Event Coverage: American Le Mans Series

August 20-22, 2010- Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI)

Photos: Brad Sillars & Jeremy Cliff (thephotomotive.com)

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It was absolutely a beautiful weekend for racing in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine. No rain and sunny days made for a great event at Road America for the 7th race in the American LeMans Racing Series.

Among the ALMS headliners, there was plenty of other racing going on Saturday as well as Sunday. Patron GT3 challenge had double header races, IMSA Lites, F2000, VW TDI Cup, Star Mazda and Skip Barber all kept the track hot both days.

ALMS Race day begin on Sunday with a green flag at the 9:25am practice. However a few cars were absent from the practice laps. The #8 Drayson Racing LMP Lola-Judd did not participate and the #37 LMP Lola was out for a motor swap in the pit. The 20 minute session completed without incident.

The main event Green Flagged at 2:05pm and quickly went to yellow 9 minutes in when Duncan Ende (#63-GTC Porsche 911 Cup) ran off track at Canada Corner. Green flags waved shortly after and the struggle to gain position was on.

No sooner than the Green Flags waved, another Yellow was waved signifying Scott Tucker (#55-LMPC Oreca FLM09) getting hit from behind by Bill Auberlen (#92-GT BMW E92 M3) on the run down to turn 12, causing the LMPC car to spin, and the BMW to hit the retaining wall on the drivers right at about 145mph.

All teams took advantage of the double yellow and pitted for tires and fuel. Green flags waved after the cleanup in aisle 12 with the cars involved in the crash being officially retired. Cut tires from contact played a large part in yellow flags to come during the heated battles in all classes with lots of metal on metal between the Risi team and Flying Lizard’s Patrick Long.

The final minutes of the race began with Klaus Graf (#6-LMP Porsche RS Spyder) taking the white flag leading overall by 5.244 seconds. Jonny Cocker (#8-LMP Lola B09 60/Judd) makes a run on Klaus Graf (#6-LMP Porsche RS Spyder) and powers around at turn 12, keeps the lead and takes the checkered flag for the team’s first overall win. Over the last 4 laps, Cocker gained one position each lap from 4th to first overall. Graf reports he was running out of fuel at the end of the lap.

Klaus Graf (#6-LMP Porsche RS Spyder) “We had to save fuel for a long long time. I did all I could. To do this whole race with just one stop is really really difficult. Hats off to the Muscle Milk and Porsche team, but I started running out of fuel on the last lap. I was having a bit of misfiring.”

Official Results are as follows:

Jonny Cocker (#8-LMP Lola B09 60/Judd) First series win.
Paul Drayson (#8-LMP Lola B09 60/Judd) First series win.

Gunnar Jeannette (#99-LMPC Oreca FLM09) Third ALMS win, all this season.
Elton Julian (#99-LMPC Oreca FLM09) Third ALMS win, all this season.

Dirk Mueller (#90-GT BMW E92 M3) Thirteenth ALMS class win.
Joey Hand (#90-GT BMW E92 M3) Second ALMS class win.

Jeroen Bleekemolen (#54-GTC Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) Fourth ALMS class win.

Tim Pappas (#54-GTC Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) Fourth ALMS class win.

LMP
1. #8-LMP Jonny Cocker (Lola B09 60/Judd) 69 laps First Series Win
2. #6-LMP Klaus Graf (Porsche RS Spyder) 69 laps (-1.051)
3. #1-LMP David Brabham (HPD ARX-01c) 69 laps (-4.915)

LMPC
1. #99-LMPC Gunnar Jeannette (Oreca FLM09) 67 laps
2. #52-LMPC Luis Diaz (Oreca FLM09) 67 laps (-21.606)
3. #95-LMPC Scott Tucker (Oreca FLM09) 66 laps (-1 Laps)

GT
1. #90-GT Dirk Mueller (BMW E92 M3) 66 laps
2. #45-GT Patrick Long (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR) 66 laps (-2.617)
3. #4-GT Oliver Gavin (Chevrolet Corvette ZR1) 66 laps (-2.328)

GTC
1. #54-GTC Jeroen Bleekemolen (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 64 laps
2. #69-GTC Galen Bieker (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 63 laps (-1 Lap)
3. #88-GTC Vic Rice (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup) 63 laps (-1 Lap)

Gallery:

Part 1- Brad’s Pics: