Racing News

    Dirk Müller moves into the GT points lead

     

    BMW Team RLL’s John Edwards and Dirk Müller finished third in GT in the American Le Mans Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, driving the #56 Z4 GTE that had finished second in Long Beach. Their teammates, Bill Auberlen and Maxime Martin, dropped out on Martin's stint with a differential problem just before the 2½-hour mark in the four-hour race. Auberlen, a Laguna Seca veteran, set the fastest GT lap of the race before the car was retired.
     
    The GT class win went to the Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, while Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler finished second in a Porsche. The race was close all the way; the Corvette led for the last 3¼ hours, but it never held more than a five-second lead.

    Z4 #55 qualified fifth and #56 qualified eighth, but the two cars started fourth and seventh after the Porsche of Patrick Long and Tom Kimber-Smith, which had qualified second, was moved to the rear of the pack because of a wing infraction.

    The BMWs moved into contention early in the race; they were running third and fourth at the end of the first hour. Auberlen fell back after he had to pit early in the second hour for rear bodywork repairs, but he was able to get back on the lead lap. He stayed there until he handed off to Martin.

    Z4 #56 stayed among the front runners for the balance of the race, running as high as second. John Edwards was part of an intense battle for the class lead with Magnussen and Sellers near the end of the race; he got by the Porsche driver in a great move in traffic, but fell back to third on a restart.

    The Falken Tire Porsche failed a post-race stall test. It retained its second position in class, but lost its team and drivers' points.

    Dirk Müller, who moved into the GT points lead as a result of his finish, said “We certainly were able to carry the momentum from Long Beach to another podium here at Laguna Seca. It is great to take the driver points lead, but it is so close, only single digits separate all of us now. I’m sorry Bill and Maxime could not finish the race.”

    The overall race win went to Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr in their HPD ARX-03 prototype.

    The American Le Mans Series takes a long break after the Laguna Seca race to accommodate those competitors who will run at Le Mans in June. The next ALMS series race will be run at Lime Rock on July 6.—Brian S. Morgan