Monday, April 19, 2010

The Battle on the Beach!

Long Beach, CA - With a thrilling pass in the final laps of the ALMS Long Beach GP, Simon Pagenaud took the lead from Adrian Fernandez to win the street fight in California. The Patron Highcroft Honda Performance Design LMP2 car was able to overtake the LMP1 Aston Martin V-12 powered Lola winning the race by a slight 0.353 sec margin. The nimbleness of the LMP2 car was the ticket on the tight street course known as Long Beach. "I could see Adrian was having some issues in the final laps and I thought I could just play it smart and settle for second. But I'm a real racer and I know everybody in the team wants to win and that's what they deserve. "I said to myself I would keep pressuring him to the end and maybe he would make a mistake.” Co-driver David Brabham commented "It was a great fight all the way to the end and he put huge pressure on Adrian and capitalized on it.”
In the GT class, The #45 Flying Lizard Porsche piloted by Bergmeister and Long reclaimed their title at Long Beach. Starting from 4th position, behind the Risi Ferrari (pole) and the #3 Corvette of O’Connel/Magnussen, the 45 car remained in fourth for much of the race. Able to capitalize on a quick pit stop an hour into the race, the Porsche emerged in third place. Driver Long kept the pressure on and claimed the lead with 10 minutes remaining in the race. The Porsche also won the Michelin X Green challenge being the most efficient car on the track.
It should be noted that the Corvettes were hampered with an additional 25 kilos of weight. Program Manager Doug Fehan expects that the weight penalty will be removed prior to the Le Mans race in June, hopefully leading to the much anticipated three-way battle in GT.

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