The Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase on the streets of Long Beach, California, is round three of the Tudor United Sports Car Racing Championship. Today's race is a 100 minute, flat out sprint. One pit stop is expected for this race. On the pole, is Scott Pruett in the #01 Telmex Chip Ganassi Riley Ford. Just two classes will race today. Prototype, and GT Le Mans, will be featured. Keep it off the walls at Long Beach. That's going to be rally, really hard to do. Let's go racing, blokes. This is a true street fight.
The engines are fired. The cars roll off on their warmup lap. The green flag, mere moments away. Long Beach has a great history, with both Indycars and sports cars. Formula One has also raced here. We are just south of Los Angeles, on a 1.968 mile track, with eleven turns. Turn eleven is the famous corner on the track. It's a concrete canyon. Stay off the walls. The weather is beautiful. The field forms up behind the Ford Taurus SHO safety car. The engine block in the Taurus SHO is the same motor as the Ford EcoBoost racing engine.
Go! We're underway! Ganassi in front with Action Express second. Now, we've got a wreck already. It's the #10 Velocity Worldwide Corvette of Max Angelellli. The #3 Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R- of Antonio Garcia leads GT LM with the BMW Z4 GTE's second and third. Pruett still leads ovwer Gustavo Yacaman as Michael Valiante launches the #90 Spirit of Daytona Corvette past Gustavo Yacaman in the OAK Racing Morgan Nissan.
Yacaman runs wide and slaps John Pew in the Michael Shank Racing Riley Ford. Discretion the better part of valor, as the cars come back through turn eleven. Garcia pulls out his lead in GT LM as we see Boris Said trying to slice his way through traffic in the #31 Whelen Corvette prototype. The GT cars have better grip off the corners than the prototypes, and can accelerate a little quyicker. The factory Porsche's are running well, with the #62 Risi Ferrari, next, shared by Dane Cameron and Giancarlo Fisichella, who hasn't even driven the car yet.
Dane Cameron was drafted into the Ferrari after Turner Motorsports went back to Pirelli World Challenge. Problems for the #70 Speedsource Mazda Skyactive diesel prototype. Low oil pressure and high water temperature. The car has busted it's radiator. In GT LM we have a battle for position between the #17 Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR and the #91 factory SRT Viper. With the Mazda, this is their first engine issue. The problems they had at Daytona and Sebring, in the opening endurance events, were driveline related.
Memo Rojas continues to lead. Patron Racing won here last year. Go down Shoreline Boulevard, turn in, feed the throttle in, on a slippery corner. The car gets light into turn six and into second gear. Go to first gear for the hairpin, and go up through the gearbox, flying back across the line. With just the two classes, it will take longer to catch lapped traffic. There will be fewer yellows in this race, too. How will the two types of prototype car compare over a long green flag run?
It's Ford, Chevrolet, Chevrolet, Nissan. This is OAK Racing's first time at Long Beach. Gustavo Yacaman has really helped the team understand the track. Yacaman is sharing with Olivier Pla. In GT LM, Corvette is ahead and has won four races in class in the old American Le Mans Series. Andy Priaulx is also making his first visit to Long Beach, in the #55 BMW Team RLL BMW Z4 GTE. Put down the horsepower through the slowest corner in the world, at 28 miles an hour.
Michael Christensen also makes his debut in the factory Porsche 911 RSR. Porsche has not shown the speed yet. Will the Porsche come forward? Memo Rojas leads. No changes. Antonio Garcia leads GT LM, in the Corvette. Factory race teams feed off data. They have a DAG (or, data acquisition geek), to monitor the sensors telling all the info about the car. Real time telemetry analyzes all of this. Their Michelin tire engineer has all the info.
Antonio Garcia continues to lead in GT LM. Crew chief Dan Binks says that the tires can wear down quick, but there's a big difference now that the fuel can be added and the tires changed, at the same time. John Edwards in the sister RLL BMW is holding up the GT LM battle. Marc Goossens is flying in the SRT Viper. Edwards, Priaulx, and Gavin, all move around the HPD ARX from Patron Racing. John Edwardss had to make the pass. But, Oliver Gavin wants by Andy Priaulx, too.
What did yours truly say earlier? This is a street fight. BMW Team RLL has had a lot of success here the last five years with whatever configuration of car they have. BMW M3's years ago, and now the Z4. Ricky Taylor is pressuring Memo Rojas, but Jordan Taylor runs wide. He's got an issue. He might have had contact with the OAK Racing Morgan Nissan. There is bodywork missing from the Velocity Worldwide Corvette into the hairpin.
