LL Well, that’s good to hear at least one of
us feels that way! I was never a big fan of
training in my early career. I always train,
but to the minimum. But since a couple of
years ago, it’s not so much the training, it’s
what Ollie says, the suffering that you
prepare for in the car. I don’t run so much
anymore – now I prefer cycling. You don’t
go so much to the point of exhaustion,
but physical endurance training helps you
drive with neck pain or whatever cramps
you might have in the car.
It sounds like Olly’s plan is about total fitness
and yours is about pain thresholds, Lucas…
LL Maybe I’m a little bit crazy, but I like
this aspect of the training more – that you
have to push yourself; and it’s the same in
the racecar, you have to push yourself. If
you’re not willing to push yourself, then I
think you should quit. Especially in sports
car racing. And the willingness to push
myself developed over the years. Early,
when you’re younger, you don’t really
need it. But as you get a little bit older, for
me, my training went up a lot.
As two of the most recognizable names in
the American Le Mans Series, what are
your feelings about the United Sports Car
merger? Is it a good thing? A bad thing?
LL I think only two classes are very
secure. Drivers, team owners, sponsors
only know what they will be getting in [Le
Mans] GT and LMPC. All of the other
things, nobody really knows what’s going
on, or they haven’t been told. So when I
heard about this merger last year, I had
strange words in my head which I don’t
want to repeat... (Laughs)
You have to look at it with an open mind.
I think it can be a good thing. Will it be a
good thing? I’m not so sure, just because
we have a lot of the people who come to
see LMP1 cars racing against GT cars. It
always makes for very intense racing,
especially since these guys, the GT cars, are
fighting so tough. In an LMP1, you try to
cut your way through traffic, but you don’t
want to screw up the GT race and you don’t
want to have to hit each other. So I think
that made the racing very intense.
I don’t know if that’s really going to be
Synonymous as Oliver Gavin and
Lucas Luhr are with Corvette
Racing and Muscle Milk Pickett
Racing, respectively, it’s sometimes
easy to forget the variety of cars
each has experienced in their
careers. For example...
Oliver Gavin was a
test driver for the
Renault F1 team in
2002 (LEFT).
Earlier, he tested
for the short-lived
Pacific Grand Prix
team in 1994.
Luhr and Marco
Werner (LEFT) were
the ’08 ALMS LMP1
champs in a factory
Audi R10 TDI. Same
year, Luhr finished
4th at Le Mans - his
best overall result.
R
i
char
d
Pr
in
ce/Cor
v
ette
Ra
cin
g
M
al
co
lm
Gri
ffith
s
/L
AT
P
aul
We
b
b/
LAT
M
i
cha
el
L
ev
itt/
LAT
L
ev
itt/
LAT
Dan
Boy
d
/L
AT
Phi
lli
p
A
b
bott
/L
AT
39 RACER.com
(TOP, left to right)
2013 is a swansong
season for LMP1 in
North American
sports car racing;
Lucas Luhr in his
natural habitat, a
P1 cockpit...and his
unnatural habitat,
making his IndyCar
debut at Sonoma.
(ABOVE RIGHT)
Luhr and fellow
German Klaus Graf
have proved a potent
combination since
becoming teammates
at Muscle Milk
Racing in 2011.
ALONG THE WAY...