Stefan Mucke, Adrian Fernandez and Harold Primat winning Aston Martin

Bob Heathcote/AR1.com

Aston Martin Racing won its first overall race in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron, and Dyson Racing and BMW Team RLL each clinched driver and team championships on Saturday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Stefan Mucke, Adrian Fernandez and Harold Primat won the six-hour ModSpace American Le Mans Monterey presented by Patron in their Aston Martin-powered Lola coupe. The trio battled all day with Dyson Racing and Oryx Dyson Racing Lola-Mazdas, and Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing’s Lola-Aston Martin.

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"It's a great result for us all. The team did a perfect job, as did the drivers," Mucke said. "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."

(L to R) Stefan Mucke, Adrian Fernandez and Harold Primat

Bob Heathcote/AR1.com

Mucke passed Dyson’s Jay Cochran with 53 minutes left in the race. Cochran brought the Dyson Lola-Mazda home in second place, good enough to wrap up the LMP1 driver championship for Chris Dyson and Guy Smith. Dyson Racing also won its first ALMS team championship since 2003 when it won the LMP675 title.

BMW Team RLL won its second straight team championship with a runner-up finish in GT for Joey Hand and Dirk Müller. The pairing clinched the drivers’ championship in class – the first for Hand and second for Müller.

Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister won the race in GT for Flying Lizard Motorsports. Bergmeister went past Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo on the last lap when Melo’s Ferrari F458 Italia sputtered as it ran out of fuel. Bergmeister crossed the finish line in his Porsche 911 GT3 RSR by 3.571 seconds over Müller’s BMW M3 GT. It was the first win for the Bergmeister/Long pairing since the ALMS race at Mosport more than a year ago.

“It has been a pretty frustrating season so far,” Bergmeister said. “We've had a fast car all season long but could never put it together. It’s been different things all season; in general just a bad year early on. We can gain some momentum here, get another win at Road Atlanta (in two weeks), and take that into the start of next season.”

Saturday’s win marked the second straight GT victory for Porsche and third in four races for the manufacturer. Just as in LMP1, it was anyone’s game throughout the race. The Flying Lizard Porsche, Corvette Racing’s No. 4 Corvette C6.R of Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen, the Risi Ferrari and the two BMWs all traded the lead during the day.

After Hand and Müller, Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Ferrari F458 Italia of Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek placed third in class.

Hand and Müller have led the GT championship since taking a victory to open the season at Sebring. The pairing followed with wins at Long Beach and Lime Rock, and BMW Team RLL’s two BMW M3 GTs have combined for 10 podium finishes in eight races with Road Atlanta yet to go.

“A drivers championship for me, with competition level that is so strong… that’s fantastic,” Hand said. “Dirk and I are a great team. A great showing from our Crowne Plaza people and Avnet was great to see. It was great to win in front of our greatest supporters. Dunlop was really strong all week.  I am excited - that’s for sure!”

Two manufacturer battles are still in play in GT. BMW leads Porsche by 24 points, but Dunlop and Michelin are tied for the tire manufacturer championship.

“It was a lot of hard work and a tough season,” Müller said. “The team is fantastic. I think when you look back at what we did this year together, we knew what we needed to do and we were really strong. I think we can be proud of that. We want to win the tire and manufacturers’ titles which are really important, so we’re looking forward to Atlanta.”

Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid was the highest-finishing GT car although it officially competed as an unclassified entry. Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz completed 236 laps, the same as Bergmeister and Long.

Risi Competizione claimed the GT trophy for the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge. With 10 of the 13 cars using E85, the difference came down to race speed (Fast factor) and energy consumption (Efficiency). The No. 56 BMW M3 GT was slightly faster than Risi’s Ferrari F458 Italia, but the latter was more efficient in energy consumption.

Level 5 Motorsports debuted its new HPD ARX 01g with an LMP2 victory and fourth-place finish overall. Luis Diaz, Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker split driving duties for the team.

