ALMS: Klaus Graf wins by closest margin ever in Road America
Klaus Graf was under huge pressure from Guy Smith in the closing laps of the four-hour American Le Mans race held Saturday afternoon, in Road America, and crossed the start-finish line only 0.112 seconds ahead of his rival.
ALMS rookie driver Steven Kane led the first hour of the event, passing Graf, who started from pole, on the opening lap of the race. His teammate Humaid Al Masaood's inexperience had the best of the duo however and their race ended on a crash. Graf and teammate Lucas Luhr's win pushes them closer to the championship lead still property of Smith and teammate Chris Dyson. Third in this race were LMPC drivers Butch Leitzinger and Rudy Junco. The GT win went to Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo, who had started from third on their Ferrari F458 Italia. It is a a first class win for the team who finished ahead of the BMW car of Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen. Werner overtook BMW teammate Dirk Müller and Flying Lizard' Porsche driver Bergmeister late in the race. Müller and co-driver Joey hand completed the class' podium, ahead of Bergmeister and co-driver Long. Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen completed the top-5 on a Corvette. Results of Road America (4 hours / 107 laps): 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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