The third round of the 2012 ALMS season, American Le Mans Series Monterey is a test for drivers and teams. A six-hour race around the challenging 11-turn, 2.238-mile with its quick corners and dramatic elevation changes, Monterey demands precise driving, controlled aggression, and correct strategy.
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing considers Monterey its home vent, as the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca isn’t far from team headquarters in Benicia, Calif. The P1 team has yet to win here, though it has scored podiums. After winning at Long Beach in March, the team hopes to keep the momentum going.
While many teams bring in a third for the six-hour event, Muscle Milk Pickett is sticking with the duo of Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf at the wheel of the #6 Muscle Milk HPD ARX-03a.
“Klaus and I feel very good going into the race. The team did a great job at Long Beach and I’m sure they will keep it up at Laguna Seca,” Lucas Luhr said in a team media release.
“It should be a very interesting race. The track is very tricky because there is always a lot of sand that ends up on it and that makes it difficult sometimes to find the right set up for these conditions.
“From a Championship point of view, it has a little more importance because it’s a six-hour race there are more points available and with the title as our main objective this year it could become very important.”
Muscle Milk Pickett is probably the favorite for an overall win. The team nearly won at Sebring, foiled only by a late-race fuel-filler failure, and won going away at Long Beach. Still Monterey with its longer format and full grid, provide lots of chances for things to go wrong as well.
“We want to build on the success from our win at the last race and take the lead in the ALMS Championship,” Klaus Graf explained. “However six hours around Laguna Seca is a long time, traffic will be brutal, track conditions will change a lot and the race will ask for the full concentration of everyone on the team.”
