Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
Muscle Milk Pickett Racing , formerly Muscle Milk Team Cytosport is an American motorsport team that was founded in the 1970s and is now active in American sporting goods .
history
Foundation and early history
The team was founded in 1974 by Greg Pickett , a businessman with a passion for motorsport. In the 1970s the team was active in the Trans-Am series and the IMSA GT championship , and in 1978 the team celebrated its first championship title in the Trans-Am. After the 1982 season, the team closed temporarily.
In 1991 the team was re-established and again spent seven seasons in the Trans-Am Championship before team boss Pickett withdrew again and devoted himself to other topics. But again there was a return of the team, in 2002 they got back into the Trans-Am series and narrowly missed the title in the 2005 season, which was the last of the Trans-Am series.
Entry into the ALMS
The team now had to reorient itself to find a field of activity. For the 2007 season , the team rose under the name Team Cytosport in the American Le Mans Series . Pickett also bought a Lola B06 / 10 with an AER engine. Having started five races, the team achieved four podium positions. But this was also due to the fact that there were seldom more than four vehicles at the start in LMP1. Second driver besides Pickett was Klaus Graf , who drives for the team to this day.
In 2008 only one rump program was on the agenda. In cooperation with Charouz Racing , the first start at the 24-hour race of Le Mans was carried out, whereby Pickett, Graf and Jan Lammers were eliminated after 146 laps. In 2009 the program got a little bigger again, with the team contesting four races in the ALMS. With the Porsche RS Spyder , it was possible to achieve a podium in the LMP2 class in every race.
The way to the first championship
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A year later, Team Cytosport started for the first time for a full season in the ALMS. With the Porsche RS Spyder and Pickett and Graf as drivers, the first class win in the LMP class, at the 12-hour race in Sebring, and the first overall victory, in Lime Rock Park , could be achieved. But a major accident while testing in Mid-Ohio was also part of this season, so that Cytosport scored too few points for the championship title with just eight starts in nine races. Behind Highcroft Racing , Cytosport came second in the LMP Team Championship and Klaus Graf was second in the Drivers Championship.
In 2011 , too , it was barely enough to win the championship. Despite the switch to a Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 and the use of two professional drivers, Lucas Luhr as well as Graf , Muscle Milk AMR lost the title to Dyson Racing . In addition to the ALMS, the Cytosport team also expanded this season into the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge , the American Porsche brand cup. Marc Bullitt drove to third place in the championship in the Platinum class.
After the third vehicle change in the third season, the team switched to an HPD ARX 03a . A name change also followed that year, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing was now the name. 2012 was another successful season for Pickett Racing, which was also crowned with success this year. After six victories this season, Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf celebrated the drivers' championship, Pickett-Racing the team title. The team also fielded a second car in the LMPC class in three races .
2013 was after a copy of the previous season. Pickett Racing again won driver and team titles, and for HPD also took the chassis and engine titles. Luhr and Graf won the races from the second to the penultimate run of the season in a row in their HPD ARX-03c. Only in Sebring (from Audi ) and at Petit Le Mans (from Rebellion Racing ) did a competitor win.
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.pickettracingteam.com/history.html
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
