ALMS Monterey four-hour update

The third hour of the American Le Mans Monterey started with a bang, when the No. 055 Level 5 HPD ARX-03b of driven by Franck Montagny made contact with a GTC car – the JDX Racing No. 11 Porsche 911 GTC Cup driven by Chris Cumming. Montagny was running second overall at the time.

The No. 6 Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD ARX-03a continues to lead overall with Lucas Luhr behind the wheel, but the incident between the No. 055 and No. 11 promoted Scott Tucker in the sister Level 5 P2 entry to second overall. Tucker may not be as happy as you’d think about that turn of events. He is scheduled to drive in both Level 5 cars this race, but elected to score points with the No. 055 car. He does hold a comfortable lead over Conquest Endurance’s Morgan-Nissan driven by Martin Plowman.

Dyson Racing’s No. 16 Lola-Mazda fell to 10th overall after a two-and-a-half minute penalty for passing the safety car.

In GT, refueling problems for the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette cost Tommy Milner the class lead, which went to Joey Hand in the No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW M3 GT, which is on a different pit strategy from the rest of the GT field.

Shortly after taking over the lead, the No. 56 lost its rear bumper whilst being chased by the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette driven by Antonio Garcia and the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Joerg Bergmeister.

CORE autosport continues to lead the PC category with Alex Popow in the No. 06 ORECA FLM09. Kyle Marcelli in Merchant Services’ No. 8 ORECA FLM09 is nipping at his heels, however.

Competition Motorsports, Green Hornet Racing and Alex Job Racing continue to battle for the GTC lead with less than a second between the three Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The battle has been highly suspenseful as the trios is constantly enmeshed in faster traffic.