The 2012

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge The Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio is a sports car race held annually at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The race began in 1963 as a part of the United States Road Racing Championship. It was part of the IMSA GT Championship from 1972 until 19 ...

was a multi-class sports car and GT motor race held at the

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. It hosts a number of racing series such as IndyCar, IMSA WeatherTech Sportsc ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on August 4, 2012. It was the sixth round of the

2012 American Le Mans Series season The 2012 American Le Mans Series season was a multi-event auto racing championship for Sports car racing, sports racing cars which conform to the technical regulations laid out by the International Motor Sports Association for the American Le M ...

and the 41st race in the combined history of sportscar races associated with the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge. The race was held over a two-hour-and-45-minute time period, during which 123 laps of the 3.6 kilometre circuit were completed for a race distance of 447 kilometres. The race was won by the Muscle Milk Pickett Racing team. German drivers

Lucas Luhr Lucas Luhr (born 22 July 1979) is a German racing driver. He is a staple of the American Le Mans Series during the 2000s and early 2010s, winning the GT class with Porsche in 2002, the LMP2 category in 2006, and taking the overall LMP1 champion ...

and

Klaus Graf Klaus Graf (born 21 July 1969) is a German professional racing driver. He is the son of rally driver Peter Graf. He lives in the United States while competing in the American Le Mans Series. He resulted LMP1 class champion in 2012, and runner-up ...

driving a

HPD ARX-03a The HPD ARX-03a, ARX-03b, and ARX-03c are Le Mans Prototypes race cars developed by Honda Performance Development in 2012. The 03a model utilizes a Honda V8 engine for use in the LMP1 category, while the 03b uses a turbocharged V6 engine for the L ...

Honda sports car won by over a lap from their season long P1 class rivals, the

Dyson Racing Team Dyson Racing is a professional sports car racing team based in Poughkeepsie, New York in the United States. Founded by Rob Dyson in 1974, the team competed successfully in North American sports car racing series, including the IMSA GT Championsh ...

run Lola B12/60 sports car. It was the fifth consecutive victory for Luhr and Graf. It was Luhr third outright win at Mid-Ohio and Graf's second. The second Dyson Racing Team Lola-Mazda was in third place near the end of the race when the gearbox failed.

Level 5 Motorsports Level 5 Motorsports was an American auto racing team founded in 2006 with illegally procured funds by racing driver, money lender and later convicted racketeer Scott Tucker, currently serving a sentence of 16 years and 8 months in federal prison. ...

took their fifth win of the season taking a seven second win in their HPD ARX-03b over their season long rivals, the Conquest Endurance team Morgan LMP2. It was Scott Tucker's fifth win of the season and

Christophe Bouchut Christophe Bouchut (born 24 September 1966 in Voiron, Isère) is a French professional racing driver. He currently competes in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving for Dexwet-df1 Racing and Alex Caffi Motorsport in a part-time effort. He won t ...

's fourth win. Fifth was the second Level 5 Motorsports HPD-Honda ahead of the Prototype Challenge class winners, the PR1/Mathiasan Motorsports pair of Rudy Junco and

Marino Franchitti Marino Alessandro Cesare Franchitti (born 7 July 1978) is a British racing driver, and the younger brother of Dario Franchitti. He has spent the majority of his career racing in sports cars and grand tourers, with a career highlight of winning t ...

in their

Oreca FLM09 The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (shortened to LMP Challenge or LMPC) was a spec sports prototype formula created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), organisers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and sports car constructor Oreca. The formula is inte ...

. It was the team's third victory in the Prototype Challenge class adding to wins at Road America and Road Atlanta in 2011. Eleventh outright was the GT class winners,

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing was an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing was originally the official racing program for General M ...

pair of

Oliver Gavin Oliver Benjamin Gavin (born 29 September 1972) is a British racing driver who joined Corvette Racing in 2002. He has won five American Le Mans Series class championships, five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins, six 12 Hours of Sebring class wi ...

and

Tommy Milner Thomas Milner (born January 28, 1986) is an American GM factory racing and test driver, also currently employed full-time in Corvette Racing. He is also the co-owner of PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype E-Sports team on iRacing. He was featured in 2011 ...

in their

Chevrolet Corvette The Chevrolet Corvette is a line of American two-door, two-seater sports cars manufactured and marketed by General Motors under the Chevrolet marque since 1953. Throughout eight generations, indicated sequentially as C1 to C8, the Corvette is not ...

. Gavin had to endure twenty minutes of pressure from

Jörg Bergmeister Jörg Bergmeister (born 13 February 1976 in Leverkusen) is a former racing driver from Germany and an ambassador of Porsche. His late father, Willi Bergmeister, owned a workshop and dealership where Michael Schumacher learned his trade as a ca ...

in the

Flying Lizard Motorsports The Flying Lizard Motorsports group is a motorsport team from Sonoma, California, formed by Seth Neiman in early 2003. The team competed in the full American Le Mans Series season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. T ...

. The margin of victory was just 0.2 seconds. The GT Challenge class winners,

Tim Pappas Tim Pappas (born September 14, 1973 in New York City) is an American racing driver and businessman who competes in the American Le Mans Series with his Black Swan Racing team. He won the 2010 and 2011 American Le Mans Series GTC Drivers Champions ...

and

Jeroen Bleekemolen Jeroen Pascal Bleekemolen (born 23 October 1981 in Heemstede) is a Dutch professional Auto racing, racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the German Formula Three Champi ...

, claimed JDX Racing's first win of the year. It was Bleekemolen's second win after the year after winning in

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

in May with TRG. TRG was second in class with new driver Al Carter and

Spencer Pumpelly Spencer Pumpelly (born December 28, 1974) is an American professional racing driver who competes part-time in IMSA, driving the No. 44 Acura NSX GT3 for Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports as well as part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, ...

. 29 of the 32 entries were running at races conclusion.

Race

Race result

Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of their class winner's distance are marked as Not Classified (NC).

References

{{Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio

Mid-Ohio Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington, Ohio, Lexington. It hosts a number of racing series such as IndyCar Series, Indy ...

Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio