Muscle Milk Pickett Racing cruised to its fourth consecutive overall American Le Mans Series victory, taking first place at the Grand Prix of Mosport on Sunday.
Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr, who also won together at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in 2011, led almost from green flag to the checkered flag, with a stop-and-hold penalty for a pit lane infraction in the final hour as the only setback for the P1 entry.
Graf, who also guided Muscle Milk to victory at Mosport in 2010, was still cautious in the No. 6 HPD ARX-03a during the race.
“We had to be aggressive at our last race, so here we were a little more courteous to others,” Graf said in a statement. “Winning here again, for the third time in a row and it also being our fourth consecutive race win this year means a lot for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and our partners HPD and Michelin. We had a little excitement today but in the end we came out on top and once again increased our points lead. We couldn’t ask for more this weekend. Canada has always been good to us.”
It also happened to be Luhr’s birthday on Saturday but his post-race celebration backfired on the now 33-year-old.
“The best part of the birthday celebration was putting a cake into Klaus’ face but unfortunately they had planned pay back on me so I got cake in the face as well,” Luhr said in a statement. “That wasn’t so fun.”
It was Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long who had a thrilling battle to the end in the two hour, 45 minute race, winning the GT class for Flying Lizard Racing. Bergmeister held on by 0.308 seconds over Johannes van Overbeek of Extreme Speed Motorsports at the finish line. Van Overbeek was driving in his milestone 100th ALMS race.
However, the Flying Lizard car failed a post-race stall test and was disqualified from the race.
It was a disappointing day for Kyle Marcelli of Merchant Services Racing. The 22-year-old from Barrie, Ont., started second in the Prototype Challenge group but Marcelli hit the wall hard in the final half hour and spun off the track near turn eight to end his day. RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira and Tomy Drissi won the PC class. It was the first ALMS win for Junqueira, a former star in CART/Champ Car.
Conquest Endurance’s Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier-Hansson won their first race in the No. 37 Morgan-Nissan as Plowman held off Level 5 Motorsports’ Christophe Bouchut to take the P2 class.