Tooele » Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud cruised to an easy victory in the LMP1 class at the Utah Grand Prix on Sunday at Miller Motorsports Park.

But the LMP2 class?

Just a little closer.

While de Ferran and Pagenaud guided their Acura to an almost unbelievable 73-second win in the American Le Mans Series' premier class, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz had a far less margin for error.

In a scintillating sprint to the finish -- after running for two hours and 45 minutes -- Fernandez beat Butch Leitzinger to the finish line by one-half second for the LMP2 title.

The win was the fourth straight this season for the Lowe's Fernandez Racing team, and it was easily the most nerve-wracking.

"I don't have any nails any more," said Diaz.

There was less drama among the LMP1s, where de Ferran opened an early 30-second lead that left Pagenaud unchallenged in the final stages.

"Gil did all the work -- I didn't have much to do," he said. "He gave me the car with a massive gap. From there, I kept pushing so I didn't lose my focus. I pushed as though there was someone right behind me the entire time [and] the car behaved perfectly."

Meanwhile, in the GT2 class, Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long drove a Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 to their third straight win.

Both drivers credited their bosses for bringing the car from Long Beach to Utah in April for two full days of testing in preparation for this race.

"The biggest thing was coming here right after Long Beach," said Bergmeister, who registered his 26th career win.

"It's an honor to be part of a company and a team that spares no expense," said Long, who scored his 12th career ALMS win.

In the new Challenge class, the Pleasant Grove husband-and-wife team of Martin and Melanie Snow raced to an easy win.

"I'm so happy to be able to win on our home track," said Melanie Snow.

Martin Snow added: "Having a lot of local experience on the track was a big help."

Another local participant -- Corsa Motorsports owner Steve Pruitt of Sandy -- endured what might be called a successful failure.

While his ground-breaking Ginetta-Zytek hybrid ran well early during its debut in full-time ALMS racing, Pruitt's eco-friendly car finished 13th overall and fourth in the LMP1 Class after mechanical problems hit in the final 40 minutes.

"We had a podium [finish] secure and then some old technology stepped up and bit us," said Pruitt, explaining that traditional battery and suspension problems forced two late and lengthy pit stops.

"We just had some bad parts, I guess," Pruitt said. "But that's the negative. The positive of the whole thing is the car finished the race. ... It showed capability and pace. We still want to win, but we got valuable feedback from what we did today."

luhm@sltrib.com