Dirk Muller overcomes mid season bad luck to win ALMS GT Championship
31 December 2000
ADELAIDE, Australia - December 31 2000 - Dirk Muller of Monaco, whose #5 Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R grabbed the points lead by winning season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring in March, overcame mid-season bad luck to win the season finale at the Race of a Thousand Years and earn the 2000 American Le Mans Series drivers championship.Muller, with co-driver Lucas Luhr, was the fastest GT competitor for most of the season as he turned the fastest race lap on eight different occasions, suffered a combination of no-fault, on-track incidents and mechanical problems to lose his early-season points advantage to Dick Barbour teammate Sascha Maassen.
“I would not have predicted this title when we finished 12th just two months ago at Laguna Seca – we really came all the way back. Porsche has supported me for all the years of my young career, and I am proud to have the opportunity repay that support,” said Muller, a native of Germany. “Lucas Luhr, my co-driver, was my biggest supporter, and the Dick Barbour Racing team really kept the car going in all conditions all year. This championship hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
Maassen, who, with co-driver Bob Wollek, has scored five ALMS victories this season, looked like he would cash in on the seven point lead he carried into this event when he was clipped by an Audi prototype and suffered a flat tire. This moved the #51 Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R from first to third, but more than an hour later, the car was back into the pits for a transmission problem, and the Dick Barbour crew was forced to bring the car back to the garage for a transmission change. Maas sen came back onto the track in ninth place, 40 laps behind Muller.
This gave the Muller/Luhr Porsche a seven-lap lead, and a smooth run to the checkered flag. Second overall was the #15 Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of John Graham/Randy Wars/Christian Menzel, with the two BMWs running at the finish - the #6 Borcheller/Lazzaro M3 and the #10 Brian Cunningham/Bill Auberlen/Niclas Jonsson M3 - were third and fourth respectively.
Randy Pobst, the only other driver with a chance at the drivers title, was running second when the starter motor froze during an hour five pit stop, negating the fine effort of the Petersen Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with co-drivers Michael Petersen and Mike Fitzgerald.
Dick Barbour Racing had already clinched the GT team championship, and Porsche had already secured the manufacturers title previous to the Australian finale. Porsche also won the drivers, team and manufacturers title in ALMS in 1999, with Alex Job Racing and Cort Wagner doing the honors. Muller co-drove with Wagner at selected races in '99 and helped him win the title. Dick Barbour Racing, in its previous racing season, won the International Motor Sports Association championship with driver John F itzpatrick in 1980.
Lucas Luhr, from Monaco - and also a native of Germany, who got Muller off to a good start by earning the pole at Adelaide, said this has been a long season, and he is pleased for his champion teammate.
"We had a set of tires to start the race that didn't give us the performance we were looking for," said Luhr, "but the rest of the stints went very well and we finally avoided bad luck."
The 2001 American Le Mans Series will open at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on Sunday, March 4. The next race that will be covered on the official Porsche web site - www.porsche.com - is the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona scheduled for February 3-4. Coverage will start with practice days January 4 - 6, 2000.