Pickett HPD driver Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf take another American Le Mans Series win at Mid-Ohio
Pickett Racing's Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf notched up their fifth consecutive American Le Mans Series LMP1 victory with a straightforward run in Saturday's Mid-Ohio round
Luhr and Graf's HPD was only headed by the rival Dyson Lola-Mazda of Guy Smith and Chris Dyson during pitstop sequences, and ended up a lap clear.
In the other prototype classes, Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker won LMP2 for Level 5 as Bouchut kept the closing Conquest Morgan-Nissan of Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier-Hansson at bay, and a late fuel stop for CORE Autosport's #06 car opened the door for Marino Franchitti and Rudy Junco to win LMPC for PR1/Mathiasen.
Corvette's Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner took over the GT championship lead as they overcame the Flying Lizard Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long to claim the race win by just 0.283 seconds. Gavin and Milner's team-mates Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia lost their points advantage when a clash with a GTC car caused suspension damage. Until then, both Corvettes had been in the thick of the lead fight.
JDX's Jeroen Bleekemolen and Tim Pappas appeared to have taken the team's first GTC win, but a driving time infringement meant the victory was handed to TRG duo Al Carter and Spencer Pumpelly.
Results - 123 laps:
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap
1. P1 Luhr/Graf Pickett HPD 2h46m04.189s
2. P1 Dyson/Smith Dyson Lola-Mazda + 1 lap
3. P2 Tucker/Bouchut Level 5 HPD + 2 laps
4. P2 Plowman/Heinemeier-Hansson Conquest Morgan-Nissan + 2 laps
5. P2 Tucker/Gonzalez Level 5 HPD + 3 laps
6. PC Junco/Franchitti PR1/Mathiasen FLM + 5 laps
7. PC Popow/Dalziel CORE FLM + 5 laps
8. PC Marcelli/Downs Merchant FLM + 7 laps
9. P2 Dempsey/Foster/Cameron Dempsey Lola-Judd + 7 laps
10. PC Junqueira/Drissi RSR FLM + 8 laps
11. GT Gavin/Milner Corvette + 8 laps
12. GT Bergmeister/Long Flying Lizard Porsche + 8 laps
13. P1 Marsal/Lux Dyson Lola-Mazda + 9 laps*
14. GT Muller/Auberlen RLL BMW + 9 laps
15. PC Richard/Ende Dempsey FLM + 9 laps
16. GT Henzler/Sellers Falken Porsche + 9 laps
17. GT Hand/Muller RLL BMW + 9 laps
18. GT Sharp/van Overbeek Extreme Speed Ferrari + 10 laps
19. GT Neiman/Holzer Flying Lizard Porsche + 10 laps
20. GT Brown/Cosmo Extreme Speed Ferrari + 11 laps
21. PC Bennett/Braun CORE FLM + 11 laps
22. GT Miller/Maassen Miller Porsche + 11 laps
23. GT Wittmer/Farnbacher SRT Viper + 12 laps
24. GT Sweedler/Bell Alex Job Lotus + 14 laps*
25. GT Goossens/Kendall SRT Viper + 14 laps
26. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen TRG Porsche + 15 laps
27. GTC Carter/Pumpelly JDX Porsche + 16 laps
28. GTC Faieta/Huisman Green Hornet Porsche + 16 laps
29. GTC MacNeil/Keen Alex Job Porsche + 16 laps
30. GTC LeSaffre/Faulkner Green Hornet Porsche + 17 laps
31. GT Magnussen/Garcia Corvette + 18 laps
Retirements:
PC Burgess/Kovacic Merchant FLM 98 laps
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