Muscle Milk AMR: Ready for the summer stretch

With the long break in racing now behind them, the Muscle Milk team is more than ready to take on the remainder of what will be a very busy season with a race every two weeks up until October.

For the team, there's no better place to return to action than at the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park July 8-9, 2011 where both Pickett Racing teams will be taking to the track.

Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing will be returning to the scene of its most cherished victory in its short American Le Mans Series history next week.

Lime Rock Park is where the prototype team scored its first overall win in the ALMS and where it hopes to now put in a repeat performance.

For the event, as well as the next round at Mosport, the Benicia, CA-based outfit, along with co-driver Klaus Graf, will be welcoming back Lucas Luhr who will be replacing team owner and regular co-driver Greg Pickett, who jokingly said he offered Luhr the ride as a prize to reward him for his great win at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring last weekend.

In all seriousness, while Pickett wanted to return to the cockpit of his Muscle Milk Aston Martin LMP1 car at the track he scored his first overall ALMS win at, a number of time priorities for his rapidly growing and ever-expanding business - CytoSport - will be keeping him out of the drivers seat for the upcoming races.

Luhr is no stranger to the team as this will be his fourth race with the Muscle Milk squad. His last one was at the previous ALMS round in Long Beach where the team scored its third overall victory.

That win closed the gap by four points to the Championship leading Dyson Racing but the Greg Pickett led team still remains 26 points behind in the standings with seven races to go.

Once again the objective at Lime Rock Park will be to score maximum points and to keep closing the gap to first place. To do so, Graf and Luhr will have to be near perfect in dealing with the traffic.

The Connecticut track is the shortest one on the schedule and every year its toughest challenge is traffic. With just over 30 cars entered for next weekend's race, Lime Rock will once again offer quite the show.

Last season at the 1.5-mile, eight-turn road course, the Muscle Milk squad started second after a hard fought qualifying session and went on to win an action-packed race that will forever be engraved in their memories.

Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing will be on track Friday, July 8 with two one-hour practices as well as a 15-minute qualifying session (streamed live on ESPN3.com).

Round 3 of the 2011 American Le Mans Series season goes green on Saturday, July 9 at 2:05 p.m. ET and will be streamed live on ESPN3.com starting at 1:50 p.m. ET. The race will be broadcast on tape-delay on ESPN2 Sunday, July 10 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET.

Greg Pickett, owner/driver #6 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing LMP1
"Lucas had such a great weekend at the Nürburgring with the overall win that we wanted to reward his great performance by inviting him to drive our Aston Martin once again for the next couple of rounds!
"Honestly, I have certain business priorities at CytoSport/Muscle Milk that I need to see to and in order for me to focus on those right now it's better that I step out of the car for the next couple of rounds.
"Having Lucas back in the car puts my mind at ease because we know that with him and Klaus we have an outstanding driver lineup. And they proved that in Long Beach the best way possible. I look forward to cheering them on again next week."

Klaus Graf, driver #6 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing LMP1
"We're coming out of a long break in the ALMS season and I can't wait to get back to the race track. Lime Rock will straight away ask for a lot from us because with the track being so short and with over 30 cars entered, it will definitely hold some huge challenges, not just for us but for all competitors.
"For the Muscle Milk team, Lime Rock is a very special place. We captured our first overall victory there last year and we have some great memories about the race in 2010.
"We had some very positive test days during our break after Long Beach and we feel ready to face the challenge again of managing the brutal traffic of Lime Rock for two hours and 45 minutes."

Lucas Luhr, driver #6 Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing LMP1
"Heading into Lime Rock after racing at Le Mans and the Nürburgring over the last few weeks will definitely make for quite a change for me! With such a short track the most important thing and the biggest challenge will be to manage the traffic.
"Driving at Lime Rock in a LMP1 car like the Aston Martin will make it feel like there are 100 cars on track instead of 30!
"I'm looking forward to returning with the Muscle Milk team especially after the win at Long Beach. The team won at Lime Rock last year and there will be high expectations this year. I also have high expectations for myself as I want to do as well as possible and help Klaus make up some ground in the Championship.
"As happy as I am to be back with the Muscle Milk team, I know that it's not easy for Greg to give up his seat even if he has good reasons to, so I will try as hard as I can to make him proud."