Winning in the rain -- the Muscle Milk Aston Martin heads to the checkered flag in a downpour.

LEXINGTON, Oh — As the Morton’s Salt’s jingle says: “When it rains, it pours” and for Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr and the Muscle Milk Aston Martin-powered LMP team the weather “poured” them a second series win which further tightened the points race in the American Le Mans Series presented by Patron Tequila at the Mid Ohio Sports Car course. 

The Muscle Milk Team qualified behind the Chris Dyson – Guy Smith Mazda  by just under .2 of a second and when the race started in picture perfect weather it was Smith pushing into the leade with Luhr lurking in the shadows. The two teams swapped leads during the first series of pit stops. The Mazda held the lead for the next 23 laps until a restart was required on lap 62.

That’s when Luhr zoomed into the lead and never looked back. When Luhr turned over driving duties to Graf on lap 79 the team had a 18 second lead. Graf  increased the lead — and then mother nature decided to get involved into the race and the rain  began to fall. It began as a drizzle and forced Graf into the pits to change to rain tires.  He quickly increased the lead to more than a minute before a full course caution due to signficant slip-sliding on the track due to the rain.

The race restarted and so did the downpour — so it quickly went to a full course caution with cars strewn all over the course. Graf piloted the Muscle Milk car around the slippery course until the red flag can out with 10 minutes left in the race ensuring victory for the Muscle Milk team. The Dyson Mazda finished second a little over a minute off the pace. The Autocon duo of Chris McMurry and Tony Burgess finished third in their Lola-AER.

In the GT class it was another dogfight with the top four cars  within 12 seconds of each other at the end of the race — and it probably would have been closer without the rain. The win went to the Porsche  911 GT3 RSR of Wulf Henzler and Bryan Sellers, from Centerville, Ohio — his first win and the first win for the Porsche GT3 RSR.

The Rahal Letterman BMW Team, which led qualifying (and where the first six cars were within a second) jumped to the initial lead. But Mid-Ohio was not to be a BMW day. First, the No. 55 BMW M3 GT driven by Dirk Werner dropped three positions on the opening lap, then on lap two, Dirk Mueller lost the lead in the No. 56 BMW M3 GT to Jan Magnussen’s No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C6. R.

It looked as if it might be the day for the Vette for the seconde race in a row — but the rain wrote a different script. It caused the Vette to have to make an extra pit stop for tires leaving the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F 458 Italia in the lead. The Ferrari opted to play in the rain with it slicks and built up a slight lead before Jaime Melo pitted for tires. The Ferrari bit the dust — well ok there was no dust but you get the picture — with a suspension failure a lap later.

Patrick Long and the Flying Lizards Motorsports Porsche GT3 RSR inherited the lead. When the course went green after the full course caution on lap 62 Henzler splashed by Long in the first turn in his Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and then Long went into the gravel at Turn 2 giving Henzler the breathing required to get the checkered flag. The Vette was second and the Beamer finished third.

1. (2) Lucas Luhr, Monte Carlo Monaco; Klaus Graf, Dornham, Germany; AMR/ Lola Coupe B08 62 (1, LMP1), 96.
2. (1) Guy Smith, Bracken, Yorkshire, UK; Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, New York; Lola B09 86/Mazda (2, LMP1), 96.
3. (6) Tomy Drissi, Los Angeles, Calif.; Kyle Marcelli, Barrie, Ontario, Canada; Oreca FLM09 (1, LMPC), 93.
4. (7) Clint Field, Dublin, Ohio; Jon Field, Dublin, Ohio; Oreca FLM09 (2, LMPC), 93.
5. (9) David Cheng, Sammamish, Wash.; Javier Echeverria, Mexico City, Mexico; Oreca FLM09 (3, LMPC), 93.
6. (20) Bryan Sellers, Braselton, Ga.; Wolf Henzler, Nuertingen, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (1, GT), 92.
7. (16) Jan Magnussen, Roskilde, Denmark; Oliver Gavin, Yardley Hastings, UK; Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 (2, GT), 92.
8. (13) Dirk Werner, Kissenbruck, Germany; Bill Auberlen, Redondo Beach, Calif.; BMW M3 GT (3, GT), 92.
9. (12) Dirk Mueller, Monte Carlo, Monaco; Joey Hand, Sacramento, Califl; BMW M3 GT (4, GT), 92.
10. (18) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, Fla.; Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, Calif. Ferrari F458 Italia (5, GT), 92.
11. (19) Olivier Beretta, Monte Carlo, Monaco; Tommy Milner, Leesburg, Va.; Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 (6, GT), 92.
12. (5) Ricardo Gonzalez, Monterrey, Mexico; Gunnar Jeannette, Salt Lake City, Utah; Oreca FLM09 (4, LMPC), 91.
13. (21) David Murry, Atlanta, Ga.; Anthony Lazzaro, Atlanta, Ga.; Doran Ford GT (7, GT), 91.
14. (8) Eric Lux, Jacksonville, Fla.; Christian Zugel, Holmdel, New Jersey; Oreca FLM09 (5, LMPC), 91.
15. (24) Sascha Maassen, Lontzen, Germany; Bryce Miller, Summit, New Jersey; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (8, GT), 91.
16. (15) Joerg Bergmeister, Langenfield, Germany; Patrick Long, Bellaire, Fla.; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (9, GT), 91.
17. (10) Jon Bennett, Fort Mill, South Carolina; Frankie Montecalvo, Highlands, New Jersey; Oreca FLM09 (6, LMPC), 90.
18. (26) Seth Neiman, San Francisco, Calif.; Darren Law, Phoenix, Ariz.; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (10, GT), 89.
19. (4) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, Ariz.; Tony Burgess, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Lola B06/10 (11, LMP1), 88.
20. (23) PJ Jones, Torrance, Calif.; Rocky Moran, Ladera Ranch, Calif.; Jaguar XKR (12, GT), 88

