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Le Mans / ALMS
ALMS: Muscle Milk Cruises To Victory In Monterey
Level 5 Motorsports (P2), CORE autosport (PC) and Corvette Racing (GT) among winners in six-hour enduro at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca...
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing scored a dominant victory in Saturday's six-hour enduro at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. (Photo: John Dagys)
While Muscle Milk Pickett Racing scored a flag-to-flag overall victory in convincing fashion, Saturday’s American Le Mans Monterey presented by Patron saw down-to-the-wire battles in PC and GT during the six-hour race into the darkness at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The No. 6 HPD ARX-03a of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr cruised to a three-lap victory over the No. 95 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Scott Tucker, Luis Diaz and Franck Montagny, which finished an impressive second overall and were class winners in the P2 ranks.
Level 5 endured a bitter-sweet day, as its pole-sitting No. 055 machine of Montagny collided with a GTC car in the third hour, knocking it out of the lead and into the garage for repairs.
It gave the sister No. 95 HPD of Tucker the lead, who held his own, despite a hard-charging Conquest Endurance Morgan-Nissan of Martin Plowman. After crashing the No. 055 HPD, Montagny hopped into the No. 95 car for the final 90 minutes, which saw the ex-Peugeot factory driver battle with the Conquest entry of Antonio Pizzonia for the win and both drivers overcome penalties.
A late stop for Conquest, which had David Heinemeier Hansson climb aboard after not meeting the initial drive time requirement during his opening double stint, saw the Morgan encounter gearbox issues with 30 minutes to go. It gave clear sailing for the Level 5 trio for the class victory, despite a late scare for Montagny, who nearly got taken out while navigating through GT traffic.
"I don't feel so good when those things happen, but the guys worked really well to put the car back together and it went on track quickly, so I'm very glad for the team to see that happen," Montagny said. "But after all, I'm a race driver, so I have another car! I jumped in and did my job and had a good fight with Pizzonia. I had a couple of black flags, I don't know for what, but it was a good race."
Tucker, who also drove both Level 5 entries, was at the wheel of the No. 95 car at the time of Montagny's incident.
"Franck was behind me and I didn't see him again and then there was a double yellow," Tucker explained. "I didn't realize what had happened until I drove by him again. It looked pretty bad. But the team did a great job getting it back. That car got third and we still got points, so I really have to hand it off to the team."
After battling the gearbox woes, Heinemeier Hansson rejoined with less than 10 minutes remaining to salvage a second place finish in class for he and co-drivers Plowman and Pizzonia. They came home 20th overall.
While Tucker claimed victory in the No. 95 HPD, the two-time ALMS champion was nominated to score points in the No. 055 entry, which was classified in third following an extensive rebuild that took the better part of an hour to complete. Christophe Bouchut took the car to the checkered flag.
The highly anticipated debut of Dempsey Racing’s Lola B12/80 Judd resulted in a series of spins as well as a broke halfshaft for the Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Jonny Cocker-driven P2 entry, which finished 30th overall and fourth in class.
While P2 saw a two-horse fight in the closing stages, the final laps in the race for top honors in PC saw four Oreca FLM09s battling for the win, which went to CORE autosport for the third consecutive race.
Colin Braun came from third on the final restart to first, getting by the class-leading RSR Racing machine of Bruno Junqueira through traffic to take the thrilling victory. It marked the first ALMS class win for both he and co-driver/team owner Jon Bennett.
"The last few laps were really exciting," Braun said. "Racing Bruno, and I knew Tom [Kimber-Smith] in the 06 car was coming from behind, so it was really important to push hard.
"I was trying to set Bruno up in traffic. I thought the only way I could get by him was if I made a move in traffic. He ended up going one way and I tried to go the other way and it ended up worked out for me."
Braun took the checkered flag 0.369 seconds ahead of Junqueira in what turned out to be the closest finish of the five classes.
CORE's No. 06 entry of Tom Kimber-Smith and Alex Popow was third, thanks to a spin into the gravel by the No. 8 Merchant Services Racing machine of Kyle Marcelli, who along with Junqueria, stayed out and gambled on fuel mileage during the last yellow.
The fight for overall honors never materialized, as the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 Mazda struggled throughout the race, unable to match the pace of the Muscle Milk HPD and sometimes even the class-leading P2 cars.
Lack of grip for the P1 machine of Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Johnny Mowlem was compounded by a lengthy stop to repair a broken splitter, which resulted in a 23rd place finish overall for the trio, who finished 20 laps behind the the overall winning, and only other P1 car here this weekend.
For Graf and Luhr, the focus quickly turned to staying out of trouble and getting their car to the finish unscathed and extend their points lead.