He may have just gotten wide in turn six. It's a simple loss of grip into the next series of corners, in turn eight. 20 laps have already gone by. Gustavo Yacaman is being very aggressive. These new diffusers on the Daytona Prototype spec cars are getting a workout, and are susceptible to damage from a car running in from behind. Michael Valiante and Gustavo Yacaman continue to battle, and this one will be monitored, folks. It's a good one. A humdinger to be sure.
Michael Valiante has had contact with John Pew. Corvette vs. Riley Ford prototype. He was going underneat the #60, got spun, and then, Pew was trapped. Pew had no place to go. The #31 Whelen Corvette pits, and unfortunately, the #70 Mazda has been retired. But they cannot get to the paddock and have to stay in pit lane. These guys are racing with the Indycars this weekend. Antonio Garcia is ahead in GT LM at the moment, driving off into the sunset.
Garcia and John Edwards are a hundredth of a second away from each other. The #31 car has been caught speeding on pit lane. They will have to visit the sin bin. Porsche and Viper continue to scrap in GT LM. SRT switched setups. They don't have good grip as Marc Goossens passes Michael Christensen. SRT crew chief Bill Riley says that there is a problem with getting a hold of this racetrack with the shock package. We have just over an hour left in this race. So, it's going down at a ferocious pace.
Christian Fittipladi is close behind Memo Rojas. But Fittipaldi gets caught behind Richard Lietz in the factory Porsche 911 RSR #911. Be careful and use damage control. Gustavo Yacaman continues to push. The GT LM cars are very quick through the low to medium speed corners, and especially in the apex of the corner. Andy Priaulx continues to run very well. He's trying to pass John Edwards. These are team mates, but there are no team orders.
John Pew and Michael Shank Racing, were on the front row of the grid. But they are now out of this race. Something happened to the electrical system. They'll be back in the next race at Laguna Seca. Less than an hour of racing to go, as Ricky Taylor closes in on Christian Fittipaldi. Fittipaldi ran here in the Champ Car/Indycar Series back in the 1990s. BMW and Corvette both pit. Porsche was in a lap before. 55 to 60 minutes, was the target for fuel and tires.
The problem is, tire management. Watch the temperatures and pressures in the tires. John Edwards hands over to Dirk Muller. Patrick Long takes over the #912 Porsche 911 RSR. The team car was in the lap before. Andy Priaulx also pits. Will his last lap count? BMW needs a good pit stop. The pit lane is really long and really slow. The right side mirror is askew on the car as Bill Auberlen takes over for Andy Priaulx. Auberlen has to wait, and replace the right side door.
Auberlen will have to push, push, push, now. The #93 Viper is in. They had power sterring problems and still do. Kuno Wittmer and Jonathan Bomarito are still struggling with that. The #90 car pits. Richard Westbrook takes over for Michael Valiante. They have rear bodywork damage. It's so cool, that the teams don't need their cool boxes. Save weight. Ryan Dalziel pits the HPD ARX chassis. He's won in Indycars and sports cars at Long Beach. He takes over for Scott Sharp and chooses to stay on hot tires to get good outlap times.
Get into the pits ASAP. Get in the window. There have been no yellow flags to this point. Memo Rojas leads by 1.9 seconds. Scott Pruett is the only driver to win in a Daytona Prototype at Long Beach. Ricky Taylor and Gustavo Yacaman will pit. Olivier Pla will take over the OAK Racing machine. Fittipaldi stays out. The #01 and #5 cars don't need a yellow flag. 36 miles per hour is the pit lane speed limit. Unbelievably slow. Jordan Taylor replaces his brother Ricky in the #10 car, which still has diffuser damage.
Tire strategies with the P2 spec cars are a little different depending on teams. Memo Rojas will poit soon and he leads halfway through this race, folks. You know you're in a window. Now, Rojas pits, and again, the speed limit is really slow. It's past the Indycar pits, around the corner, to the sports car pits. How much fuel will be needed? How fast will the cars be serviced? Scott Pruett takes over the #01. Joao Barbosa takes over the #5 car. It's a slightly slow stop, with scrubbed tires. The #5 car will be the #01 out of the pits.
This race isn't over yet. It's the run to the checkers, after one, and only one, pit stop. Dirk Muller continues to run second in GT LM. The #60 MSR Riley Ford will finish this race. They are back in pit lane now.; The car is fully operational. Scott Pruett leads Joao Barbosa and Jordan Taylor. Taylor passes Barbosa for second and has better tires. They have more heat in them. Ganassi's Indycar experience at Long Beach has some positive effect on their sports car efforts, in this race.
