving battle with the Highcroft machine of Simon Pagenaud and David Brabham joining championship rivals CytoSport on one-stop strategies.

The race came down to the final lap when the Drayson Lola of Johnny Cocker passed CytoSport's Klaus Graf with only two corners remaining to take the win.

While that was taking place, Brabham was holding the Dyson Mazda of Guy Smith at bay to steal the final podium spot.

The end result ate into Highcroft's championship lead by three points - dropping from 23 to 20 points with only two races remaining.

With a mere six seconds covering the top four cars at the finish - a win by CytoSport and fourth place by Highcroft would have had more dramatic consequences - resulting in a ten point swing.

After only qualifying fifth fastest yesterday using the low downforce Le Mans aero kit for the first time, Simon Pagenaud put the team's new found straight line speed to great effect - moving through the pack to second on the opening lap.

Pagenaud eventually pitted from the race lead under yellow after 84 minutes to hand over to Brabham.

After initially losing a place to the CytoSport Porsche of Graf and Timo Bernhard after a seatbelt came undone during the stop, Brabham jumped the Porsche on a restart with 52 minutes remaining chasing the Drayson Lola through on the main straight.

However, 12 minutes later the Honda Performance Development factory-backed ARX-01c was pushed wide at the Carousel in traffic - Brabham was caught in the marbles which allowed Graf past.

Both teams switched to fuel conservation mode in the run to the finish with the thirstier Dyson Mazda and Drayson Lola entries forced to pit for fuel.

With Brabham and Graf running on fumes at the finish - Drayson's Johnny Cocker was able to sweep past both to take the win. Mid-Ohio winners Dyson Racing finished fourth.

Patrón Highcroft Racing will now head north of the border to Canada for round eight of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron at Mosport International Raceway.

DAVID