LAKEVILLE, CT — Rob Dyson’s Lola B12/60 Mazda LMP1 won the battle, but it was the Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03a Honda of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graph that won the war at the Lime Rock American Le Mans series Northwest Grand Prix, as they came from four laps down during the race for the victory.
Rob Smith finished qualifying with an equally entertaining top lap and pole position for the Mazda, out dueling the Honda by a mere .102 seconds. On race day when electrical issues plaqued the Muscle Milk sponsored Honda, it appeared as if the race was Smith and Dyson’s to lose.
Unfortunately for the Mazda team, on their “home track” (Poukeepsie, NY is home base) they did lose the race to a hard charging bonzai performance by Lurh and Graph that earned for them a nearly 13 second victory over their chief rivals, their third straight in the ALMS this year.
P2 class honors went to Level 5’s Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker, who led outright for more than 30 minutes and held off a hard-charging Conquest Endurance Morgan-Nissan of Martin Plowman for the class win.
“Dr. Mc Dreamy”, Patrick Dempsey, scored his first ALMS podium finish, teaming with Joe Foster in the No. 27 Dempsey Racing Lola B12/80 Judd to finish third in class.
In the GT catagorie, it was another dog fight to the finish with Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long earning victory for Flying Lizard Motorsports in a fantastic fight with Corvette Racing and Extreme Speed Motorsports. Bergmeister celebrated his 100th ALMS start with his sixth win in seven Lime Rock races. Bergmeister held off a stern challenge from a pair of Corvette C6 ZR1s.
