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Oct
6th

ALMS: Graf and Luhr extend winning streak in Virginia (+results)

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From ALMS.com

After battling Dyson Racing throughout the opening two hours, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing dominated the final 45 minutes to score its eighth consecutive American Le Mans Series victory, with Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf winning Saturday's Oak Tree Grand Prix at Virginia International Raceway.

Quick work in the pits gave Luhr the lead under an extended caution. He pulled away on the restart in the No. 6 HPD ARX-03c and beat Dyson Racing's Guy Smith to the checkered flag by 22.846 seconds to score his 49th career ALMS victory.

In the P2 class, Ryan Briscoe beat Scott Sharp to the checkered flag by 15.317 seconds for his fourth victory of the season, joining seven-time winner Scott Tucker in the No. 551 Level 5 Motorsports Siemens/Alpina Watches/Ohiya Casino Resort HPD ARX-03b.

Sharp finished second with Anthony Lazzaro in the No. 01 Extreme Speed Motorsports Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b, followed by Level 5's Stefan Johansson, Marino Franchitti and Guy Cosmo in the team's No. 552 entry.

Entering the finale, Franchitti unofficially leads Cosmo by four points (154-150), followed by Tucker with 149 points and Sharp with 143.

In GT, Matteo Malucelli pulled away over the closing laps to give Risi Competizione its first ALMS victory since Road America in 2011. It was Malucelli's first career victory in ALMS competition, and co-driver Olivier Beretta's 43rd.

Patrick Long and co-driver Colin Braun finished second ahead of GT points co-leaders Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 for Corvette Racing.

Magnussen and Garcia extended their lead in the championship to 16 points, 125-109, over Dirk Muller, who finished fourth at VIR in the No. 56 BMW North America/Crowne Plaza BMW Z4 GTE alongside co-driver Joey Hand.

While the driver championship is still up for grabs with 24 points available to the race winner in the season-ending Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda, the third-place run by Magnussen and Garcia was enough to clinch the ALMS GT team championship for Corvette Racing and the manufacturer's championship for Chevrolet.

A first-time winner at the most recent race in Austin, Texas, Kyle Marcelli and Chris Cumming scored their second consecutive Prototype Challenge victory.

In the GT Challenge (GTC) category, No. 66 Port Lavaca Group/Viper Exchange/Adobe Road Winery Porsche 911 GT3 Cup co-drivers Damien Faulkner and Ben Keating parlayed their second consecutive class pole position into their second consecutive victory.

Race results - ALMS (Virginia International Raceway)
1 - Graf/Luhr (HPD ARX-03c) - Pickett - 84 laps
2 - Mowlem/Smith (Lola B12/60 Mazda) - Dyson - 84
3 - Tucker/Briscoe (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 83
4 - Sharp/Lazzaro (HPD ARX-03b) - ExtremeSpeed - 83
5 - Franchitti-Cosmo-Johansson (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 83
6 - Marcelli/Cumming (Oreca FLM09) - BAR1 - 81
7 - Bennett/Kimber-Smith (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 81
8 - Mitchell/French (Oreca FLM09) - BAR1 - 81
9 - Beretta/Malucelli (Ferrari 458) - Risi - 80
10 - Long/Braun (Porsche 997) - PR1 - 79
11 - Magnussen/Garcia (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 79
12 - Mueller/Hand (BMW Z4) - Rahal - 79
13 - Auberlen/Martin (BMW Z4) - Rahal - 79
14 - Gavin/Milner (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 79
15 - Goossens/Farnbacher (SRT Viper) - SRT - 79
16 - Henzler/Sellers (Porsche 997) - Falken - 79
17 - Bomarito/Wittmer (SRT Viper) - SRT - 77
18 - Keating/Faulkner (Porsche 997 Cup) - TRG - 75
19 - MacNeil/Bleekemolen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Alex Job - 75
20 - Cisneros-Edwards (Porsche 997 Cup) - NGT - 75
21 - Hedlund/Heylen (Porsche 997 Cup) - JDX - 75
22 - Neiman/Von Moltke (Porsche 911) - PR1 - 75
23 - Dempsey/Lally (Porsche 997 Cup) - Demsey/DelPiero - 75
24 - Canache/Pumpelly (Porsche 997 Cup) - FlyingLizard - 73
25 - Nunez/Booth (Oreca FLM09) - Preformance Tech - 73
26 - Guasch/Cameron (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 69
27 - VD Zande/Schultis (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 67
28 - Sweedler/Bell (Ferrari 458) - Alex Job - 67
29 - Miller/Holzer (Porsche 997) - Miller - 50
30 - Cisneros/Germaziak (Porsche 997 Cup) - NGT - 47
31 - Meyrick/Legge (DeltaWing) - Panoz - 40
32 - Brown/Van Overbeek (HPD ARX-03b) - ExtremeSpeed - 31

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