Auto News 5

Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf (Muscle Milk) just managed to beat Rebellion's Neel Jani and Nick Heidfeld in the third round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season, presented at the famous Laguna Seca race track.

Luhr and Graf reigned supreme in the P1 category before Rebellion Racing dropped in the series uninvited. Since Sebring, the two teams have been fighting hard. So far this season, they are neck and neck in the championship at 40 points all.

In Laguna Seca though, Muscle Milk edged in front. Thanks to a late pass, Luhr became the all-time leader for wins in the series -- with his 43rd first --, and the pair became the first repeat winners at the track since 2007.

Slowed down by a puncture, Jani and Heidfeld finished some six seconds adrift.

Third were Andy Meyrick and Katherine Legge in the high-profile DeltaWing. Legge became the first woman to stand on an ALMS podium.

Katherine Legge (Photo: ALMS)

In GT, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia (Corvette) led a five-car train at the finish. Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler (Team Falken Porsche), followed by Dirk Müller and John Edwards (BMW Z4) completed the podium.

Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker (Level 5) won in P2 from their sister car.

The other winners of the day are Luis Diaz and Mike Guasch (PR1/Mathiasen) in PC, and Nick Tandy and Henrique Cisneros (NGT Porsche) in GTC.


Race results - ALMS (Laguna Seca)
1 - Graf/Luhr (HPD ARX-03c) - Pickett - 150 laps
2 - Heidfeld/Jani (Lola B12/60 Toyota) - Rebellion - 150
3 - Tucker/Franchitti (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 146
4 - Tucker/Briscoe (HPD ARX-03b) - Level 5 - 146
5 - Guasch/Diaz (Oreca FLM09) - PR1 - 145
6 - Bennett/Braun (Oreca FLM09) - CORE - 145
7 - Nunez/Shears (Oreca FLM09) - Preformance Tech - 144
8 - Marcelli/Cumming (Oreca FLM09) - BAR1 - 144
9 - Magnussen/Garcia (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 142
10 - Henzler/Sellers (Porsche 997) - Falken - 142
11 - Mueller/Hand (BMW Z4) - Rahal - 142
12 - Sweedler/Bell (Ferrari 458) - Alex Job - 142
13 - Goossens/Farnbacher (SRT Viper) - SRT - 142
14 - Schultis-Van der Zande (Oreca FLM09 Chevy) - DragonSpeed - 142
15 - Miller/Holzer (Porsche 997) - Miller - 142
16 - Sharp/Cosmo (HPD ARX-03b) - ExtremeSpeed - 142
17 - Drissi/Mitchell (Oreca FLM09) - BAR1 - 141
18 - Long/Kimber-Smith (Porsche 997) - 140
19 - Beretta/Malucelli (Ferrari 458) - Risi - 139
20 - Cisneros-Edwards (Porsche 997 Cup) - NGT - 137
21 - Dempsey/Lally/Foster (Porsche 997 Cup) - Demsey/DelPiero - 137
22 - MacNeil/Bleekemolen (Porsche 997 Cup) - Alex Job - 137
23 - Keating/Faulkner (Porsche 997 Cup) - TRG - 137
24 - Hedlund/Heylen (Porsche 997 Cup) - JDX - 137
25 - Avenatti/Davis/Faieta (Porsche 997 Cup) - Demsey/DelPiero - 137
26 - Gavin/Milner (Corvette ZR1) - Corvette - 136
27 - Stanton/Novich (Porsche 997 Cup) - TRG - 135
28 - Canache/Neiman/Pumpelly (Porsche 997 Cup) - FlyingLizard - 134
29 - Junqueira/Ende (Oreca FLM09) - Rocketsports - 132
30 - Ehret/Von Moltke (Porsche 997 Cup) - Flying Liz. - 129
31 - Wagner/Ballou (Porsche 997 Cup) Competition - 122
32 - Meyrick-Legge (DeltaWing LM12-Elan) - DeltaWing - 104
33 - Auberlen/Martin (BMW Z4) - Rahal - 85
34 - Brown/Van Overbeek (HPD ARX-03b) - ExtremeSpeed - 64
35 - Dyson/Smith (Lola B12/60 Mazda) - Dyson - 21
36 - Bomarito/Wittmer (SRT Viper) - SRT - 12