"We still kept pushing and did our rhythm," Graf said. "We were a little bit cautious, both Lucas and I, we've obviously been doing this for a long time and we approached it in different ways to go through traffic. We certainly were a little bit conservative there."
PHOTOS: ALMS at Monterey
The No. 6 HPD ARX-03a of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr cruised to a three-lap victory over the No. 95 Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Scott Tucker, Luis Diaz and Franck Montagny, which finished an impressive second overall and were class winners in the P2 ranks.
Level 5 endured a bitter-sweet day, as its pole-sitting No. 055 machine of Montagny collided with a GTC car in the third hour, knocking it out of the lead and into the garage for repairs.
It gave the sister No. 95 HPD of Tucker the lead, who held his own, despite a hard-charging Conquest Endurance Morgan-Nissan of Martin Plowman. After crashing the No. 055 HPD, Montagny hopped into the No. 95 car for the final 90 minutes, which saw the ex-Peugeot factory driver battle with the Conquest entry of Antonio Pizzonia for the win and both drivers overcome penalties.
A late stop for Conquest, which had David Heinemeier Hansson climb aboard after not meeting the initial drive time requirement during his opening double stint, saw the Morgan encounter gearbox issues with 30 minutes to go. It gave clear sailing for the Level 5 trio for the class victory, despite a late scare for Montagny, who nearly got taken out while navigating through GT traffic.
"I don't feel so good when those things happen, but the guys worked really well to put the car back together and it went on track quickly, so I'm very glad for the team to see that happen," Montagny said. "But after all, I'm a race driver, so I have another car! I jumped in and did my job and had a good fight with Pizzonia. I had a couple of black flags, I don't know for what, but it was a good race."
Tucker, who also drove both Level 5 entries, was at the wheel of the No. 95 car at the time of Montagny's incident.
"Franck was behind me and I didn't see him again and then there was a double yellow," Tucker explained. "I didn't realize what had happened until I drove by him again. It looked pretty bad. But the team did a great job getting it back. That car got third and we still got points, so I really have to hand it off to the team."
After battling the gearbox woes, Heinemeier Hansson rejoined with less than 10 minutes remaining to salvage a second place finish in class for he and co-drivers Plowman and Pizzonia. They came home 20th overall.
While Tucker claimed victory in the No. 95 HPD, the two-time ALMS champion was nominated to score points in the No. 055 entry, which was classified in third following an extensive rebuild that took the better part of an hour to complete. Christophe Bouchut took the car to the checkered flag.
The highly anticipated debut of Dempsey Racing’s Lola B12/80 Judd resulted in a series of spins as well as a broke halfshaft for the Patrick Dempsey, Joe Foster and Jonny Cocker-driven P2 entry, which finished 30th overall and fourth in class.
While P2 saw a two-horse fight in the closing stages, the final laps in the race for top honors in PC saw four Oreca FLM09s battling for the win, which went to CORE autosport for the third consecutive race.
Colin Braun came from third on the final restart to first, getting by the class-leading RSR Racing machine of Bruno Junqueira through traffic to take the thrilling victory. It marked the first ALMS class win for both he and co-driver/team owner Jon Bennett.
"The last few laps were really exciting," Braun said. "Racing Bruno, and I knew Tom [Kimber-Smith] in the 06 car was coming from behind, so it was really important to push hard.
"I was trying to set Bruno up in traffic. I thought the only way I could get by him was if I made a move in traffic. He ended up going one way and I tried to go the other way and it ended up worked out for me."
Braun took the checkered flag 0.369 seconds ahead of Junqueira in what turned out to be the closest finish of the five classes.
CORE's No. 06 entry of Tom Kimber-Smith and Alex Popow was third, thanks to a spin into the gravel by the No. 8 Merchant Services Racing machine of Kyle Marcelli, who along with Junqueria, stayed out and gambled on fuel mileage during the last yellow.
The fight for overall honors never materialized, as the No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 Mazda struggled throughout the race, unable to match the pace of the Muscle Milk HPD and sometimes even the class-leading P2 cars.
Lack of grip for the P1 machine of Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Johnny Mowlem was compounded by a lengthy stop to repair a broken splitter, which resulted in a 23rd place finish overall for the trio, who finished 20 laps behind the the overall winning, and only other P1 car here this weekend.
For Graf and Luhr, the focus quickly turned to staying out of trouble and getting their car to the finish unscathed and extend their points lead.
"We still kept pushing and did our rhythm," Graf said. "We were a little bit cautious, both Lucas and I, we've obviously been doing this for a long time and we approached it in different ways to go through traffic. We certainly were a little bit conservative there."
PHOTOS: ALMS at Monterey
Monterey
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