“The team did a handsome job with the setup,” said Bouchut, who was the class’ fastest qualifier. “We improved our balance as the race went on. It got very easy to drive, and we didn't get into any problems with this race. I did two stints and did everything perfect. It was great to finish so strongly and fourth overall.”

It was an encouraging showing given that the car didn’t turn its first laps until an early-week shakedown at Infineon Raceway.

“The Level 5 team did a great job putting the car together in a short time,” Diaz said. “The team worked so well in the shop and at the track. It shows that it’s the car to have.”

In LMPC, Genoa Racing turned good fortune into a victory and class championship lead. Elton Julian, Eric Lux and Michael Guasch finished just 0.329 seconds ahead of CORE autosport’s Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Rudy Junco. The result moved Genoa into the lead of the team championship by two points over CORE and Lux into first place in the drivers’ chase by three points over Jeannette and Gonzalez.

A late caution benefitted Genoa more than probably any other entry; the ORECA FLM09 was desperately low on fuel. It went more than an hour on a tank.

Genoa was dealt an early blow when Guasch injured his ankle during the driver change for his opening stint. He had to pit after his first lap, putting extra pressure on Julian and Lux. As it turns out, they were more than up to the task.

“Elton had a great stint that turned into four,” Lux said. “He drove so great that is was nice to see him keep the pace and bring home the win. We wanted to go in to Petit Le Mans with the lead; it’s not much, but better than having to come from behind.”

The closing stint was especially tough. Genoa elected to keep the same tires on for the final two hours while CORE elected to put two new rear tires on for Jeannette with 30 minutes left.

“We had to trade off a lot of decisions of getting fresh tires and getting fuel,” Julian said. “Gunnar I know was pushing hard as much as he could. This whole event was monumental for us. We were fast all weekend and I knew we had a better car.”

Intersport Racing’s trio of Kyle Marcelli, David Ducote and Chapman Ducote placed third in class.

TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly beat Jeroen Bleekemolen for the GT Challenge victory by four seconds. Pumpelly took the lead with four minutes remaining when he got around Black Swan Racing’s Jeroen Bleekemolen. Pit strategy and luck were on TRG’s side, said Pumpelly, who drove with Duncan Ende and Peter Ludwig.

“We had a little bit of a luck with the yellow at the end,” Pumpelly continued. “We made the decision to spend the extra time to get tires (on the final stop with 30 minutes left) and hope for the yellow. Then we'd have them to fight with. You have to be in the position to take advantage of the luck that you get.”

The Black Swan Porsche’s tires were 40 minutes older than the TRG car. Additionally, the final caution wiped out what had been as much as a 30-second lead for Bleekemolen, whose team had to fight back from going a lap down earlier in the race.

“We had to push all race long,” Ende said. “The TRG guys did a great job with the car as always. It was a tough race, really close. We had great equipment, Peter did a nice job driving. All in all it was a great drive.”

The result moved Ende and Pumpelly to within 21 points of Black Swan’s Tim Pappas in the class championship. Pappas drove with Jeroen Bleekemolen and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen; the trio won the race last year.

Green Hornet Racing’s Damien Faulkner and Peter LeSaffre placed third, a lap down to the TRG and Black Swan cars. Each of those three cars led at one point during the race.

The 2011 American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patr¢n season concludes on Oct. 1 with the 14th annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda at Road Atlanta. The race will air on ABC at 4 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 2. Live coverage will be available in the U.S. on ESPN3 or outside the U.S. on americanlemans.com. Rogers Sportnet One in Canada and MotorsTV in Europe will also provide coverage. Ticket and schedule information is available on the ALMS schedule page.

