24h Le Mans
Photo : - ALMS
There was a 112 millisecond gap between the winners Klaus Graf / Lucas Luhr (Lola-Aston Martin Muscle Milk AMR) and Chris Dyson / Guy Smith (Dyson Racing Lola-Mazda) at the finish of the previous round at Road America. The duel is between these two teams for the Prototypes title. Still in pursuit of Dyson Racing, Muscle Milk AMR is eighteen points behind, and will receive a reinforcement in Baltimore weight in the person of Romain Dumas. Winner of the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, the French driver will replace Lucas Luhr for this event and will share the car with Klaus Graf.
In GT, Risi Competizione Ferrari gave the 458 Italia its first victory in ALMS at Road America, with Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander. This success was in the presence of Amedeo Felisa and Marco Mattiacci, Ferrari SpA, respectively CEO and President of Ferrari North America. Giuseppe Risi: “The Ferrari 458 is Ing. Felisa’s ‘baby’, so to speak, as he has taken a special interest in its development. Ing. Felisa came here especially from California, disturbing his holiday to do so." The BMW of Rahal Letterman Lanigan, however, remains strong leader in the category rankings for provisional drivers and teams from Corvette Racing who are now threatened by Porsche and Ferrari in the constructors standing.
The duels in all categories of the 2011 season will therefore continue to Baltimore on a completely new circuit, which should be very 'TV friendly' addition to the American Le Mans Series, which has seen its finest television audience of the year when the Road America Race, was followed by more than 900,000 homes.
The next round of 2011 ALMS will take place on September 2nd and 3rd.
Jean-Philippe Doret
Photo: ROAD AMERICA, Elkhart Lake (Wisconsin, USA), August 20, 2011. Fourth win (and third consecutive) of the 2011 season for the Lola-Aston Martin of AMR Muscle Milk.
