Klaus Graf put the #6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03a on the pole for the six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey. Graf, at Muscle Milk’s home event, posted a time of 1:13.573, besting the second-placed #16 Dyson Lola-Mazda of Guy Smith by 1.79 seconds.
“That’s really rewarding we worked really hard on the car we got it better every session and this is the best we have ever had it here so we are quite pleased,” Graf told ESPN3. Pole didn’t mean much in the course of a six-hour race, but it meant a lot to the team and its supporters, he explained.
“We are just two hours away with our shop and the company base so we will have a lot of friends and family and guest here tomorrow so this is a good start going into the six hour race. I am very pleased for the Muscle Milk crew—they did an awesome job. We did a gearbox change after breakfast to put that in is a bit risky always but the guys did an awesome job.
“We’ve tried a few times now to get pole position here and to finally get it is quite an achievement for us,” Graf said in a team press release. “Looking ahead to Saturday, I think Lucas and I have enough experience to be smart and race smart.”
The Dyson Lola had been having issues through every practice session, and went off early in qualifying, bringing out a brief red flag, but the team fixed a broken dive plane and got back on track.
“Qualifying was disappointing,” Guy Smith told ESPN3. “Actually we have been out of sorts all weekend. We made some changes for qualifying and that’s actually the best the car’s been all weekend. I think it’s a good race car—it’s not the fastest car right now but it is a six hour race and anything can happen.”
