Monday, June 14, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.
Michael Petersen of Las Vegas thought he had reached the pinnacle in sports-car endurance racing when he teamed last year with American Le Mans Series rival Alex Job Racing to win the GT class in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.
That was, until Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing went out and won the world's biggest sports-car race as a solo effort.
The Petersen/White Lightning team, which is based in North Las Vegas, overcame a two-lap deficit midway through the race and posted a 23-second margin of victory in the GT class Sunday in Le Mans, France. Drivers Sascha Maassen, Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister completed 317 laps in 24 hours in the No. 90 Westward Ho Casino Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.
"This has always been a goal of mine to win this race ever since I was a little boy," team owner Petersen said. "And to do it as a true team effort, to me, is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done.
"The 24 Hours of Le Mans definitely shaped up to be the race we thought it would be; it was a see-saw battle back and forth. A truly hard-fought battle but due to the superior skill of our team and a little luck, we were able to bring home a championship that was well deserved to the Petersen Motorsports crew."
Maassen, of Raeren, Belgium, put the Petersen/White Lightning Porsche on the GT class pole for the race with a qualifying lap of 4 minutes, 7.394 seconds on the 8.46-mile circuit. After leading the first third of the race, the team lost two laps when a shift linkage broke in the 10th hour of the race. The team also overcame a broken shock absorber, a broken throttle cable and a spin off the course at various points in the second half of the race.
It was the second consecutive Le Mans victory for Maassen, who also drove for the Petersen/White Lightning-Job Racing effort last year.
"I am very, very happy," Maassen said. "We were the quickest car but to win, you have to have a little bit more; you have to have some luck and today we had both. We had a very good car, a great team and great teammates.
"We had a little bit of trouble but we didn't give up. Those guys pushed very hard and, in the end, we were very lucky and we survived and I am just so happy. I thought we had all the bad luck but, in the end, there is a racing god and we got some good luck."
Team manager Dale White said the victory was the culmination of a year's worth of preparation.
"You start putting all of these little things together a year ago with a goal of winning this race," White said. "When you start, you have so many things on a list you never know how you can get them all done. But, one by one, they get done and before you know it you are here.
"For better or for worse, it all comes together. This time it all came together for the better. I am so pleased and so proud of these guys. This was a real team effort from Mike on down. I am just thrilled to be a part of it."
For Long, of Oak Park, Calif., the victory was his first in the sports-car ranks.
"I'm grateful to belong to this successful victory," Long said. "To have this victory as my first sports-car victory is really beyond what words can say. Other race wins and championships will come, but I think this is a memory in life."
Audi driver Tom Kristensen of Denmark captured the overall title and led an Audi sweep of the podium.
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