Klaus Graf (racing driver)

Klaus Graf

status	active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	72nd - (2004)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 1 - - -
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	-
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 - - - -
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best placement	-
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 - - - -

Klaus Graf in a Lola B09 / 60 during training for the Petit Le Mans 2011

Klaus Graf (born July 21, 1969 in Dornhan ) is a German automobile racing driver . In 1993 he became champion of the German and Austrian Formula Ford championships.

Career

In 1995 he won the title of "Best Rookie " at the Monaco Formula 3 Grand Prix. A year later he finished second in the International German Formula 3 Championship. In 1997 he achieved third place overall at the Porsche Carrera Cup , making him “Best Rookie of All Time”. For BAM Racing , Klaus Graf was supposed to contest two races in the NASCAR Nextel Cup , today's Sprint Cup, in 2004 , but could not qualify for the race in Watkins Glen due to rain and the NASCAR regulations. For the race at Infineon Raceway in Sears Point, Klaus Graf qualified as 38th of 43 drivers. He finished 17th in the race, ahead of long-time NASCAR drivers like Dale Jarrett and Matt Kenseth . In 2005 he started for Rocketsports Racing in the Trans-Am and became the first German winner of this racing series. In 2006 he started with Mike Rockenfeller in a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR for Alex Job Racing in the ALMS . In 2007 he and his new team Cytosport took part in a few selected races of the ALMS.

In the NASCAR Nextel Cup he replaced Mike Bliss for BAM Racing in the 2007 season for the two road course races at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International . However, he could not qualify for both races. At the Infineon Raceway the car itself was too slow, in Watkins Glen the qualification failed because the qualifying session was abandoned due to rain, so the line-up was based on owner points and Graf was not able to start because the car was placed outside the top 43.

In addition to his career as a racing driver, he is a freelance racing driver coach and instructor as well as test driver for various companies. For the pay TV station Premiere he worked as a co-commentator and expert on NASCAR races, as well as a few other racing events, most recently the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

On March 20, 2010, Klaus Graf and his teammates Sascha Maassen (Aachen) and Greg Pickett (USA) won the famous Sebring 12-hour race in the sports car prototype class LMP2 as part of the American Le in a Porsche RS Spyder Mans Series. With this Porsche sports car, they also won the Michelin Green X Challenge environmental rating because this vehicle demonstrated the best overall efficiency in relation to lap times and fuel consumption.

Klaus Graf is currently (as of 2018) team manager at KÜS Team75 Bernhard , which has been a team in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany since 2013 and in the ADAC GT Masters racing series since 2016.

Private

Klaus Graf is married and has two children.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	Team Den Blå Avis	Panoz LMP-1	John Nielsen	Mauro Baldi	not classified
2001	Panoz Motorsports	Panoz LMP07	Jamie Davies	Gary Formato	failure	Engine failure
2008	Charouz Racing System	Lola B07 / 17	Jan Lammers	Greg Pickett	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2001	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz LMP07	Gaulter Salles		failure	Chassis broken
2006	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Mike Rockenfeller	Graham Rahal	Rank 14
2010	Muscle Milk Team Cytosport	Porsche RS Spyder	Greg Pickett	Sascha Maassen	4th place and class win
2011	Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing	Lola B08 / 62	Greg Pickett	Lucas Luhr	failure	mechanics
2012	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing	HPD ARX-03a	Simon Pagenaud	Lucas Luhr	failure	malfunction
2013	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing	HPD ARX-03c	Romain Dumas	Lucas Luhr	Rank 4
2014	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing	Oreca 03	Jann Mardenborough	Lucas Luhr	failure	malfunction

Web links

Commons : Klaus Graf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official profile of Klaus Graf on NASCAR.com
• Interview 2016