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American LeMans
ALMS: Top Three Races Of 2011
SPEED.com looks back at the top-three races from the nine-round 2011 American Le Mans Series Season...
John Dagys  |  Posted December 18, 2011   Chicago, IL
In its ALMS comeback, Aston Martin Racing scored a thrilling victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. (Photo: Drew Gibson/LAT)
1. ROAD AMERICA — Muscle Milk AMR’s Klaus Graf held on, just barely, to take victory in the Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase at Road America, following a thrilling down-to-the-wire battle with the Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda of Guy Smith. The official margin of victory was a mere 0.112 seconds, the closest overall finish in series’ history.

The closing laps provided some of the most entertaining racing seen in modern-era prototype competition, and ended in almost a mirror image of the same race from 2010, when Drayson Racing’s Jonny Cocker edged out a fuel-starved Graf.

In GT, Risi Competizione broke through to take its first, and only, victory of the year in a race that the eventual championship-winning factory BMW M3 GTs had led early.

2. PETIT LE MANS — While Team ORECA Matmut stole top honors at Sebring, it was the factory Peugeot squad that took spoils at Petit Le Mans, following a hard-fought battle with Audi that ended in devastation.

Team Peugeot Total’s Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Alex Wurz had the race won from the eighth hour when Romain Dumas crashed the lone-remaining Audi R18 TDI while battling through traffic with leader Montagny. Up until the Audi’s race-ending incident, it was an epic battle for the lead, despite one Audi and Peugeot each dropping out early due to bodywork damage and gearbox failure, respectively.

As a result, ORECA earned a runner-up finish in the final race for its grandfathered Peugeot, while Aston Martin Racing celebrated a surprise podium result with its Lola-Aston Martin.

3. MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA — September’s six-hour enduro at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca saw a thrilling opening hour battle for the lead between the two Dyson Lola-Mazdas and the pair of Lola-Aston Martins from Aston Martin Racing and Muscle Milk AMR.

Aside from the two ILMC rounds, it was the most entertaining fight for the overall win seen all season, which went to AMR’s Adrian Fernandez, Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat. Controversial team orders from Dyson Racing helped lock up the LMP1 drivers’ championship for Chris Dyson and Guy Smith, who finished second, ahead of its Oryx team car in third.

The battle for the win in GT was an all-out shoving match, with an aggressive late-race drive by Jaime Melo ending in his Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia running out of fuel on the final lap. While Melo was later penalized, Flying Lizard Motorsports picked up its first class victory of the season in dramatic fashion.

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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