Sascha Maassen - Mid-Ohio podium

Sascha Maassen started from a record pole position and finished a close
second in the May 21 American Le Mans Series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car
Course in Lexington, Ohio.

 

Maassen, of Raeren, Belgium, took the overall pole position in the No. 6
Penske Porsche RS Spyder with a record LMP2-class qualifying lap of one
minute 12.815 seconds on the 2.258-mile road course, at an average speed of
111.636 mph. He opened a 29-second lead before handing off to Lucas Luhr of
Monaco just past the first hour of the two-hour 45-minute race.

 

Luhr and his Penske teammate Romain Dumas of Basel, Switzerland, swapped the
lead twice before contact and a tire puncture forced Luhr to pit, giving the
lead to Dumas in the No. 7 Spyder. Luhr quickly regained second place and
set a class race-lap record (1:13.774, 110.18 mph), but was unable to retake
the lead. He and Maassen finished second.

 

"We had a great race," Maassen said. "I was a little bit nervous about the
start, but it was very good because I pulled away right away. My biggest
advantage before I pitted was 29 seconds to the competition, so I was
feeling very confident. Then there was a yellow [caution period], so the
others caught us and Lucas got hit. We had to replace a tire, so we dropped
to second. Because we had to pit so early, we had to slow down to make it to
the end with fuel."

 

Maassen will be chasing his first ALMS prototype victory in the next series
race, scheduled for July 1 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.

 

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Sylvia Proudfoot
HYPERLINK "mailto:sylvia@spurcom.ca"sylvia@spurcom.ca
403 287 3945