Results

Pos	Num	CL	CP	Driver	Fastest Driver	Car	Laps	Behind	Gap
1	007	P1	1	Stefan Mucke	Stefan Mucke	AMR/Lola Coupe B09 60 As	248	---	---
2	16	P1	2	Jay Cochran	Guy Smith	Lola B09 86/Mazda	245	-3 laps	-3 laps
3	20	P1	3	Steven Kane	Steven Kane	Lola B09/86 Mazda	245	-3 laps	-38.305
4	055	P2	1	Luis Diaz	Christophe Bouchut	HPD ARX 01g	241	-7 laps	-4 laps
5	63	PC	1	Elton Julian	Elton Julian	Oreca FLM09	241	-7 laps	-18.912
6	06	PC	2	Gunnar Jeannette	Gunnar Jeannette	Oreca FLM09	241	-7 laps	-0.329
7	89	PC	3	Kyle Marcelli	Kyle Marcelli	Oreca FLM09	239	-9 laps	-2 laps
8	05	PC	4	Andy Wallace	Andy Wallace	Oreca FLM09	239	-9 laps	-27.224
9	37	PC	5	Tomy Drissi	Ricardo Vera	Oreca FLM09	237	-11 laps	-2 laps
10	911	UNC	1	Richard Lietz	Romain Dumas	Porsche GT3R Hybrid	236	-12 laps	-1 lap
11	45	GT	1	Joerg Bergmeister	Joerg Bergmeister	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	236	-12 laps	-3.352
12	56	GT	2	Dirk Mueller	Joey Hand	BMW M3 GT	236	-12 laps	-3.571
13	62	GT	3	Jaime Melo	Toni Vilander	Ferrari F458 Italia	236	-12 laps	-0.140
14	01	GT	4	Johannes van Overb	Johannes van Overb	Ferrari F458 Italia	236	-12 laps	-0.298
15	55	GT	5	Bill Auberlen	Dirk Werner	BMW M3 GT	236	-12 laps	-3.891
16	4	GT	6	Jan Magnussen	Oliver Gavin	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR	236	-12 laps	-8.008
17	18	PC	6	Jan-Dirk Lueders	Anthony Nicolosi	Oreca FLM09	235	-13 laps	-1 lap
18	3	GT	7	Tommy Milner	Tommy Milner	Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR	235	-13 laps	-21.704
19	52	PC	7	Rene Villenueve	Rene Villenueve	Oreca FLM09	232	-16 laps	-3 laps
20	02	GT	8	Guy Cosmo	Guy Cosmo	Ferrari F458 Italia	231	-17 laps	-1 lap
21	44	GT	9	Marco Holzer	Marco Holzer	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	230	-18 laps	-1 lap
22	48	GT	10	Bryce Miller	Sascha Maassen	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	224	-24 laps	-6 laps
23	66	GTC	1	Spencer Pumpelly	Spencer Pumpelly	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	222	-26 laps	-2 laps
24	54	GTC	2	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	222	-26 laps	-4.064
25	34	GTC	3	Damien Faulkner	Damien Faulkner	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	221	-27 laps	-1 lap
26	12	P1	4	Chris McMurry	Chris McMurry	Lola B06/10	220	-28 laps	-1 lap
27	23	GTC	4	Shane Lewis	Brian Wong	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	220	-28 laps	-1732.464
28	32	GTC	5	James Sofronas	James Sofronas	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	220	-28 laps	-0.516
29	68	GTC	6	Dion von Moltke	Kevin Buckler	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	216	-32 laps	-4 laps
30	30	GTC	7	Carlos Kaufmann	Martin Ragginer	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	215	-33 laps	-1 lap
31	11	GTC	8	Nick Ham	Nick Ham	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	213	-35 laps	-2 laps
32	6	P1	5	Klaus Graf	Klaus Graf	AMR/ Lola Coupe B08 62	200	-48 laps	-13 laps
33	99	GT	11	Bruno Junqueira	Bruno Junqueira	Jaguar XKR	186	-62 laps	-14 laps
34	17	GT	12	Wolf Henzler	Wolf Henzler	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	101	-147 laps	-85 laps
35	31	GTC	9	Michael Avenatti	Cort Wagner	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	96	-152 laps	-5 laps
36	98	GT	13	PJ Jones	PJ Jones	Jaguar XKR	5	-243 laps	-91 laps