Graf defeats Heidfeld at Long Beach

Pickett Racing played the perfect strategy to claim a comfortable American Le Mans Series victory on the streets of Long Beach.

Lucas Luhr took advantage of one of three first-hour cautions to pit from second after just 15 minutes, handing over to Klaus Graf.

A stop-start opening hour was led by Neel Jani for Rebellion Racing but Graf had worked his way up to second by the halfway point.

The duo pitted at the same time under the third caution and the Pickett HPD, requiring less fuel and no driver change courtesy of the early stop, jumped the Rebellion Toyota.

Nick Heidfeld gave chase once racing resumed but Graf made better headway through traffic and by the time the #12 car had made it through, Heidfeld was more than 20s adrift – the gap extending to 36s by the finish.

CORE Autosport was third overall with its LMPC machine, Colin Braun and Jonathan Bennett claiming a dominant class victory.

The final place on the rostrum had been left up grabs for the lower classes when Chris Dyson made a mistake 17 minutes in, hitting the wall while chasing erstwhile leader Jani and stopping on circuit; the Dyson Racing team’s race over prematurely.

Luis Diaz and Mike Guasch were second for PR1 in the PC class after a lonely drive, well clear of class polemen Bruno Junqueira and Duncan Ende.

The first three LMPCs were impressively clear of the first LMP2 car of Scott Sharp/Guy Cosmo, which finished sixth overall. Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown, the next LMP2, finished eighth.

The LMP2 polesitting Level 5 HPD ran into a series of problems, including a pit penalty.

Bill Auberlen took the GT class win for BMW by stealth, recovering from an opening lap mistake by team-mate Maxime Martin before slipping by long-time leader Dominik Farnbacher in the SRT Viper in the final stages.

The RLL BMW was only fifth fastest in qualifying but steadily worked its way to the front and when Farnbacher ran wide with 20 minutes to go Auberlen took full advantage. The Dirk Muller/Joey Hand shared BMW then snatched second from the #91 Viper on the penultimate lap of the race.

The NGT Porsche just held off the attentions of Flying Lizard duo Spencer Pumpelly and Nelson Canache Jr to take GTC honours, Henrique Cisneros and Sean Edwards – in his first race at Long Beach – claiming the class victory.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/graf-defeats-heidfeld-at-long-beach

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