The Muscle Milk Aston Martin was victorious at Mossport. (photo by Dave R. Johnson)

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario, Canada (Mosport International Raceway) — It is still not a true points race yet — but the Muscle Milk Aston Martin driven by Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf made easy work of the field here at the Mosport stop of the American Le Mans Series presented by Patron Tequila and in the process tightened up the point race as the teams head into Mid-Ohio next week.

While racing is never as easy as it sometimes looks on the track, the Aston Martin of Luhr and Graf certainly made it look as if their entry was the “Queen of the ball” as they were top qualifier, jumped into the lead from the start and looked as if they would stroll to an easy win. The car was certainly “working” but a miscue during the race’s first and only full-course caution caused Luhr to miss his first opportunity to take pit lane, putting Chris Dyson in the series-leading Mazda into the LMP1 lead.

But with speed to burn, Luhr set off to right the pit stop wrong and reeled in the Mazda near the halfway mark of the timed (2:45) race and then cruised to a nearly 30 second win over the Mazda. The win, its second of the year, moved the Aston Martin to within 26 points of the Mazda Team and certainly has to have gotten the attention of the Mazda’s team who’s lead is based on their 30 point performance at the season opener in Sebring where the Aston Martin did not race. In you throw out the first race of the season, then the Muscle Milk Aston Martin leade the point series over the last three races by four points. 

In the high;y competitive GT class, it was the Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen taking the class win and breaking a string of three straight BMW Team RLL wins.  The race-within-a-race was perhaps the most interesting segment of the Mossport ALMS event as cars “rubbing paint”, penalties, and hard driving gave the class something of Hitchcockian feel.

In scene one of this frentic movie a full-course caution started the action when Joey Hand made contact in his BMW M3 GT with Risi Competizione’s Ferrari F458 Italia of Toni Vilander. A penalty for Hand promoted Jörg Bergmeister and the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR into the lead. However, the lead was short-lived as less than 30 minutes later, in scene two,  Bergmeister got the Porsche sideways in Turn 10, handing the lead to Bill Auberlen in the second BMW Team RLL entry.
After the final round of pit stops with Dirk Werner now in the driver’s seat, it seemed as if the BMW was on it was to another win — if it could hold off  Magnussen’s Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6.R. But the climax of this event — which to a certain extent could be seem as an anti-climax — happened:  with less than 20 minutes remaining, another penalty cost BMW the lead once again. Officials deemed Werner’s contact with GTC leader Pumpelly at Turn 10 as avoidable and called the No. 55 into the penalty box. It promoted Magnussen to the GT lead — and that’s the way the race finished.

“It was one of those moments where you see the incident, and you think, in the past the person gets a penalty,” Gavin said. “It was called that way, and it was something that aided us to get the win. Jan still had to do a lot of hard work out there and navigate the traffic… Hats off to Jan and the team, just a stellar job today. I knew from my stint that if Jan was on the Ferrari gearbox coming out of Turn 5, you could probably get a tow coming out and use the momentum to get by. He executed brilliantly and then sliced through traffic to get a 4- or 5- second lead.”

Magnussen held off Jamie Melo, who teamed with Vilander, by 4.409 seconds. Werner brought the No. 55 BMW he shares with Auberlen home in third.

The Mazda leads the Aston Martin home as the Mazda team wins on its home courts.

LIME ROCK PARK, LAKEVILLE, CT — Winning on your home court is a key ingredient for winning a championship in any sport and on the Americdan Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron the duo of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith did just that in a heated battle that saw the lead change six times with Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing  before they took the checkered flag. BMW Team RLL also picked up where it left off, scoring its third consecutive GT victory

Dyson Racing won by 19.969 seconds over the Muscle Milk squad. It was the first ALMS win for Chris Dyson at his home track. Dyson’s second Lola-Mazda, driven by Humaid Al Masaood and Steven Kane, finished third five laps off the pace.

While the Dyson-Smith team also set fast time in qualifying, this was not a simple walk in the part for the team as right from the start Lucas Luhr and the Lola Aston Martin took the race to Mazda team. Weaving through a swarm of traffic in the opening laps  on the 1.474-mile road course. Luhr dispatched Dyson on lap 16, but was then forced to pit early to replace a flat tire.

Both cars hit pit lane on lap 56 during the race’s first full-course caution. Having taken on fuel during its earlier stop, Muscle Milk’s stop was slightly shorter than Dyson’s, allowing Klaus Graf to exit sooner and take the lead.

After leading the race for six laps, traffic again came into play as Graf made contact with a GTC car in the Esses, enabling Smith to retake the lead. Another round of pit stops shuffled the Lola-Aston Martin back into the lead briefly, but Smith grabbed the lead for good on lap 74 of the 187-lap, two-hour and 45-minute race.