AMR wins in return as LMP1 and GT team, driver titles locked up
Aston Martin Racing won its first overall race in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron, and Dyson Racing and BMW Team RLL each clinched driver and team championships on Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Stefan Mucke, Adrian Fernandez and Harold Primat won the six-hour ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey presented by Patron in their Aston Martin-powered Lola coupe. The trio battled all day with Dyson Racing and Oryx Dyson Racing Lola-Mazdas, and Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing’s Lola-Aston Martin.
“It’s a great result for us all. The team did a perfect job, as did the drivers,” Mucke said. “Nobody made a mistake and she (the car) was fast today. It’s our first win in the American Le Mans Series, and the race started well, but then we had contact twice and after that, we never thought we could win. I am really happy and thanks to everybody.”
Mucke passed Dyson’s Jay Cochran with 53 minutes left in the race. Cochran brought the Dyson Lola-Mazda home in second place, good enough to wrap up the LMP1 driver championship for Chris Dyson and Guy Smith. Dyson Racing also won its first ALMS team championship since 2003 when it won the LMP675 title.
BMW Team RLL won its second straight team championship with a runner-up finish in GT for Joey Hand and Dirk Müller. The pairing clinched the drivers’ championship in class – the first for Hand and second for Müller.
Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister won the race in GT for Flying Lizard Motorsports. Bergmeister went past Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo on the last lap when Melo’s Ferrari F458 Italia sputtered as it ran out of fuel. Bergmeister crossed the finish line in his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR by 3.571 seconds over Müller’s BMW M3 GT. It was the first win for the Bergmeister/Long pairing of the season.
Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid was the highest-finishing GT car although it officially competed as an unclassified entry. Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz completed 236 laps, the same as Bergmeister and Long.
Level 5 Motorsports debuted its new HPD ARX 01g with an LMP2 victory and fourth-place finish overall. Luis Diaz, Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker split driving duties for the team.
In LMPC, Genoa Racing turned its good fortune into a victory and class championship lead. Elton Julian, Eric Lux and Michael Guasch finished just 0.329 seconds ahead of CORE autosport’s Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Eric Lux.
The result moved Genoa into the lead of the team championship and Lux into first place in the drivers’ chase.
TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly beat Jeroen Bleekemolen for the GT Challenge victory by four seconds. Pumpelly took the lead with four minutes remaining.
