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Road America ALMS: Pickett and SRT Viper win, DeltaWing stars

Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf made it five American Le Mans Series wins in a row as Pickett Racing dominated at Road America, while the SRT Viper claimed a maiden GT win

Luhr had established a 16-second lead after just six laps but Katherine Legge jumped ahead of Chris McMurray at the start of what would turn into an impressive stint in the DeltaWing.

Legge and team-mate Andy Meyrick had turns at the head of the field as the pit strategies played out, before Graf took charge in the final hour.

A late safety car, caused by a big off for GTC driver Jan Heylen, meant the race finished under caution, and while the Pickett duo comfortably held on, Level 5 claimed a narrow LMP2 class success.

Scott Sharp led early on for Extreme Speed after Ricardo Gonzalez spun the leading #552 Level 5 HPD exiting Turn 3, and dropped to third behind the sister #551 car driven by Scott Tucker. He recovered one place in the pits, leapfrogging Sharp, and assumed the lead once Tucker pit on the hour mark.

Franchitti, who was quickest in qualifying, took over from Gonzalez and fought off a determined challenged from Guy Cosmo until the final pitstops, when the Extreme Speed car swept by into Turn 1 as the Scot emerged from the pits.

But both cars were jumped by Simon Pagenaud, who made a two-stop strategy work after taking over from Tucker to claim the lead - and subsequently, the victory - just before the yellow flags came out, denying a grandstand finish.

LMPC honours went to RSR's Bruno Junqueira and Duncan Ende. The pair had run most of the race under the radar as Tristan Nunez/Charlie Shears and Colin Braun/Jonathan Bennett spent a large majority in front, but Junqueira came to the fore in the final 45 minutes to edge out Kyle Marcelli and Chris Cumming for the win.

MAIDEN WIN FOR NEW VIPER

Dominik Farnbacher and Marc Goossens took the first GT win for the new SRT Viper, despite running very marginal on fuel in the closing stages of the race.

Jonathan Bomarito in the #93 Viper made the early running, but Farnbacher was soon in front in as a slightly jumbled order - caused by teams switching to dry tyres at different times - sorted itself out at the end of the first hour.

However, after a second caution period, it was the two Corvettes that led, requiring Goossens to hunt and pass the Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen car for the win 40 minutes from the end.

Garcia held on for second ahead of the sister car of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.

Flying Lizard's Spencer Pumpelly and Nelson Canache Jr beat Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen to the GTC class win.

The decisive moment came 45 minutes from the end when Pumpelly passed both Bleekemolen and Andy Lally as the pair almost forced each other off the track.

Results - 67 laps:

Pos  Cl   Drivers                     Team/Car                       Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Graf/Luhr                   Pickett HPD                2h46m40.847s
 2.  P1   Burgess/McMurry             Dyson Lola-Mazda                +0.306s
 3.  PC   Junqueira/Ende              RSR FLM                        +19.788s
 4.  PC   Marcelli/Cumming            BAR1 FLM                       +29.809s
 5.  P1   Meyrick/Legge               DeltaWing                      +30.258s
 6.  P2   Tucker/Pagenaud             Level 5 HPD                    +32.650s
 7.  P2   Sharp/Cosmo                 Extreme Speed HPD              +34.882s
 8.  P2   Tucker/Franchitti/Gonzalez  Level 5 HPD                    +35.726s
 9.  PC   Guasch/Cheng                PR1 Mathiasen FLM              +37.601s
10.  PC   Bennett/Braun               CORE FLM                       +38.467s
11.  PC   Nunez/Shears                Performance Tech FLM           +39.728s
12.  PC   Schultis/van der Zande      DragonSpeed FLM                  +1 lap
13.  PC   Mitchell/French             BAR1 FLM                         +1 lap
14.  GT   Farnbacher/Goossens         SRT Viper                       +2 laps
15.  GT   Magnussen/Garcia            Corvette                        +2 laps
16.  GT   Gavin/Milner                Corvette                        +2 laps
17.  GT   Miller/Holzer               Miller Porsche                  +2 laps
18.  GT   Long/Kimber-Smith           CORE Porsche                    +2 laps
19.  GT   Bomarito/Wittmer            SRT Viper                       +2 laps
20.  GT   Auberlen/Martin             RLL BMW                         +2 laps
21.  GT   Müller/Edwards              RLL BMW                         +2 laps
22.  GT   Henzler/Sellers             Falken Porsche                  +2 laps
23.  GT   Beretta/Malucelli           Risi Ferrari                    +2 laps
24.  GTC  Canache/Pumpelly            Flying Lizard Porsche           +5 laps
25.  GTC  MacNeil/Bleekemolen         Alex Job Porsche                +5 laps
26.  GTC  Cisneros/Edwards            NGT Porsche                     +5 laps
27.  GTC  Dempsey/Lally               Dempsey Del Piero Porsche       +5 laps
28.  GTC  Neiman/von Moltke           Flying Lizard Porsche           +5 laps
29.  GTC  Courtney/Snow               TRG Porsche                     +5 laps

Retirements:

     GTC  Hedlund/Heylen              JDX Porsche                     58 laps
     P2   Brown/van Overbeek          Extreme Speed HPD               29 laps
     GT   Keen/Bell                   AJR/West Ferrari                14 laps
     GTC  Keating/Faulkner            TRG Porsche                      4 laps

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