ALMS (ROAD ATLANTA) - VOICES OF PETIT: TIMO BERNHARD

Timo Bernhard has built quite a reputation at Petit Le Mans in just five years. The Porsche factory pilot already has recorded three class wins in the American Le Mans Series' cornerstone event including his first LMP2 win last year with Penske Racing. He returns this year with teammates Romain Dumas and Patrick Long looking for a seventh overall race win this year and more importantly wrapping up a class championship.

Still growing: "It's good that this is the 10th running. This is a very nice event and you see that the Series has been growing over the years and Petit Le Mans is growing. We are hoping for a good race and are aiming for a good result."

Patience or push?: "You can go 10 hours on a full sprint. Normally you try to be a little conservative and start to get into a rhythm. Then when you need to push, for sure you can push. We know in our Porsche RS Spyder we can do that. We will see how the race will play out. I think we will try to play a little with the strategy because it's a longer race. But I think we will not push from the first moment on."

He's going long: "This race has more of a long-distance characteristic. We know there will be more cars than in the shorter races. You have to be more patient in traffic compared to the shorter races where you know you have to be more aggressive. Here it will be nearly 10 hours and you have to adapt to the long-distance characteristics."

Big event, big crowds: "Because it's a big event, it's good for the spectators. They can watch all four classes. Maybe some like the GT cars better than the LMPs and for the other spectators it is the other way around. For them it's a nice race and for 10 hours they can watch beautiful cars going around. I always have seen a lot of spectators coming to this event, and that is nice for the drivers. You come down into the chicane after the long straight and see the grandstands are packed. Fans should go to Turn 5 and see us coming down the Esses. It's really thrilling and they will like it."

Thumbs up for new surface: "The track was quite quicker in places because they made it wider and smoother which is nice for us in the prototypes. In some areas where there had been concrete patches, the new pavement is really a lot quicker and we gained a lot of speed. It's a very quick track in a prototype and they did a great job on the repaving."

The 10th running of Petit Le Mans, the annual 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic at Road Atlanta, is set for 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 6. SPEED will provide live coverage from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and again from 6:30 to 10 p.m. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com.