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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Muscle Milk AMR Wins Mosport
Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr, overcome pit lane drama to score second victory of season; other class winner include Corvette Racing (GT), CORE autosport (LMPC) and TRG (GTC)...
Muscle Milk AMR took top honors in Sunday's Grand Prix of Mosport. (Photo: Dan Boyd/LAT)
Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing cruised to victory in Sunday's Grand Prix of Mosport, overcoming early race pit lane drama along the way.
The No. 6 Lola-Aston Martin of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf dominated the two-hour and 45-minute American Le Mans Series race from the start. However, a costly pit lane miscue while under the first caution dropped Luhr back to fourth overall and left the Muscle Milk team in recovery mode.
"We were up to 50 seconds before the safety car came out," Luhr explained. "For sure it was a mistake for race control giving the open of pit entry. I was by the opening, as the leader I should have first choice. After that on the radio [the team] said, 'We have the speed, just do your job', and that’s what we did."
By Lap 62, Luhr was back in the lead, passing the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B09/86 Mazda of Chris Dyson. From there, it was clear-sailing for the Greg Pickett-owned team, which crossed the line 28.420 seconds ahead of the Dyson and Guy Smith-driven LMP1 car in second.
"At the end of the day it comes down to experience from both drivers, our team," Graf said. "We've both won here and we like the track. The team performed excellent. It was a bit of a roller coaster this weekend, even during the race, but it's nice to finish with a win."
Steven Kane and Humaid Al Masaood completed the podium in third in the Dyson-Oryx team's second race.
While the battle for LMP1 was fairly straight-forward, GT honors came down to the wire thanks to a pair of penalties for the pair of all-dominant BMWs, which took wins in the opening three races of the season.
First, the pole-sitting and early race-leading No. 56 BMW Team RLL machine of Joey Hand collided with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Toni Vilander in the pit lane, forcing Hand to serve a stop and go penalty for avoidable contact.
It handed the class lead to the sister BMW of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner, but late-race contact between Werner and the GTC-class leading Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly was rewarded with a stop/go penalty for the No. 55 BMW as well.
Jan Magnussen took advantage of the costly mistakes by the Bimmers, claiming the first GT class victory of the ALMS season for Corvette Racing. Magnussen crossed the line 4.409 seconds ahead of the No. 62 Ferrari of Vilander and Jaime Melo in second, with Werner and Auberlen recovering for a third place result.
"This race had a bunch of different potential winners at different stages," Magnussen said. "I think BMW looked like they had the most advantage, but we were able to push at the right moments and pull a win out. If you asked us this morning, we'd say, there will only be one winner. It just unfolded that way today. I'm glad we were the ones that got to break the win barrier.”
In LMPC, CORE autosport's Gunnar Jeannette and Ricardo Gonzalez celebrated their second class victory in the last three races after a dominating performance in their Oreca FLM09.
The duo finished an impressive fourth overall and two laps ahead of the sister No. 05 entry of Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo, giving the Bennett-owned squad its first-ever 1-2 finish.
"The goal was to make as comfortable lead as possible," Gonzalez said. "The last time our strategy might have lost us the race. I knew to be aggressive in traffic, but intelligent, and stay out of trouble. If you saw in the first and a half stint, I had almost lapped 2nd place."
Genoa Racing's Eric Lux and Christian Zugel completed the LMPC podium in third.
Intersport Racing headed in as favorites for the class win but an early race incident for Jon Field and a GTC Porsche dashed the two-car team's hopes of victory, which also collected Intersport's sister pole-sitting car of Kyle Marcelli.
While Field was handed a penalty for avoidable contact, the Ohio native charged back up the leaderboard and appeared to be en route to a second place finish. However, the No. 37 car ran out of fuel on the final lap.
The same kind of late-race dramas played a role in GTC, as TRG's Pumpelly rebounded from the BMW-induced late-race spin to take the class win.
Pumpelly, who dropped to third with less than 25 minutes to go, passed the fuel-stricken No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Brian Wong and TRG's sister car of Dion von Moltke on the final lap to take the class win.
It marked TRG's second 1-2 finish in as many races.
“This might be the only race I've won twice," said Pumpelly, who shared the wheel of the No. 66 car with Duncan Ende. "We passed the 54 and then the 23 again. I'll have to watch the replay, next thing I knew I was going backward. Then I got to watch the GTC race for the lead while sitting backward. But I got back in the pits and the car was 100 percent after that. Even with some small flat spots, the TRG team put together a great car."