Wayne Taylor was not happy with Gustavo Yacaman. Ricky Taylor continues to pursue Scott Pruett. Oliver Gavin says that Corvette had been missing the tire pressure targets. But they are now catching the BMW's. Tommy Milner is behind the wheel of the #4 car. Dirk Muller is flying, with just a half hour remaining in this race. Muller and Milner boith know Long Beach. Milner won his first race in American Le Mans Series competition, at Long Beach, in a Corvette, a few years ago.
Dominik Farnbacher and Patrick Long battle in GT LM as well. Long picks up a spot over the Viper. These three cars are very evenly matched. They move from left to right along Shoreline Drive. Farnbacher can;t get the power down. What's the braking zone situation? Bill Auberlen passes. Advantage BMW. Marc Goossens ran the first stint before Farnbacher got in. Goossens says the car is running better in the race than qualifying, where they lost track position.
There have been no full course yellows from Long Beach to this point. Hopefully, yours truly, and lead Fox Sports commentator for this race, Brian Till, have not jinxed anything. 26 minutes now remain. Scott Pruett continues to lead. Can Joao Barbosa or Jordan Taylor catch the #01 car? Jordan Taylor begins running faster laps than Scott Pruett. They are separated by less than a second. It's going to be close, folks. The gap seems to be widening between the leader, and second and third. But, Barobosa is right on Taylor. However, Barbosa almost crashed!
He ran wide in a corner, trying to launch, and it didn't work. The outside of the track is very dirty off line. Ryan Dalziel is now fourth in the HPD open cockpit prototype. Pruett's fastest lap is a 1:16.6. The #93 SRT Viper was running well. But, the rear end gear went kablammo, and now, they're headed for the house. Jan Magnussen leads GT LM in the #3 machine. He wants another race win, with about sixteen minutes left.
Jordan Taylor wants by Scott Pruett. But, he's running out of time. Meanwhile, Bill Auberlen has run into a speed bump, and that speed bump, is the factory Porsche of Patriuck Long as the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italia pits for a flat tire. Dane Cameron at the controls. Just over ten minutes remain. We have had zero full course cautions in this race. Jordan Taylor is right on Scott Pruett's gearbox. He's within a second of the leader.
Eight minutes now remain. Scott Pruett holds the lead by the skin of his teeth. It's going to be a battle between Corvette and BMW for the GT LM win, even though the sister Corvette is also right there. Catching is one thing. Passing is another. A 1-2 finish for Corvette, would be icing on the cake. Whoa! Milner nearly touches the BMW in the braking zone. Taylor and Barbosa pass the other leading factory Corvette.
The Corvette has better braking. The BMW launches better off the corners under acceleration. Jordan Taylor is still digging hard. The traffic fluctuates. This is Jordan Taylor's first visit to Long Beach, while Pruett has run in SCCA Trans Am, Indycars, and Grand Am before. Joao Barbosa also wants a piece of this fight. Taylor has been getting the worst of the traffic in this one. We continue to watch Bill Auberlen and Patrick Long scrap. Long leaps out in front of the BMW.
Tommy Milner is also still working on Dirk Muller. We are inside three minutes left in this race, watching Milner and Muller. Scott Pruett and Jordan Taylor have traffic to deal with. It's Wolf Henzler in the #17 Falken Tires Porsche in GT LM. Jordan Taylor caught Wolf Henzler at the wrong time, and opened the door for Pruett to sneak away. Pruett wiggles, and Jordan Taylor moves closer. White flag next time by. It's the last lap of the race.
White flag lap. 1.9 miles remain. Can Taylor take advantage of traffic? He's coming. What will happen? Just a few more corners, as Jan Magnussen runs throuygh the fountain turn for the final time. They might not catch this traffic in time. It won't work. Taylor is not giving up. But, it's Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, winning at Long Beach, the 40th running of the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen win GT Le Mans!
Patrick Long holds fifth and beats Bill Auberlen to the line.
Overall/Prototype: #01 Pruett/Rojas Riley Ford EcoBoost
GT Le Mans: #3 Garcia/Magnussen Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R-
The next Tudor United Sports Car Championship race, is also in California. It's the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway, in Monterey, California. That's about 350 miles north of Long Beach. The race, will take place in three weeks. FYI, that weekend, there will be two separate races. One for Prototype and GT Le Mans class cars, and another, for Prototype Challenge and GT Daytona machines.
We'll see you then. Stay tuned, also, for a link, to the video of this race, when it becomes available. The inaugural Tudor United Sports Car Championship season, continues. Farewell for now, fans.
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