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Graf and Luhr win in American Le Mans Series' closest ever finish

Muscle Milk Lola-Aston Martin duo Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr inched closer to Dyson's Guy Smith and Chris Dyson in the American Le Mans Series title race by taking their fourth win of the year in the Road America round

Though the Lola-Aston had looked comfortable in the lead in the middle section of the four-hour event, the Dyson Lola-Mazda had a second wind in Smith's hands in the last half hour and put Graf under huge pressure through the final laps. Despite some close calls in traffic as the clock ticked down, Graf was able to hang on and triumph by just 0.112 seconds - the closest ever overall margin of victory in the ALMS.

The opening stint had seen a superb performance from ALMS rookie Steven Kane, who thrust Dyson's #20 car past Graf on the opening lap, and led the opening hour - successfully retaliating when the Lola-Aston got ahead on an early restart.

Kane's inexperienced team-mate Humaid Al Masaood then lost ground when he took over the car, and was delayed in the pits with a water leak before eventually crashing out.

Third overall went to Butch Leitzinger and Rudy Junco as they gave PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports its maiden LMPC class win, beating the #63 Genoa car.

The Ferrari F458 Italia claimed its first ALMS win as Risi's Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo emerged from a typically close-fought GT contest, passing the #55 BMW of Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen late on.

The #56 BMW had led the opening stages and ended up third, as Dirk Muller overtook the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche with just a few minutes remaining. The #4 car was the best of the Corvettes in fifth, just ahead of the Falken Porsche, having survived an early tangle with the Risi Ferrari as they exited their first pitstops, while the sister car retired with crash damage after a spin by Tommy Milner.

A dramatic GTC class finish saw Jeroen Bleekemolen move from third to first in the Black Swan car he shares with Tim Pappas in the final few laps, beating the #66 TRG car, while erstwhile leader Sean Edwards (NGT) slowed with a puncture.

Results - 107 laps:

Pos  Cl   Drivers                     Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Luhr/Graf                   Muscle Milk Lola-Aston  4h01m47.255s
 2.  P1   Dyson/Smith                 Dyson Lola-Mazda            + 0.112s
 3.  PC   Junco/Leitzinger            PR1 Mathiasen FLM           + 3 laps
 4.  PC   Lux/Zugel/Julian            Genoa FLM                   + 3 laps
 5.  P2   Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz         Level 5 Lola-Honda          + 4 laps
 6.  PC   Bennett/Montecalvo          CORE FLM                    + 4 laps
 7.  P1   Burgess/McMurry             Autocon Lola-AER            + 4 laps
 8.  PC   Field/Ducote/Ducote         Intersport FLM              + 5 laps
 9.  PC   Jeannette/Gonzalez          CORE FLM                    + 5 laps
10.  GT   Melo/Vilander               Risi Ferrari                + 6 laps
11.  GT   Auberlen/Werner             BMW                         + 6 laps
12.  GT   Muller/Hand                 BMW                         + 6 laps
13.  GT   Bergmeister/Long            Flying Lizard Porsche       + 6 laps
14.  GT   Gavin/Magnussen             Corvette                    + 6 laps
15.  GT   Henzler/Sellers             Falken Porsche              + 6 laps
16.  PC   Nicolosi/Boon/Marcelli      Performance Tech FLM        + 6 laps
17.  GT   Miller/Maassen              Miller Porsche              + 6 laps
18.  GT   Sharp/van Overbeek          Extreme Speed Ferrari       + 6 laps
19.  GT   Neiman/Holzer               Flying Lizard Porsche       + 7 laps
20.  GT   Murry/Lazzaro               Robertson Doran Ford        + 7 laps
21.  GT   Brown/Cosmo                 Extreme Speed Ferrari       + 7 laps
22.  GT   Robertson/Snow              Robertson Doran Ford       + 10 laps
23.  GTC  Pappas/Bleekemolen          Black Swan Porsche         + 11 laps
24.  GTC  Ende/Pumpelly               TRG Porsche                + 11 laps
25.  GTC  Edwards/Kauffmann/Cisneros  NGT Porsche                + 11 laps
26.  GTC  Sofronas/Welch              GMG Porsche                + 12 laps
27.  GTC  LeSaffre/van Lagen          Black Swan Porsche         + 14 laps
28.  GTC  von Moltke/di Guida         TRG Porsche                + 15 laps
29.  GTC  Hansson/Farnbacher          Napleton Porsche           + 16 laps

Retirements:

     PC   Field/French/Marsal         Intersport FLM               89 laps
     GT   Jones/Moran                 RSR Jaguar                   83 laps
     GT   Beretta/Milner              Corvette                     77 laps
     P1   Al Masaood/Kane             Dyson Lola-Mazda             62 laps
     GTC  Ham/Thompson                Porsche                      60 laps
     GT   Junqueira/Wilden            RSR Jaguar                    9 laps
     GTC  Sweedler/Wong               Porsche                       2 laps

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