ALMS: Muscle Milk grabs first Mid-Ohio pole (+results)

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing are the reigning champions at Mid-Ohio, but they had never captured pole position, until yesterday.

Lucas Luhr put in a time of 1min11.019s in his HPD ARX-03a, besting class rival Dyson Racing by over half a second. The question remains however : can Muscle Milk make it six consecutive victories?

In GT, BMW Team RLL's Jörg Müller came out of nowhere to punt Extreme Speed Motorsports' Guy Cosmo off the pole, and therefore topped a session as tight as usual for the GT boys.

Corvette Racing and Flying Lizard Motorsports are within the same two-second window as BMW Team RLL and ESM.

Only the Viper GTS-R, on its first competition weekend, disappointed really. Tommy Kendall and Marc Goossens have the No. 92 entry in 24th overall, while the No. 91 of Kuno Wittmer and Dominik Farnbacher failed to post a time altogether.

P2 pole went to Level 5's Christophe Bouchut, who had his team back to normalcy after an tough race at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. For the first time this season, the team failed to win, as the victory went to Conquest Racing.

Marino Franchitti won a tight battle with Bruno Junqueira to the LMPC pole.

Damian Faulkner too, ended the session with the fastest lap, but in the GTC category.



Qualifying results – ALMS (Mid-Ohio)

1.Luhr/Graf (HPD ARX-03a) - Pickett - 1'11"019

2.Dyson/Smith (Lola B12/60-Mazda) - Dyson - 1'11"715

3.Marsal/Lux (Lola B11/66-Mazda) - Dyson - 1'12"678

4.Tucker/Bouchut (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 1'13"230
5.Plowman/Hansson (Morgan-Judd) - Conquest - 1'13"734

6.Dempsey/Foster (Lola B12/87-Mazda) - Dyson - 1'14"346

7.Tucker/Gonzalez (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 1'14"791

8.Franchitti/Junco (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 1'15"107

9.Junqueira/Drissi (Oreca FLM09) - RSR - 1'15"189

10.Bennett/Braun (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 1'15"556
11.Marcelli/Downs (Oreca FLM09) - Merchant - 1'15"675
12.Popow/Dalziel (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 1'15"689
13.Richard/Ende (Oreca FLM09) - Dempsey - 1'17"311

14.Kovacic/Burgess (Oreca FLM09) - Merchant - 1'17"375

15.Mueller/Auberlen (BMW M3) - Rahal - 1'19"298
16.Brown/Cosmo (Ferrari 458) - Extreme Speed - 1'19"329
17.Bergmeister/Long (Porsche 997) - Flying Lizard - 1'19"445
18.Sharp/Van Overbeek (Ferrari 458) - Extreme Speed - 1'19"471

19.Magnussen/Garcia (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 1'19"536
20.Gavin/Milner (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 1'19"727
21.Hand/Mueller (BMW M3) - Rahal - 1'19"754

22.Miller/Maassen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Miller - 1'20"209

23.Henzler/Sellers (Porsche 997) - Falken - 1'21"222

24.Goossens/Kendall (SRT Viper) - SRT - 1'22"158
25.Sweedler/Bell (Lotus Evora) - Alex Job - 1'22"424

26.Neiman/Holzer (Porsche 997) - Flying Lizard - 1'24"096

27.LeSaffre/Faulkner (Porsche 997 Cup) - Green Hornet - 1'25"130

28.Pappas/Bleekemolen (Lola B11/80-Honda) - Black Swan - 1'25"424

29.Pumpelly/Carter (Porsche 997 Cup) - TRG - 1'25"620

30.MacNeil/Keen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Alex Job - 1'25"815

31.Faieta/Avenatti (Porsche 997 Cup) - Competition - 1'25"994

32.Wittmer/Farnbacher (SRT Viper) - SRT - no time