season finale

Terry Borcheller had a disappointing finish to the 2005 American Le Mans Series, after a record performance earlier in the week. The Gainesville, Ga., driver teamed with Johnny Mowlem of London, England, in a Saleen S7R for the final race of the season, at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif.

Borcheller set the pace in the GT1 class with a record qualifying lap of one minute 20.307 seconds on the 2.238-mile road course. He drove the first stint of the four-hour race, starting strong, but relinquishing the class lead after seven minutes because of a power steering problem. He pitted twice for repairs, but the problem continued, leaving the drivers to manhandle the car around the challenging track.

Mowlem took over at 1h9 and moved up from sixth in class to fourth. Borcheller took the wheel again at 1h53 and gained two positions to second. Despite the earlier difficulties, he was in contention for a podium finish until he hit fluid on the track, forcing him off the line and back to fourth in class. Mowlem took over at 2h49 and regained third place, but contact with another car broke the left-front shock absorber on the Saleen, taking it out of the race at 3h48. Borcheller and Mowlem finished fifth.

"It's the longest four hours I've been in a race car," Borcheller said. "No power steering the whole race, which is unbelievably physically demanding. I didn't think we could do it; I'm really surprised we went as far as we did. For all the adversity, we really did a good job staying on the lead lap. The car was good, the team was good, but it just wasn't our day."