Muscle Milk wins ALMS Long Beach

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing captured the overall victory in the American Le Mans Series' second round of 2012 on the streets of Long Beach. The team won last year with a Lola-Aston Martin and this year with the HPD ARX-03a, making it the first team to have won successive years at Long Beach in the ALMS.

Drivers Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf ran relatively in lockstep with the polesitting Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 Mazda early before Luhr came through to the lead. The team's lead was nullified on the race's only yellow flag 50 minutes into the two-hour race, and then a refueling issue on the pit stop cost the team more than 20 seconds. As it turned out, the issue was a blessing in disguise.

The team pitted a second time under the yellow flag to ensure it would have enough fuel to make the finish. The sister Dyson car, which pitted only once, had to work to save fuel despite Chris Dyson taking over from Guy Smith with a substantial lead – and traffic in-between – the Muscle Milk car.

“It was not the plan for the extra fuel,” Graf said. “We did a good change and I was ready to go. Usually by that time we are ready to go, but I'm not sure why it took so long, it took a bit longer than expected and lost the lead. We weren't sure if we got a full fill, with one yellow we knew it would be very tight. We just had to be sure we were safe on fuel until the end.”

Graf closed the deficit at a rate at roughly one to two seconds per lap on Dyson, before he moved ahead powering out of the turn 11 hairpin onto the front straight.

“I did a number of qualifying laps just to catch up to Chris,” he said. “Once I was close to him we were side by side going down the front straightaway. I got just ahead of him and had to keep ahead, and maintain the lead.”

GT saw Corvette, BMW and Ferrari at the head of the queue – the new Porsche trailing on a track it might have been expected to thrive based on prior performance with its previous generation 911 GT3 RSR. Tommy Milner ran a clean opening stint in dicing with the No. 56 BMW, driven by Joey Hand, and the impressive No. 01 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari F458 in the hands of Johannes van Overbeek.

Van Overbeek put in a storming first stint on his 39th birthday, as he charged from ninth on the grid to the class lead with a pass of Milner nearing the 40-minute mark. The No. 56 BMW, which had gone off sequence after a puncture, was relegated back in the field although it didn't lose a lap.

Once Milner handed over to Oliver Gavin, Corvette's status up front was assured once Gavin completed a move on Dirk Mueller in the BMW, which had then gone back to the front. The two held on for the victory, surprisingly Milner's first in ALMS despite a career dating to 2006. Milner has prior wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other races in Dubai and Okayama, Japan, but never an ALMS one with either Panoz, BMW and now Corvette, until today.

“Finally, I got a win in ALMS, racing since 2006,” Milner said. “I've had some great podiums and big heartbreaks after chances to win. With an unknown car from the rain sessions, it was great to get a win that meant something. I learned a bit from last year where I had put myself in bad situations so I focused on keeping out this year. It's a big team win today, not just about me, but the team, and my co-driver.”

The battle for the final podium spot came down to a fight between the sister Corvette and the No. 01 ESM Ferrari. Scott Sharp put in a fantastic passing maneuver on Jan Magnussen, who was fighting a damaged racecar with fading tires. Sharp moved Magnussen to the inside of turn 8, then crossed under on exit to power past for the position. It marks the team's third podium in its history, first this year.

Behind the overall leaders, the PC class leaders moved ahead of Dyson's second car from the green flag, and largely ran there for the bulk of the race. Alex Popow drove a steady first stint in only his second ever street course race, his first at Long Beach, before handing off to Ryan Dalziel in the No. 06 CORE autosport entry. That car ran smoothly to the finish for an overall podium and its second win in as many starts this season. Popow shared the car with IndyCar's EJ Viso and Burt Frisselle at Sebring. The Muscle Milk car finished second in class with Memo Gidley and Michael Guasch, and CORE's sister entry again finished third with Jon Bennett and the newly married Colin Braun.

“Excellent win today,” said Dalziel, who made his first U.S. start at Long Beach in Formula Atlantic in 2002. “It's my 10 year anniversary, as this was my first race when I moved to the U.S. in 2002. I bugged Core to let me race here and help Alex extend his lead in the championship. The heat they put on him today and they way he excelled was a huge success.”

The PC class winners finished ahead of the P2 ones, who all had relatively fraught days. Level 5 Motorsports still managed the victory despite an early spin for Scott Tucker, who was nudged by Rudy Junco in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Christophe Bouchut took over the team's No. 055 HPD ARX-03b, and ascended to the lead when the class's erstwhile leaders Conquest Endurance needed a final splash of fuel. It spoiled what was a great run for David Heinemeier Hansson and Martin Plowman, who were on course for the class victory. “DHH” ran as high as third overall in the early stages.

GTC had one late change for the lead, as the otherwise dominant JDX Racing car fell back in the waning stages despite Chris Cumming handing off to Michael Valiante, the Canadian who would have been on pole in class had qualifying not been canceled. Green Hornet swept through to the lead, taking its first GTC class win in the hands of Damien Faulkner and Peter LeSaffre.