Since its introduction in 2006, the diesel-powered Audi R10 LMP1 Prototype sports car has dominated its competition, with many victories including Le Mans, Sebring, and most ALMS (American Le Mans Series) races.

But what appeared to be another solid victory for the Audi team of Allan McNish of Scotland and Italy's Rinaldo Capello died with about 10 minutes left in the Mobil 1 Grand Prix of Mosport at the Bowmanville-area track on Sunday.

Taking the win was the Penske Motorsports Porsche RS Spyder, a slower-class car in the LMP2 class, with Romain Dumas of France and Timo Bernhard of Germany driving.

"We were in a very good position and had the Porsche covered on lap speed," said McNish after the event, the ninth in the 12-race ALMS series.

"But with seven or eight minutes to go I had a big problem coming out of the hairpin and was stuck in gear. We don't know what happened. The car was great before the end, and we had the race under control" The Audi paced the 25 starters for most of the event, turning laps in the 1:06 range on Mosport's 2.49-mile circuit with speeds of up to 133 mph.

But as the race wound down, McNish's 22-second lead disappeared into a 20-second deficit behind Bernard and the Porsche.

After the race, Berhhard was quick to point out his team's potential.

"We have shown in the past year this team is one of the best," he said.

"This year we have a new car and thank goodness for that." The second Penske Porsche of Sascha Maassen of Germany and Australia's Ryan Briscoe placed third, and the other Audi R10 driven by Emanuele Pirro of Italy and Marco Werner of Germany took fourth.

Mississauga's Ron Fellows did not have a great day at Mosport. The Corvette Racing C6.R driver took third spot in the GT1 class and 12th overall, as Corvette drivers Johnny O'Connell of Georgia and Jan Magnussen of Denmark won the class with 116 laps.

Taking the win in GT2 was the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta with Finland's Mika Salo and Jaime Melo of Brazil with 112 laps. The teams will have little time off as they prepare for the next round of competition, the Detroit Sports Car Challenge this weekend on Belle Isle just outside of Detroit.

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BITS and PIECES: The Suzuki Motor City Nationals IHRA race outside of Detroit was cancelled last weekend due to rain. The event has been reset for Sept. 21 to 23, so the next stop on the 11-race tour will be the IHRA Canadian Nationals at Toronto Motorsports Park Sept. 7 to 9. For more info and tickets, go to www.ihra.com ... There will also be Saturday and Sunday features this long weekend as the Southern Ontario Sprints take to the Brighton Speedway clay oval ... Ohsweken Speedway will host a special DIRT Sportsman race this Friday night, plus two 15-lap Thunder Stock mains ... Flamboro Speedway will be running two days this weekend with several classes of stock cars, highlighted with a Mini-Stock Invitational event Sunday.