Graf and Luhr take rain-swept Mid-Ohio honors on Michelin tires

Michelin took its fourth American Le Mans Series (ALMS) win in five events as Lucas Luhr and co-driver Klaus Graf netted their third victory this year in a wild race at Mid-Ohio that finished amid a torrential downpour.

Jan. 1, 2020

3 min read

Michelin's took its fourth American Le Mans Series (ALMS) win in five events as Lucas Luhr and co-driver Klaus Graf netted their third victory this year in a wild race at Mid-Ohio that finished amid a torrential downpour.

Lucas Luhr handled the dry conditions and took the lead at mid-race; Graf put the win away in the rain.

The margin of victory was 69.720 seconds over the second-place Mazda of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith.

After stalking pair for the first half, Luhr made his move to the inside of turn one on a restart midway through the competition. He pulled out to a 20-second advantage before handing off to Graf for the final 55 minutes. The race was red flagged due to standing water with 10 minutes remaining.

“We have to give a very big thanks to Michelin, we had the right tires for the dry and the wet,” says Graf. “We worked very hard and Lucas made a great pass on the restart to give us the lead. It started to sprinkle early in my stint but wasn’t a problem until the bigger rains came and the conditions became very difficult. Having the lead when the conditions got bad let us control the race,” he reports.

The victory was especially appreciated because team co-owner Greg Pickett was injured in a massive crash during testing at Mid-Ohio last year. A healthy Pickett remains as the third driver for the longer races, and helped call the winning strategy. “It was very satisfying to come back here and win, especially in a difficult race that tested our preparation and our experience,” says Graf.

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Posting a 1-2 in the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMP-C) class and taking third and fourth place overall was Intersport Racing with 21-year-old Kyle Marcelli and veteran Tomi Drissi, followed by team owners Jon and Clint Field.

“We had the pole at the last race, Mosport, so we came here with confidence and put our heads down and worked hard,” says Marcelli. “It was difficult when the rains came since we don’t have traction control like the GT Challenge cars, but we could still get a better launch out of the corners.”

David Cheng and Javier Echeverria took third in the class and fifth overall. Michelin is the exclusive tire provider to the single- specification category.

Porsche’s Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers took advantage of the chaotic late-race heavy rains to claim a first victory for Walker Racing. Finishing second was the Michelin technical partner Corvette Racing No. 4 driven by Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen.

Running with E85 racing fuel, Luhr and Graf also won the “race within a race” Michelin GREEN X Challenge.

“Manufacturers use the ALMS and the Michelin GREEN X Challenge to accelerate the development of new technologies and test new energy sources in competition,” explains motorsports manager Silvia Mammone.

“Weather played a major role,” she adds, “and race cars, like consumer cars, must perform in a wide range of conditions.”

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