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American LeMans
ALMS: CytoSport Picks Lola-Aston Martin
“We’re committed to having a car that’s competitive and that can get the job done,” team owner Greg Pickett tells SPEED.com...
John Dagys  |  Posted January 04, 2011   Chicago, IL
Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing will campaign a Lola B09/60 Aston Martin full-time in the ALMS this year. (Photo: John Dagys)
One of the surprise story lines throughout the 2010 American Le Mans Series season was the rise of Muscle Milk Team CytoSport. With two overall wins and a class victory at Sebring in its first full season of competition, the small, but mighty, California-based team nearly took its Porsche RS Spyder to the LMP championship, finishing a close second to veteran Highcroft Racing outfit.

But with Porsche concluding its customer RS Spyder program at the end of the year, it sent the Greg Pickett-owned organization in search for a new weapon of choice for the coming season. Having a number options in both the prototype and GT ranks, CytoSport became one of the most talked about teams this winter as to what they’d run in 2011.
Klaus Graf and Greg Pickett will continue as lead drivers in the team's new LMP1 entry. (Photo: LAT)

After much speculation and debate, Pickett has confirmed in a SPEED.com exclusive that his Muscle Milk organization will return to the LMP1 class next year with a Lola-Aston Martin in partnership with the famed British marque. The team, now known as ‘Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing,’ will compete in the entire nine-round championship as an Official LMP1 Team Partner of the brand.

“I must say that AMR was very keen for the car to participate in what’s Aston Martin’s largest market in the world,” Pickett said. “We wanted to have the same kind of partnership we had with Porsche, where they could provide support. It’s important for our brand and an absolutely important component in our decision making. We’re confident Aston Martin will do that in the kind of cooperative way.”

Confirmation of Muscle Milk AMR’s plans comes as a major boost to the ALMS prototype field, which will see the the screaming V12-powered Lola-based Aston Martin compete in its first full-season in North America.

It’s largely thanks to the ACO’s grandfather rule that will allow existing LMP1 cars to run alongside the new-for-2011-spec machines from the likes of Audi, Peugeot and Aston Martin.

“We saw this as a transitional year,” Pickett said. “The ACO decided to grandfather the existing cars in while the factories busied themselves with building cars to the new regulations. From a customer standpoint, that really narrowed the field down... We couldn’t find ourselves in a top, top line new P1 car because they just weren’t available. So we started checking the boxes down.”

Just weeks after the checkered flag was thrown on the RS Spyder program, Pickett was already laying out the groundwork for the team’s 2011 plans. He had discussions with two leading ALMS LMP outfits about possible customer car programs.

But Pickett’s quest eventually took him to Europe, where he met with both Prodrive and Porsche. While the German manufacturer, which the team had grown close to through their successful customer relationship, had offered him the chance to go GT racing, Pickett’s heart was set on remaining in the prototype ranks.
Pickett said he plans to restore both of his Porsche RS Spyder chassis and will keep them as show pieces at their Benicia, Calif. headquarters. (Photo: John Dagys)


“We gave it a real look, but we’re very fond of prototype racing,” Pickett said of Porsche’s GT offer. “We thought that it would be good for the series. They have a very healthy GT field and we knew we would have enjoyed that too. I had some conversations with [IMSA VP of Operations] Scot Elkins, who was nice enough to accompany me over to AMR initially and made the introduction to George Howard-Chappell and all of those guys.”

And the rest, as it’s often said, was history.

The team’s one-year contract with AMR includes a similar level of support they enjoyed with Porsche. A powertrain engineer will be embedded with the team full-time, with additional resources also being made available, including factory drivers, on a non-competing basis.

While veteran Klaus Graf will return as the team’s primary driver, Pickett said he’s expecting to compete in the balance of the season as well. It will mark the 63-year-old’s return to the cockpit after his horrific testing accident at Mid-Ohio last August, which sidelined the team for one race.

“I’m committed to getting back behind the wheel again and really looking forward to that,” Pickett said. “I’ve been back to the gym and am getting back into shape, which of course is very critical for those cars. I’m looking forward to the challenge again.

“I was pretty happy with my pace last year, at places like Sebring, Lime Rock where I was able to keep it in the hunt for Klaus to go out and compete for wins. That’s kind of our feeling again.”

(Ride along with the factory Lola-Aston Martin of Adrian Fernandez at Long Beach last year)











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