Graf and Luhr take narrow victory at Road America

Muscle Milk Lola-Aston Martin duo Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr inched closer to Dyson's Guy Smith and Chris Dyson in the American Le Mans Series title race by taking their fourth win of the year in the Road America round.

Though the Lola-Aston had looked comfortable in the lead in the middle section of the four-hour event, the Dyson Lola-Mazda had a second wind in Smith's hands in the last half hour and put Graf under huge pressure through the final laps. Despite some close calls in traffic as the clock ticked down, Graf was able to hang on and triumph by just 0.112sec.

"The last 20 minutes, it was probably the toughest of my career," Graf said. "I can't remember pushing so hard for the last two hours. We were completely lucky the way the yellow came out (with 50 minutes left). The guys just drove an awesome race. We made for a great show. We showed ALMS has some of the best sports car drivers in the world."

The win was sweet redemption for the Muscle Milk team, which lost the lead in two corners from the finish in last year's Road America race.

"It's much easier when you're driving and not having to watch your teammate get squeezed and handled," Luhr said. "I prefer the driving much more than watching. Klaus is a little bit older than me – maybe after what he did we are the same age now! He drove extremely well. He put all the tricks in to defend the lead. It was close and everything. It was a very emotional day, especially losing the race last year with two corners to the end."

The opening stint had seen a superb performance from ALMS rookie Steven Kane, who thrust Dyson's No. 20 car past Graf on the opening lap, and led the opening hour – successfully retaliating when the Lola-Aston got ahead on an early restart.

Kane's inexperienced teammate Humaid Al Masaood then lost ground when he took over the car, and was delayed in the pits with a water leak before eventually crashing out.

Third overall went to Butch Leitzinger and Rudy Junco as they gave PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports its maiden LMPC class win, beating the No. 63 Genoa car.

The Ferrari F458 Italia claimed its first ALMS win as Risi's Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo emerged from a typically close-fought GT contest, passing the No. 55 BMW of Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen late on.

The No. 56 BMW had led the opening stages and ended up third, as Dirk Muller overtook the No. 45 Flying Lizard Porsche with just a few minutes remaining. The No. 4 car was the best of the Corvettes in fifth, just ahead of the Falken Porsche, having survived an early tangle with the Risi Ferrari as they exited their first pit stops, while the sister car retired with crash damage after a spin by Tommy Milner.

A dramatic GTC class finish saw Jeroen Bleekemolen move from third to first in the Black Swan car he shares with Tim Pappas in the final few laps, beating the No. 66 TRG car, while erstwhile leader Sean Edwards (NGT) slowed with a puncture.