Team Falken Tire scored what might be considered a fluke victory in the rain at Mid-Ohio, but delivered an authoritative statement of their dry weather potential on the streets of Baltimore. Wolf Henzler and Bryan Sellers took the GT class win, their second of the season for the Derrick Walker-led organization.
Aboard the lone-Falken shod Porsche 911, Henzler put in a stellar first stint after an ambitious first turn, running near the polesitting No. 55 Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW M3 most of the time before making a pass on Dirk Werner in the BMW into Turn 3.
The BMW seemed primed to take the advantage, though, when it stopped before the first and longest caution of the race. A manhole cover became dislodged at Turn 9, and the No. 55 car stopped for Werner to hand off to Bill Auberlen. The No. 3 Corvette Racing C6.R played the same strategy.
After a late caution, Steven Kane in the second Dyson Racing Lola Mazda coupe led overall from Auberlen and Tommy Milner, former BMW teammates now running 1-2 in separate cars. That didn't last as Milner made a dive-bomb passing attempt at turn 1, with the left front of his Corvette spinning Auberlen out of contention. Milner received a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty for the maneuver.
With those two out of the way, the second BMW and second Corvette came to the fore behind the Falken Porsche. Class points leaders Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller secured their fifth podium of the season in second place, ahead of their closest championship rivals Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen.
The Gavin/Magnussen Corvette had a pre-race engine change, and then made contact with the sister Corvette and others in a turn 1 accordion effect incident. Several other would-be GT contenders started from the rear, the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche and No. 62 Risi Ferrari each having their times disallowed following a dustup in qualifying.
The Porsche's race ended early as Patrick Long pitted to have both the left rear upright and broken driveshaft changed. Risi made it as high as fourth in class but finished sixth by the flag.
Behind the podium, Paul Miller Racing secured its best GT class finish in fourth for the Yokohama-shod entry driven by Bryce Miller and Sascha Maassen. Auberlen recovered to fifth by the flag.
In P1, the unheralded Oryx Dyson second car driven by Kane and Humaid al Masaood scored a surprising, but deserved first overall victory in the American Le Mans Series' seventh round of the 2011 season on the streets of Baltimore.
Kane emerged ahead of Guy Smith in the sister Dyson Mazda after their only pit stop of the race that occurred under the race's first and longest full-course caution, when a manhole cover became dislodged at Turn 9. An impressive first stint by al Masaood kept the second Dyson car within shouting distance of Chris Dyson, the UAE driver running a fastest lap within a half a second of Dyson. Once Kane took over, the Irishman ran a comfortable pace to maintain the gap and secure the win from his teammate by 6.961 seconds.
Kyle Marcelli and Tomy Drissi took their second win of the season in LMPC for Intersport, ahead of Genoa Racing's Eric Lux and Elton Julian and CORE autosport's Jon Bennett and Frankie Montecalvo.
In GTC, Black Swan Racing took its fourth win of the season with Tim Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen.
Results - 71 laps:
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap
1. P1 Al Masaood/Kane Dyson Lola-Mazda 2h01m03.170s
2. P1 Dyson/Smith Dyson Lola-Mazda + 6.961s
3. PC Marcelli/Drissi Intersport FLM + 25.760s
4. PC Lux/Julian Genoa FLM + 58.462s
5. PC Bennett/Montecalvo CORE Autosport FLM + 1m00.861s
6. GT Henzler/Sellers Falken Porsche + 1m16.935s
7. PC Jeannette/Gonzalez CORE Autosport FLM + 1m19.921s
8. GT Muller/Hand BMW + 1 lap
9. GT Gavin/Magnussen Corvette + 1 lap
10. PC Nicolosi/Boon Performance Tech FLM + 1 lap
11. GT Miller/Maassen Miller Porsche + 1 lap
12. GT Auberlen/Werner BMW + 1 lap
13. GT Melo/Vilander Risi Ferrari + 1 lap
14. GT Beretta/Milner Corvette + 1 lap
15. P1 Burgess/McMurry Autocon Lola-AER + 3 laps
16. GT Neiman/Law Flying Lizard Porsche + 3 laps
17. GT Sharp/van Overbeek Extreme Speed Ferrari + 3 laps
18. GT Brown/Cosmo Extreme Speed Ferrari + 3 laps
19. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen Black Swan Porsche + 4 laps
20. GTC Sweedler/Keen Alex Job Porsche + 4 laps
21. GTC Potter/Stanton Magnus Porsche + 4 laps
22. GTC LeSaffre/Davis Green Hornet Porsche + 4 laps
23. GTC von Moltke/Bunting TRG Porsche + 4 laps
24. GTC Ende/Pumpelly TRG Porsche + 4 laps
25. P1 Dumas/Graf Muscle Milk Lola-Aston + 7 laps
26. GT Bergmeister/Long Flying Lizard Porsche + 15 laps
Retirements:
PC Ducote/Ducote Intersport FLM 52 laps
PC Dobson/Lewis PR1 Mathiasen FLM 14 laps
GT Jones/Moran RSR Jaguar 1 laps
GT Junqueira/Wilden RSR Jaguar 0 laps