The 2012 American Le Mans Series season proved to be the breakout year for a number of teams and drivers.

First time champions included P1’s Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and driver Klaus Graf, Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner in GT, CORE autosport’s Alex Popow in PC and Alex Job’s Cooper MacNeil in GTC.

This is the first in a series recognizing them and a few others who “stepped up” in 2012 ALMS competition, including the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari team in GT, Conquest Racing and David Heinemeier Hansson in P2 and RSR and Bruno Junqueira in PC.

“We drew a line in the sand and decided we were all in for the ALMS championship in 2012,” said team owner Greg Pickett.

Greg Pickett had a plan. Like most of his plans this one worked, too. Pickett, a successful entrepreneur with CytoSport and Cytomax energy drinks had been nibbling around the edges of the ALMS prototype category as a platform for his latest venture, Muscle Milk.

The former Trans Am star and winner of races in five different decades as a driver, recognized opportunity in the form of a former Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 entry.

The Porsche RS Spyder was a proven, well developed package. To Pickett, it looked like just the right ticket to launch a serious ALMS program.

“We are honored to put our Muscle Milk name alongside Porsche and Michelin,” Pickett told his crew on the eve of the Spyder’s debut at Mid-Ohio in 2009. “They are great partners, they know this car and this package, and we are going to listen to what they tell us.”

The approach produced immediate results as the Muscle Milk team celebrated numerous podium finishes and their first win at the 2010 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

In 2011, Pickett switched to an Aston Martin P1 package and scored four overall wins, but after finishing second to long-time friends and recent rivals Dyson Racing, Pickett once again raised the bar.

“We drew a line in the sand and decided we were all in for the ALMS championship in 2012,” said Pickett.

For drivers Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf, the expanded MM team, a new HPD/Honda package and some ultra-grippy MICHELIN® street soft tires that also permitted double-stints, provided everything needed to claim six ALMS overall race wins and the first ever ALMS title for the California-based team.