Photo by John ThawleyBraselton, Ga. – With two races left in the season and trailing one of the most storied names in motorsports, this usually would be a time to panic. Not so for Intersport Racing. The independent team from Ohio is relishing the chance to go head-to-head against Porsche and Penske Racing at Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda CX-7.

The AER-powered Lola B05/40 has been remarkable in recent endurance races in the American Le Mans Series. Not only are Jon Field, Clint Field and Liz Halliday defending LMP2 race winners at Road Atlanta, but they also won in class at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Among the entries they beat in the season-opener were the factory Porsche RS Spyders from Penske.

"We have very good people building our cars," said Clint Field, last year's P2 class champion. "Brian (Alder) heads up that pack and he's very good at what he does. We look forward to longer races because we have done well. We certainly don't want to jinx ourselves."

Intersport enters the ninth round of the American Le Mans Series trailing the two-car Penske squad by 17 points in the class team standings with Field and Halliday trailing Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr by 5. Reliability and consistency have been the hallmark of the Intersport team through the first eight rounds. In addition to Sebring, other class wins came at Houston and Portland as the Lola outlasted the RS Spyders.

As the season has progressed, Intersport has gained speed but the Porsches have improved on reliability. That puts a premium on performance for both teams in the 1,000-mile/10-hour classic, especially considering the other competition at Petit: a new Radical SR9-AER for van der Steur Racing, the return of B-K Motorsports' Mazda-powered Courage and the Horag Racing Lola B05/40-Judd.

"Whenever we get into the car, we're pushing as hard as we can to keep up with the Porsches," said Halliday, the winningest female driver in Series history with six victories. "Last year at Petit, we ran a really good race and our strategy has been our strong point.

"For me, there's more pressure," she added. "We have to get some real results or we're going to finish third, and that's not where we want to be. Petit is a huge factor with extra points. We want to be very fast but we don't want to do anything stupid. Reliability could play a big factor like it was at Sebring."

The 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda CX-7, Round 9 of the American Le Mans Series, is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. EDT on Saturday, September 30. The race will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT and 3 to 10 p.m. EDT with MotorsTV providing live coverage in Europe. American Le Mans Radio will have live coverage at americanlemans.com, which also will feature IMSA Live Timing & Scoring.