Chris Dyson and Guy Smith win for Dyson Racing at Lime Rock

The two LMP1 cars fought hard in the first half of the race, with Luhr all over the back of pole-starter Dyson and making endless attempts to pass during the opening laps.

Just past the half-hour mark, Luhr finally found a way through, and then instantly picked up an advantage when Dyson had to take an escape road detour to avoid a spinning LMPC car.

Although the Lola-Aston then had to make an early first pitstop with a puncture, it got back ahead when both the lead cars came in under yellow shortly afterwards.

But the advantage was shortlived as a tangle with Alex Welch's GTC class GMG Porsche sent Graf spinning early in his stint and put Smith into a lead which he would hold to the end.

Dyson's new second entry had to start from the pitlane and made steady early progress with inexperienced driver Humaid Al Masaood. But when Steven Kane took over, he regular matched the leaders' pace and came through from 14th to third, despite spinning after contact in traffic.

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller took a relatively straightforward GT win for BMW. There was pressure from the Flying Lizard and Falken Porsches in the middle of the race, but the BMW escaped even before punctures forced extra stops for both the Porsches.

The Flying Lizard car got back out in second still, while Falken looked set for its first podium after taking third on the road, only to be given a penalty for Wolf Henzler's aggressive defence against Robertson Doran Ford driver Anthony Lazzaro on the run to the line as the Porsche slowed with fuel pressure issues. That dropped the Falken car to fifth and meant that it was the Robertson team that collected a maiden top three finish instead.

Many of the other likely GT contenders were taken out of contention when Performance Tech LMPC driver Jarrett Boon tapped Ed Brown's Extreme Speed Ferrari into a spin just ahead of the #55 BMW and both Corvettes, causing a multi-car pile-up.

After its back of the grid start following a practice crash, the Risi Ferrari got up to third in GT prior to a misfire striking.

Elton Julian and Eric Lux gave Genoa a narrow LMPC win over CORE Autosport's Gunnar Jeanette and Ricardo Gonzalez.

GTC was even closer, with a four-car battle raging into the final stages, when TRG's Dion von Moltke and Mike Pierce grabbed the win.

Results - 187 laps:

Pos  Cl   Drivers              Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Dyson/Smith          Dyson Lola-Mazda        2h45m05.768s
 2.  P1   Luhr/Graf            Muscle Milk Lola-Aston     + 19.969s
 3.  P1   Al Masaood/Kane      Dyson Lola-Mazda            + 5 laps
 4.  PC   Lux/Julian           Genoa FLM                   + 6 laps
 5.  PC   Jeannette/Gonzalez   CORE FLM                    + 6 laps
 6.  PC   Marcelli/Drissi      Intersport FLM              + 7 laps
 7.  GT   Muller/Hand          BMW                        + 11 laps
 8.  GT   Bergmeister/Long     Flying Lizard Porsche      + 11 laps
 9.  PC   Nicolosi/Boon        Performance Tech FLM       + 12 laps
10.  PC   Bennett/Montecalvo   CORE FLM                   + 12 laps
11.  GT   Henzler/Sellers      Falken Porsche             + 13 laps
12.  GT   Murry/Lazzaro        Robertson Doran Ford       + 13 laps
13.  GT   Sharp/van Overbeek   Extreme Speed Ferrari      + 13 laps
14.  GT   Miller/Maassen       Miller Porsche             + 15 laps
15.  GT   Neiman/Holzer        Flying Lizard Porsche      + 22 laps
16.  GTC  von Moltke/Piera     TRG Porsche                + 23 laps
17.  GTC  Ende/Pumpelly        TRG Porsche                + 23 laps
18.  GTC  Sweedler/Leitzinger  Alex Job Porsche           + 23 laps
19.  GTC  Pappas/Faulkner      Black Swan Porsche         + 23 laps
20.  GT   Auberlen/Werner      BMW                        + 24 laps
21.  GT   Beretta/Milner       Corvette                   + 26 laps
22.  GTC  Welch/Sofronas       GMG Porsche                + 27 laps
23.  GT   Gavin/Magnussen      Corvette                   + 31 laps
24.  GT   Brown/Cosmo          Extreme Speed Ferrari      + 34 laps

Retirements:

     GTC  Ham/Thompson         JDX Porsche                 149 laps
     GT   Junqueira/da Matta   RSR Jaguar                 149 laps*
     PC   Field/Kovacic        Intersport FLM              126 laps
     GT   Robertson/Robertson  Robertson Doran Ford        116 laps
     GT   Melo/Vilander        Risi Ferrari                 79 laps
     GTC  LeSaffre/van Lagen   Green Hornet Porsche        74 laps*
     GT   Jones/Moran          RSR Jaguar                   49 laps

* Running again at chequered flag