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Cocker stars in ALMS at Road America
Johnny Cocker, after a race-long battle which was not resolved until the final lap, earned Drayson Racing its first prototype win of its American Le Mans Series career. Cocker took over the Lola Judd after 1h19mins in fourth place from team owner and team mate Lord Paul Drayson. Cocker put the big Lola back in front on lap 42 after a yellow flag, but the team knew he would need to pit once more for fuel, while the other LMP cars had just enough fuel to make it to the end. While his competition tried to conserve fuel, Cocker pushed the Drayson Lola hard, trying to open enough of a gap to have time to pit. He needed 42 seconds; he managed half of that by the time he had to stop on lap 59. Cocker rejoined the race in fourth, determined to use his V-10 power to push his way to the front. Traffic was dense and intense, as the class battles in GT and LMP had to share the same real estate. This helped bunch up the LMP leaders, and Cocker wasted no chances, passing Guy Smith in the Dyson Lola-Mazda on lap 61. On lap 65, Team Patrón Highcroft told David Brabham to turn up the fuel mixture and move on the race-leading Team Cytosport Porsche of Klaus Graf. At the same time Cocker tried to pass the Highcroft car but got into the marbles and ran off the track, dropping back to fourth. With four laps remaining, the Drayson car was almost five seconds back. Cocker didn’t care: he kept charging. He repassed Guy Smith on lap 67, passed David Brabham on lap 68, and took off after the leading Porsche with a lap-and-a-half to go. The Porsche was in trouble: Klaus Graf was running on fumes. Two turns from the finish line, Johnny Cocker took a run on the struggling Porsche and made the pass. Graf held on to second, while David Brabham, despite his best efforts could do no better than third. In LMP Challenge, Gunnar Jeannette and Elton Julian won for the third time this year in G-Oil’s Green Earth Team Gunnar ORECA FLM09. Jeannette finished the race 21 seconds ahead of class pole-winner Luis Diaz in the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entry he drove with Ricardo Gonzalez. Scott Tucker and Andy Wallace finished third in class for Level 5 Motorsports. Tucker and Level 5 retained the class championship lead by 4 points over Jeannette and GETG. BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team won in GT for the second straight year with Joey Hand and Dirk Müller taking a 2.617-second victory in their BMW M3 GT. Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister finished second for Flying Lizard Motorsports in their Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, just ahead of Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in their Corvette C6.R. The victory moved Hand and Müller into a tie for second in the class drivers championship with Risi Competizione’s Jaime Melo and Gimmi Bruni, who finished sixth. Long and Bergmeister lead by 18 points entering the final two races. Black Swan Racing’s Tim Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen won in GT Challenge for the fourth time in five races. Bleekemolen crossed the finish line in his Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car a lap ahead of Galen Bieker in the WERKS II Racing Porsche he drove with Robert Rodriguez. Velox Motorsports’ pairing of Vic Rice and Shane Lewis placed third after leading early. The Black Swan car led the last 24 laps, and the Pappas/Bleekemolen pairing increased its lead in the driver standings and moved into first place in the class’ team standings. American Le Mans Series heads north for its next race, the Grand Prix of Mosport on August 29, 2010, at Mosport International Raceway just north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
