Luhr, Graf race to 8th straight ALMS victory

ALTON, Va. (AP) — Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf raced to their eighth consecutive American Le Mans Series victory, winning Sunday at Virginia International Raceway.

Luhr and Graf co-drove the No. 6 Honda-ARX-03c prototype to a 22.846-second victory over the No. 16 Dyson Racing Mazda-Lola shared by Johnny Mowlem and Guy Smith in the 2-hour, 45-minute race.

Luhr extended his ALMS record with his 49th career victory in the series, while Graf picked up his 22nd win. The teammates clinched the P1 class championship last month.

Scott Tucker and Ryan Briscoe won in the P2 class for Level 5 Motorsports in the No. 551 Honda-ARX-03b, while the GT-class victory went to Italians Olivier Beretta and Matteo Malucelli in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari F458 Italia.

Kyle Marcelli and Chris Cumming picked up their second consecutive Prototype Challenge victory after winning two weeks ago at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas. Damien Faulkner and Ben Keating also picked up a repeat victory in the GT Challenge class.

An incident between the GT car of Marco Holzer and the GTC car of Eduardo Cisneros in the second half of the race sent Cisneros’ car twirling through the air. The car rolled twice in the air before landing on its wheels on top of the tire barrier at Turn 10 of the 17-turn course. Both Cisneros and Holzer walked away from the incident.