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge is next on tap for the ALMS on Aug. 4-6.
RESULTS: Grand Prix of Mosport
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
The No. 6 Lola-Aston Martin of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf dominated the two-hour and 45-minute American Le Mans Series race from the start. However, a costly pit lane miscue while under the first caution dropped Luhr back to fourth overall and left the Muscle Milk team in recovery mode.
"We were up to 50 seconds before the safety car came out," Luhr explained. "For sure it was a mistake for race control giving the open of pit entry. I was by the opening, as the leader I should have first choice. After that on the radio [the team] said, 'We have the speed, just do your job', and that’s what we did."
By Lap 62, Luhr was back in the lead, passing the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B09/86 Mazda of Chris Dyson. From there, it was clear-sailing for the Greg Pickett-owned team, which crossed the line 28.420 seconds ahead of the Dyson and Guy Smith-driven LMP1 car in second.
"At the end of the day it comes down to experience from both drivers, our team," Graf said. "We've both won here and we like the track. The team performed excellent. It was a bit of a roller coaster this weekend, even during the race, but it's nice to finish with a win."
Steven Kane and Humaid Al Masaood completed the podium in third in the Dyson-Oryx team's second race.
While the battle for LMP1 was fairly straight-forward, GT honors came down to the wire thanks to a pair of penalties for the pair of all-dominant BMWs, which took wins in the opening three races of the season.
First, the pole-sitting and early race-leading No. 56 BMW Team RLL machine of Joey Hand collided with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Toni Vilander in the pit lane, forcing Hand to serve a stop and go penalty for avoidable contact.
It handed the class lead to the sister BMW of Bill Auberlen and Dirk Werner, but late-race contact between Werner and the GTC-class leading Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly was rewarded with a stop/go penalty for the No. 55 BMW as well.
Jan Magnussen took advantage of the costly mistakes by the Bimmers, claiming the first GT class victory of the ALMS season for Corvette Racing. Magnussen crossed the line 4.409 seconds ahead of the No. 62 Ferrari of Vilander and Jaime Melo in second, with Werner and Auberlen recovering for a third place result.
"This race had a bunch of different potential winners at different stages," Magnussen said. "I think BMW looked like they had the most advantage, but we were able to push at the right moments and pull a win out. If you asked us this morning, we'd say, there will only be one winner. It just unfolded that way today. I'm glad we were the ones that got to break the win barrier.”
In LMPC, CORE autosport's Gunnar Jeannette and Ricardo Gonzalez celebrated their second class victory in the last three races after a dominating performance in their Oreca FLM09.
The duo finished an impressive fourth overall and two laps ahead of the sister No. 05 entry of Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo, giving the Bennett-owned squad its first-ever 1-2 finish.
"The goal was to make as comfortable lead as possible," Gonzalez said. "The last time our strategy might have lost us the race. I knew to be aggressive in traffic, but intelligent, and stay out of trouble. If you saw in the first and a half stint, I had almost lapped 2nd place."
Genoa Racing's Eric Lux and Christian Zugel completed the LMPC podium in third.
Intersport Racing headed in as favorites for the class win but an early race incident for Jon Field and a GTC Porsche dashed the two-car team's hopes of victory, which also collected Intersport's sister pole-sitting car of Kyle Marcelli.
While Field was handed a penalty for avoidable contact, the Ohio native charged back up the leaderboard and appeared to be en route to a second place finish. However, the No. 37 car ran out of fuel on the final lap.
The same kind of late-race dramas played a role in GTC, as TRG's Pumpelly rebounded from the BMW-induced late-race spin to take the class win.
Pumpelly, who dropped to third with less than 25 minutes to go, passed the fuel-stricken No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car of Brian Wong and TRG's sister car of Dion von Moltke on the final lap to take the class win.
It marked TRG's second 1-2 finish in as many races.
“This might be the only race I've won twice," said Pumpelly, who shared the wheel of the No. 66 car with Duncan Ende. "We passed the 54 and then the 23 again. I'll have to watch the replay, next thing I knew I was going backward. Then I got to watch the GTC race for the lead while sitting backward. But I got back in the pits and the car was 100 percent after that. Even with some small flat spots, the TRG team put together a great car."
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge is next on tap for the ALMS on Aug. 4-6.
RESULTS: Grand Prix of Mosport
John Dagys is SPEED.com’s Sportscar Racing Reporter, focusing on all major domestic and international championships. You can follow him on Twitter @johndagys or email him at
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