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Sep
1st

ALMS: Luhr and Graf clinch P1 title in hectic Baltimore race (+video)

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From ALMS

Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr combined to clinch their second consecutive American Le Mans Series championship with a victory in the Grand Prix of Baltimore presented by SRT, their sixth consecutive victory from the 2013 season.

The race was shortened to one hour, 13 minutes after a multi-car incident completely blocked the front straight of the Inner Harbor street circuit seconds after the initial waving of the green flag.

ALMS Baltimore 2013
One of the restarts. (Photo: ALMS)

It was the shortest race in ALMS history, with Graf and Luhr leading four times for 17 of the 41 laps in the No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03c. The race featured eight lead changes among five different cars representing three classes.

Luhr took the lead for good by passing Guy Smith in the Turn 3 hairpin with 13 minutes remaining and then beat Smith to the checkered flag by 3.867 seconds. Smith led briefly down the stretch in the No. 16 Mazda/Thetford/Norcold Lola B12/60 started by Chris Dyson.



Jan Magnussen made a third-to-first move to take the GT lead shortly after the final restart, and held off teammate Tommy Milner by .457 seconds in a 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing.

Marino Franchitti took his fourth P2 victory of the season in the No. 552 HPD ARX-03b, joined by new Level 5 Motorsports teammate Guy Cosmo. The victory gave Franchitti the lead in the PC class championship standings.

Tristan Nunez went from third to first in the closing minutes to win in Prototype Challenge presented by Continental Tire (PC) in the No. 18 ORECA FLM09.

In GTC, Dion von Moltke and Seth Neiman led most of the way in the No. 44 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup. Second, only .843 seconds behind, was Jeroen Bleekemolen in the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche started by Cooper MacNeil.

Results
1. (1) Klaus Graf/Lucas Luhr (6-P1), HPD ARX-03c, 41 laps
2. (2) Chris Dyson/Guy Smith (16-P1), Lola B12-60 Mazda, 41
3. (7) Guy Cosmo/Marino Franchitti/Scott Tucker (552-P2), HPD ARX-03b, 41
4. (5) Scott Sharp/Anthony Lazzaro (01-P2), HPD ARX-03b, 41
5. (15) Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen (3-GT), Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 41
6. (13) Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner (4-GT), Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1, 41
7. (12) Joey Hand/Dirk Mueller (56-GT), BMW Z4 GTE, 41
8. (11) Bill Auberlen/Maxime Martin (55-GT), BMW Z4 GTE, 41
9. (17) Marc Goossens/Dominik Farnbacher (91-GT), SRT Viper GTS-R Viper, 41
10. (22) Charlie Shears/Tristan Nunez (18-PC), ORECA FLM09, 41
11. (20) Kuno Wittmer/Jonathan Bomarito (93-GT), SRT Viper GTS-R Viper, 41
12. (9) Jonathan Bennett/Colin Braun (05-PC), ORECA FLM09, 40
13. (30) Seth Neiman/Dion von Moltke (44-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
14. (23) Cooper MacNeil/Jeroen Bleekemolen (22-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
15. (29) Mike Hedlund/Jan Heylen (11-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
16. (31) Patrick Dempsey/Andy Lally (27-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
17. (25) Henrique Cisneros/Sean Edwards (30-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
18. (32) Marc Bunting/Norbert Siedler (67-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 39
19. (6) Mike Guasch/Dane Cameron (52-PC), ORECA FLM09, 38
20. (21) Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell (23-GT), Ferrari F458 Italia, 38
21. (24) Nelson Canache Jr./Spencer Pumpelly (45-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3, 36
22. (10) Alex Popow/Bruno Junqueira (9-PC), ORECA FLM09, 27
23. (28) Al Carter/Kevin Estre (68-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 26
24. (4) Ed Brown/Johannes van Overbeek (02-P2), HPD ARX-03b, 15
25. (26) Ben Keating/Damien Faulkner (66-GTC), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 14
26. (8) Chris Cumming/Kyle Marcelli (8-PC), ORECA FLM09, 3
27. (14) Tom Kimber-Smith/Patrick Long (06-GT), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 0
28. (16) Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers (17-GT), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 0
29. (19) Bryce Miller/Marco Holzer (48-GT), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 0
30. (3) Scott Tucker/Ryan Briscoe (551-P2), HPD ARX-03b, 0
31. (18) Olivier Beretta/Matteo Malucelli (62-GT), Ferrari F458 Italia, 0


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