Virginia ALMS: Pickett overcomes Dyson for victory

For the first time since Rebellion curtailed its ALMS programme and Dyson started shuffling its driver line-up, Pickett had to work hard to secure victory.

Although Dyson's pole advantage was swiftly overturned, an early spin for Graf while trying to pass a GTC car put Johnny Mowlem into the lead.

Some spectacular racing through the traffic followed, and while Pickett got back ahead in the pits, Mowlem's team-mate Guy Smith was able to draft back past on track.

The battle eventually fizzled out through pit tactics amid a huge accident for GTC driver Eduardo Cisneros.

A clash between his NGT Porsche and Marco Holzer in the GT class Miller Porsche sent both cars into huge impacts with the barrier.

Cisneros' car went into a ferocious series of rolls, ending up atop the tyre barrier.

Remarkably both drivers and all the marshals and TV crew at the corner were unhurt.

That yellow negated the advantage Dyson had gained when Pickett pitted under the previous caution, and meant that Smith not only lost the lead when he stopped, but fell right back into traffic.

By the time the Briton had cleared all the lower-class cars, Luhr was half a minute ahead and heading for victory.

A tight LMP2 battle between the two Level 5 HPDs and Extreme Speed's lead car ended with Ryan Briscoe breaking away in the Level 5 entry he shared with team boss Scott Tucker.

Risi finally got the first GT win of its ALMS return, as Matteo Malucelli thrust his and Olivier Beretta's Ferrari past the CORE Autosport Porsche late on.

A gaggle of Corvettes and RLL BMWs chased CORE driver Patrick Long home, despite a 60-second penalty for the Tommy Milner/Oliver Gavin Corvette for hitting a GTC car and the Maxime Martin/Bill Auberlen BMW suffering a long pit delay with door problems.

Kyle Marcelli and Chris Cumming took a comfortable LMPC win for BAR1, while TRG's Damien Faulkner and Ben Keating triumphed in GTC.

Results - 84 laps:

Pos  Cl   Drivers                     Team/Car                       Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Graf/Luhr                   Pickett HPD                2h46m11.675s
 2.  P1   Smith/Mowlem                Dyson Lola-Mazda               +22.846s
 3.  P2   Tucker/Briscoe              Level 5 HPD                      +1 lap
 4.  P2   Sharp/Lazzaro               Extreme Speed HPD                +1 lap
 5.  P2   Franchitti/Cosmo/Johansson  Level 5 HPD                      +1 lap
 6.  PC   Marcelli/Cumming            BAR1 FLM                        +3 laps
 7.  PC   Bennett/Kimber-Smith        CORE FLM                        +3 laps
 8.  PC   Mitchell/French             BAR1 FLM                        +3 laps
 9.  GT   Beretta/Malucelli           Risi Ferrari                    +4 laps
10.  GT   Long/Braun                  CORE Porsche                    +5 laps
11.  GT   Magnussen/Garcia            Corvette                        +5 laps
12.  GT   Müller/Hand                 RLL BMW                         +5 laps
13.  GT   Auberlen/Martin             RLL BMW                         +5 laps
14.  GT   Gavin/Milner                Corvette                        +5 laps
15.  GT   Farnbacher/Goossens         SRT Viper                       +5 laps
16.  GT   Henzler/Sellers             Falken Porsche                  +5 laps
17.  GT   Bomarito/Wittmer            SRT Viper                       +7 laps*
18.  GTC  Keating/Faulkner            TRG Porsche                     +9 laps
19.  GTC  MacNeil/Bleekemolen         Alex Job Porsche                +9 laps
20.  GTC  Cisneros/Edwards            NGT Porsche                     +9 laps
21.  GTC  Hedlund/Heylen              JDX Porsche                     +9 laps
22.  GTC  Neiman/von Moltke           Flying Lizard Porsche           +9 laps
23.  GTC  Dempsey/Lally               Dempsey Del Piero Porsche       +9 laps
24.  GTC  Canache/Pumpelly            Flying Lizard Porsche          +11 laps
25.  PC   Nunez/Booth                 Performance Tech FLM           +11 laps
26.  PC   Guasch/Cameron              PR1 Mathiasen FLM              +15 laps
27.  PC   Schultis/van der Zande      DragonSpeed FLM                +17 laps
28.  GT   Sweedler/Bell               West/AJR Ferrari               +17 laps

* Not running at finish

Retirements:

     GT   Miller/Holzer               Miller Porsche                  50 laps
     GTC  Cisneros/Giermaziak         NGT Porsche                     47 laps
     P1   Meyrick/Legge               DeltaWing                       40 laps
     P2   Brown/van Overbeek          Extreme Speed HPD               31 laps