Muscle Milk AMR: Happy birthday victory!

Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing celebrated a week of birthdays with a perfect weekend at Mosport International Raceway by taking the win after having led all test and practice sessions as well as qualifying.

While the team’s performance resembled last year’s dominating effort at the Canadian track, it didn’t come as easily as in 2010.

At the start of the race Lucas Luhr did manage to build a lead of over 50 seconds before a caution flag came out about 35 minutes into the two hour and 45 minute event. But that’s when things turned around a little for the Muscle Milk team.

The team was preparing for the pits to open to do its first stop but they opened at the last second, a fraction too late as Luhr was already past the entry point. Having missed the designated prototype pit lap, the team then had to wait to pit two laps later, after the GT cars had come in for their stops.

The delayed pit stop caused the team to lose the lead and fall 30 seconds behind the first place car. Not one to give up, Luhr muscled his way back up, constantly closing the gap to the leader. By lap 62, he had made his way around Chris Dyson and had built a lead of over three seconds.

On lap 72, the German entered pit lane to hand the car over to his countryman and co-driver Klaus Graf. Once the pit stops had cycled through, Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing was in the lead by over 14 seconds.

From that point on the team never looked back and took its second consecutive win at Mosport International Raceway and second of the season by crossing the finish line nearly 30 seconds ahead of their closest competitor.


With today’s win, the Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing team now sits 26 points behind Dyson Racing in the championship standings.

Next up for the Benicia, CA-based team will be the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge August 5 – 7, 2011


Klaus Graf, co-driver #6 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing LMP1

“We certainly didn't make it easy on ourselves this weekend but it’s the end result that counts. Lucas did a good job at the beginning and then he pushed once we lost the lead to get back to the front.

“At the end of the day it came down to experience from both drivers and our team. We've both won here and we like the track and the team performed excellent.

“It was a bit of a roller coaster this weekend, even during the race. So it's very nice to finish with a win for the Muscle Milk team.”



Lucas Luhr, co-driver #6 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing LMP1

“I had a good start and a really clean run up until we hit traffic. I had a little bit of a lead until we caught traffic the first time. After the second lap of traffic the gap got rather big. We were up to 50 seconds before the safety car came out but then we lost our lead because the pits opened when I was already past the pit entry, which was frustrating. As the leader you should have first choice.

“After that, we said on the radio let’s just put our heads down and do our job. We knew we had the speed in the Muscle Milk Aston Martin and that’s what we did. Things go wrong so easily and you have to make it up at the right spot. It takes a lot to get back to the front.

“Compared to Lime Rock two weeks ago, today, everything worked well for the Muscle Milk team, we still need to keep improving the car, step by step. Now we're looking forward to the next race. We want to win every race, basically, if you do that you end up with the championship, it’s as simple as that.”