American Le Mans Series
Aston Martin wins at Laguna Seca
© Aston Martin Racing
Aston Martin has won the annual Laguna Seca American Le Mans Series Race. Under sunny skies, in a race dominated by yellow flags, the team ran faultlessly for 6 hours to take the top spot on the podium. Drivers Adrian Fernandez (MEX), Stefan Mücke (D) and Harold Primat (CH) drove the Aston Martin DBR1-2 consistently in the top three, and in the final hour remained dominant in first position.
Official partner team Muscle Milk Racing was also running perfectly in the top three until lap 146 when a fuel pump problem brought the car back into the garage for an hour. The car went on to finish the race crossing the line fifth in class.
In qualifying the day before, Fernandez put in a 1:14.621 lap in the factory entered Lowes-sponsored DBR1-2, which successfully gained the team third on the grid for today’s race.
Klaus Graf (D) qualified the V12 powered Aston Martin LMP1 machine of Official Partner Team, Muscle Milk Racing achieving a time of 1:15.564 which earned them fourth on the grid.
Mücke started the race and within five laps he’d moved up to second position after a smart overtaking manoeuvre. By the seventh lap he was leading the race and making good progress. The remaining five hours, the blue and orange Gulf Oil liveried DBR1-2 stayed in the top three throughout.
Aston Martin Racing Team Principal, George Howard Chappell said: “I am obviously extremely pleased with the result. It is a great shame to see the Muscle Milk car drop out when it did, as we could have been on for an Aston 1-2, but nevertheless we have an Aston Martin victory which is fantastic.
“I am delighted for the team who have achieved this result on our return to the States after a difficult year – they’ve all worked hard for this, so it is a just reward.”
Mücke who brought the Aston Martin DBR1-2 across the finish line said: “It’s a great result for us all; the team did a perfect job, as did the drivers.
“Nobody made a mistake and she [the car] was fast today. It’s our first win in the American Le Mans Series, and the race started well, but then we had contact twice and after that, we never thought we could win. I am really happy and thanks to everybody.”
Primat said: “This is an absolutely fantastic result for the whole team. It is a great feeling to be standing back on the top step of the podium and the whole team should be proud of today’s result. Everyone has worked extremely hard to keep improving the car step by step and today’s victory is testimony to all that effort.”
Aston Martin Racing will return to the American Le Mans Series in two weeks time at the final round; Petit Le Mans.
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what a fantastic result! its great to see the old lola aston coupe in gulf colours doing so well after the amr one debacle. theres life in the old dog yet. witnessed at silverstone last week, well off the pace but what a beautiful motor. as for that v12 sound, fantastic!
The Dyson #16 car changed its engine and still started from pole…that was ridiculous. It should have started from the back of the field.
If you change tires from qualifying you start from the back yet they swap engines and keep their pole position. Sure Mazda sponsors the race and maintains the track, but even though it’s their home base fairness to the other competitors should still be considered.
And the fresh engine gave them extra speed.
You are allowed to change engine its in the rules…..its a 6 hr race starting from the back is not an issue either way.
Bamba same happened at Baltimore with the #4 Corvette, they changed the engine between warmup and the race after the engine developed a misfire in warmup and kept there grid position, so its not the first time this has happened.
I took almost 400 pics at this race, and dozens of the Aston Lola. Beautiful car. I imagine that Mr. Pickett got a talkin to from the head of AMR after the Muscle Milk car bumped the 007 at the entry to the corkscrew. It was a great to see them hold off the charge of the 2 dyson cars as they both ran strong as well.
I doubt Greg Pickett got any heat from any Aston Martin personnel. Besides Mr Pickett can procure any chassis he desires (only if R18s and 908s were for sale), so they wouldn’t want to lose such a cool customer.
I’m sure when they agreed to sale him a car there was an understanding that he could race for wins, and they knew he was in a title hunt.
Point made. And looking at the pic I have of the impact, the MM car clearly had a driver mistake entering the turn. Looked like he braked a bit late and couldnt make the turn in.
I don’t think Muscle Milk actually owns their Lola-Aston because last year they had just bought the Porsche and I believe it has been leased from AMR for 1 year. With them stepping up to use the new chassis next year but I wonder if they’ll just go GT racing with ASton next year.
The car is owned by Charouz and least by Pickett. I certainly hope it will come back for 2012 with the necessary brakes, but I suspect it will not. My guess is that the muscle milk team will run an ARX 03a.
Also a great result for Aston Martin, I believe this is the first time Aston Martin Racing has won in America as a full factory team. Congratulations to them and lets hope 2012s car is much improved.
I believe an “AMR TWO” is in the works but no one knows for sure. I hope it has a roof!
Aston leased or not muscle milk didn’t get the car to play second fiddle to anyone. In my opinion the muscle milk car is better prepared than the factory car. If they fix all the electrical problems and greg pickett does not drive too much at petit and they don’t get any trouble on track they will have more pace than the factory car.
Assuming they still own it, MM should revert back to their RS spyder. They always were by far the fastest LMP2, and with the P1 regs the way they are, I cant see anything wrong with it. But then again, the 2012 regs might not allow it???
Porsche has cancelled the RS Spyder program, and are not allowing anyone to race them.
There are probable teams or collectors that own them and still race them on private tracks, or track days.
I did not know that @William, so thanks for that and lets hope Muscle Milk are allowed to keep using the Aston or at least given the opportunity to race a new HPD.