ALMS Teams Ready for Baltimore Sports Car Challenge -

With three rounds left in the 2012 championship, the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón heads to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for the second running of the city’s downtown street race.

Baltimore-Sports-Car-Challenge-Preperation-2012-600x375 — The Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT features 32 entries comprised of North America’s best sports car drivers and teams who are gunning for not just a race victory… but an ALMS championship as well.

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In P1, Dyson Racing hopes to ride the momentum of its record-breaking victory at Road America – one that ended in the closest overall ALMS race finish – to draw even closer to championship leader Muscle Milk Pickett Racing. With five victories, Muscle Milk’s Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf lead Chris Dyson and Guy Smith by 12 points; winners earn 20 points at Baltimore with 16 going to the runners-up.

Thirteen GT entries are on the list for Baltimore with 12 drivers still alive in the class’ championship fight. Corvette Racing pilots hold the top four spots – Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner lead Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen by 17 points. However the spread from second to seventh is just 15 points.
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Defending GT co-champion Dirk Müller sits third for BMW Team RLL with teammate Joey Hand fourth. Extreme Speed Motorsports’ Scott Sharp and Johannes van Overbeek are a further point back in fifth. Bill Auberlen and Jörg Müller – also from BMW Team RLL – and Flying Lizard Motorsports’ Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long remain in championship contention; all are entered at Baltimore.
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Chevrolet and Corvette Racing lead the GT manufacturer and team championships with BMW and BMW Team RLL second, respectively.
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A P2 victory at Road America by Conquest Endurance’s Martin Plowman and David Heinemeier-Hansson drew them to within five points of championship leaders Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut from Level 5 Motorsports. The Tucker/Bouchut pairing finished third but the result kept Level 5 ahead of Conquest by 12 points in the team standings.
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The focus in Prototype Challenge shifted to the driver championship after CORE autosport clinched the team title with a 1-2 finish at Road America. Alex Popow in the No. 06 CORE entry leads No. 05 teammates Colin Braun and Jon Bennett – also the team owner – by 12 points after a win for Popow and Tom Kimber-Smith over the weekend. RSR Racing’s Bruno Junqueira remains in the hunt with a firm hold on third place.
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A second victory in four races last weekend solidified Cooper MacNeil’s lead in the GT Challenge championship. The Alex Job Racing driver leads Green Hornet Racing’s Damien Faulkner and Peter LeSaffre by 31 points. All three are entered in Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars at Baltimore along with TRG’s Spencer Pumpelly, a Baltimore native who sits fourth in the championship.
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The team standings see AJR with a 29-point lead over Green Hornet. TRG is third and sits 33 points out of first. The Baltimore Sports Car Challenge presented by SRT is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 1 on the temporary street circuit in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. ABC’s broadcast begins at noon ET on Sunday, Sept. 2. Full, live coverage starts at 4:15 p.m. ET on ESPN3.