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 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 ...

while competing in the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

. He resulted LMP1 class champion in 2012, and runner-up in 2010 and 2011.

Racing career

Born in

Dornhan Dornhan is a town in the Rottweil (district), district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Black Forest, 14 km southeast of Freudenstadt. Geography Position Dornhan is situated on a plateau in the ...

, Graf has won championships and races in several road racing series. In 2004, he raced part-time in NASCAR

Nextel Cup The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

for

BAM Racing BAM Racing was a NASCAR racing team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, owned by Beth Ann and Tony Morgenthau. The team began racing in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2000 before moving to NASCAR in 2001. They sat out 2009 due to the recession, and ...

. He competed in one race at

Infineon Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway, Golden State International Raceway and Infineon Technologies, Infineon Raceway) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, Cal ...

finishing 17th; however, he attempted two other races during the year. He attempted 8 races for the same team in 2007 but did not qualify for any of them. In 2005 he won the

Trans-Am Series The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of ...

Driver's Championship, becoming the first Trans Am champion born outside the United States since David Hobbs in 1983. Klaus raced for Muscle Milk Pickett Racing in the

. His best finishes in the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

season were an LMP2 class win at the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race for Sports car racing, sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in S ...

sharing with team owner Greg Pickett and

Sascha Maassen Sascha Maassen (born 28 September 1969 in Aachen, Germany) is a veteran sports car driver. Early career Maassen began his career in karts, and moved to cars in 1989, in Formula Ford 1600. During the early 1990s, he raced in the German Formula 3 s ...

, and overall race wins (and LMP class) at the

Northeast Grand Prix The Northeast Grand Prix (until 2006: New England Grand Prix) was a professional sports car racing, sports car race held at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States as part of the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Previous editions of t ...

sharing with Pickett, and at the

Grand Prix of Mosport The Chevrolet Grand Prix is an annual International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race held every July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Bowmanville, Ontario, Bowmanville in Clarington, Ontario, Canada. Th ...

sharing with

Romain Dumas Romain Dumas (born 14 December 1977) is a French racing driver and driver for Glickenhaus in the World Endurance Championship. He first started out in karting and single-seater before becoming an expert driver in endurance racing, GT and sport-p ...

. In 2011, Graf collected further victories at Long Beach, Mosport, Mid-Ohio and Road America in the team's Lola-Aston Martin. For 2012, Graf returned to the team and drove together with

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 ...

in a new

HPD ARX-03 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 ...

a for the entire ALMS season. Graf won the 2012 and 2013 ALMS LMP1 driver's championships with codriver

Racing record

American Le Mans Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Did not finish the race but was classified as his car completed more than 70% of the overall winner's race distance.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Porsche Supercup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ — Guest driver – Not eligible for points.

NASCAR

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nextel Cup Series

ARCA Re/Max Series

( key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

Klaus Graf at the American Le Mans Series official website
*

Klaus Graf at Race Database

CytoSport
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Graf, Klaus 1969 births Living people People from Rottweil (district) Sportspeople from Freiburg (region) German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Racing drivers from Baden-Württemberg German racing drivers NASCAR drivers American Le Mans Series drivers Trans-Am Series drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Porsche Supercup drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers ARCA Menards Series drivers G+M Escom Motorsport drivers Walter Lechner Racing drivers Charouz Racing System drivers Rowe Racing drivers Rocketsports Racing drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers Porsche Carrera Cup Germany drivers