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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