ALMS Ready For Canadian Trip

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, CORE Autosport and Dyson Racing are three teams expected to compete for division victories this weekend in the American Le Mans Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. (ALMS Photo)

MOSPORT, Ontario – This weekend the American Le Mans Series makes its annual trip north of the border to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

CTMP annually has some of the highest speeds on the Series schedule and best crowds, as well. Fans routinely see cars averaging more than 135 mph a lap across the 2.459-mile, 10-turn layout – a circuit largely unchanged from when the track held its first race in 1961. The ALMS raced at the track for the first time in 1999 and has returned each season since.

Just like last year, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing enters as defending race winner. Unlike 2011, the pairing of Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr drive a Honda Performance Development ARX-03a prototype instead of a Lola-Aston Martin. The pairing also lead the ALMS’ P1 championship and ride a three-race win streak following a victory last weekend at Lime Rock Park.

Dyson Racing counters with two Mazda-powered Lola. The team won overall at the track in 2004 and 2005. Chris Dyson and Guy Smith will drive one Lola-Mazda with Eric Lux and Toronto’s Tony Burgess sharing the other.

Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Oliver Gavin won the GT class last year but are in competing cars this time around. Gavin and Tommy Milner lead the GT championship with two victories in four races this season. Magnussen and Antonio Garcia stand second with defending ALMS GT champions Joey Hand and Dirk Müller of BMW Team RLL third.

Level 5 Motorsports seeks its fifth straight P2 victory of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with its HPD ARX-03b. Christophe Bouchut and team owner Scott Tucker won three of the first four rounds of the season including a nail-biter over Conquest Endurance at Lime Rock.

CORE Autosport also comes to Canada a perfect 4-for-4 in Prototype Challenge this season. Colin Braun and team owner Jonathan Bennett won at Lime Rock in their ORECA FLM09 for a second straight victory. Alex Popow in CORE’s second entry continues to lead the championship following a second-place finish at Lime Rock with Tom Kimber-Smith. Last year, Mosport marked CORE’s first 1-2 class finish in its young ALMS history.

In GT Challenge, Spencer Pumpelly seeks his second straight class victory with TRG – this year driving with Emilio di Guida. Class championship leader Cooper MacNeil won his first race of the year at Lime Rock with Leh Keen, and the pairing are together again at CTMP. Their victory last weekend extended AJR’s lead in the class’ team championship.

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Posted by NSSN Staff on Jul 11 2012 Filed under ALMS, Latest Headlines, Road Racing, Top Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.