ALMS Round 9, VIR Oak Tree Grand Prix recap

Tim DeLong

The ALMS took to the track Saturday at the beautiful Virginia International Raceway circuit for the Oak Tree Grand Prix. Records were broken, championships were clinched, and Porsches were wrecked before the day was over.

In P1 the victory went to Muscle Milk / Pickett Racing who extended their consecutive race win streak to eight. Saturday’s win did not come easy for Muscle Milk / Pickett Racing. Drivers Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf were challenged by Guy Smith and Johnny Mowlem of Dyson Racing Team Inc.  The Dyson Lola B12/60 Mazda held the lead for 31 of the 84 laps, ultimately finishing second, becoming the only other car to finish on the lead lap.

In P2, Ryan Briscoe helped Level 5 Motorsports take the win over rivals Extreme Speed motorsports. Level 5 Driver Marino Franchitti finished third in P2 and now leads the driver’s championship by just four points over teammate Guy Cosmo.

In PC, Kyle Marcelli and Chris Cumming captured their second consecutive victory.  Marcelli brought his BAR1 Motorsports ORECA FLM09 home just 11.590 seconds ahead of Jon Bennett and Tom Kimber-Smith in the CORE Autosport machine.

In GT, The Risi Competizione Ferrari of Matteo Malucelli and Olivier Beretta took the class victory, their first since 2011.  All eyes were on Corvette Racing as the clinched the 2013 GT manufacture’s championship with a third place finish.

In GTC, Damien Faulkner and Ben Keating, in the TRG Porsche, held off championship points leaders Cooper MacNeil and Jeroen Bleekemolen of Alex Job Racing. The GTC second place points holder, Henrique Cisneros, was shunted by GT class competitor Marco Holzer in turn 10 at the two-hour mark. Cisneros’ Porsche hit the tire barrier hard, resulting in several flips that left his Porsche sitting atop the tire wall. Holzer’s GT class Porsche also suffered substantial damage. Both drivers walked away from the incident unharmed.

The final race of the ALMS series will be the Petit Le Mans presented by Mazda, a ten-hour endurance race, held at Road Atlanta, October 16-19, 2013.

Live qualifying: Friday, October 18, 2013 1:50 P.M.

Live streaming: Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:30 A.M.

Television Broadcast: Saturday, October 19, 2013 11:00 A.M. on Fox Sports one

Encore Presentation: Sunday, October 20, 2013 4: P.M. on Fox Sports One

All times are EDT