ALMS, Long Beach – Race Report
Muscle Milk Stays Fresh In The SoCal Sun

It may not have been an artistic success, but considering the way the weekend started, it sure could have been a whole lot worse than it ended up.  The 2012 ALMS race at Long Beach will still likely be remembered for the wet and rained out Friday the 13th, but the relatively clean race thankfully went some ways to easing the memory of a very long and very lost day. 

For the second year in a row, the Long Beach Grand Prix came up as a big win for Muscle Milk, with this time Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf driving their HPD to its maiden win, helping to at least partially ease the sting of what things could have been at Sebring. 

Making it an even better race for the Greg Pickett led team was their PC effort coming home second in class, after a strong effort.

At the start, Luhr was doing what he could to make things tough for pole man Guy Smith, but it was Smith that led into the first corner.  It was evident that the Muscle Milk HPD was faster, as Luhr was able to keep up with Smith on a consistent basis, but he just couldn’t get past the Dyson Lola. 

Lucas Luhr - “From the start I know I was faster, as he was holding me up in the turns, but I just couldn’t get past him.  Many times I’d stick my nose out into the clean air.  That wasn’t to make a move – it was simply to keep the air on the nose to keep the downforce.  Eventually I was able to get by him when he and the BMW touched or came close to touching.  From then on, it was pretty clear sailing for me on my stint.”

When the only yellow of the race came out, which was for Tony Burgess, who had understeered into the tires at Turn 6, it was like dinner call at the buffet line for all of the cars.  The timing was pretty much perfect, coming 50 minutes into the race. 

For Muscle Milk, it was Luhr out of the car and Graf in, but refueling took longer than usual and Chris Dyson reclaimed the lead.  Just before the track went green, Graf tucked back into the pits for a quick top-off of fuel and then the chase was on.

Graf kept closing the gap, which had been around 15 seconds when the race went green again, and finally reclaimed the lead 83 minutes into the two-hour race.  From then on, it was clear sailing for the German, who eventually stretched the lead to over 40 seconds at the checkered flag, establishing the fastest lap of the race in the process.  Graf – “It was a team effort.  They set the car up right and made all of the right calls.  With that, I still had to push.  I had a sequence of qualifying laps out there today, pushing to catch Chris.  We kept it clean and brought it home.  The strategy worked out well – we were never in danger of running out of fuel.  It was just a great race for us.”

Dyson Racing entered the race knowing that they were at a disadvantage, but did what they could to make a race of it.  Considering where the team is at with the new car and entering the second car for Eric Lux and Michael Marsal, getting both cars home in the points is a success.

In GT, Oliver Gavin brought home the #4 Corvette first in class, after a strong early run by Tom Milner.  After the race, both drivers were proud to point out that their car was clean – there was not a scratch to be found anywhere on the Corvette; quite the contrast to the other team car which had front and rear damage, as well as a missing hood.

"Tommy did a brilliant job of staying out of trouble at the start, and that was the key to our race," Gavin said. "If he'd been caught up in all of that, we'd have been struggling. Tommy did all the hard work at the start and he handed the car over to me in perfect condition. The car was spectacular straight off the truck thanks to the work of the Corvette Racing engineering team and crew.”

Milner started the race and steered clear of any mishaps, handing the car off to Gavin to bring home.  As odd as it may sound, this was the first ALMS win for Milner; one that has been a long time coming. "I've been racing in the ALMS since 2006, and I've had podium finishes and great races. I felt confident that we had a car today that would be competitive and comfortable to drive. We were racing hard, but I kept a gap around me and it worked out well this time. Today the Corvette Racing team had the best combination, and I'm very happy to be part of that."

It was a rough race for BMW.  On the first lap, a GT chain reaction took place in traffic, due to some prototype traffic.  Garcia, in the #3 Corvette got into the rear of the Joey Hand-driven #56 Rahal BMW.  Unfortunately, Jörg Mueller crunched into the back of the ‘Vette, damaging the nose and radiator of the BMW. 

The delayed #56 BMW eventually finished second in class, after having to stop early with a cut tire from contact with the Smith driven Dyson Lola.  The damaged #3 Corvette eventually came home fourth in class, bashed in the front, missing the hood and exhibiting damage to the rear bodywork and rear wing. 

Rounding out the podium was the #01 Extreme Speed Ferrari.  Johannes van Overbeek celebrated his birthday by leading on merit in his stint, while team owner Scott Sharp was able to be aggressive late in the race, after falling back after the stop, to finish strong. 

The Porsche challenge was severely hampered by an early cut tire for the #45 Lizard.  They eventually recovered for a seventh in class finish, one spot behind the Falken Porsche.  Aston Martin Racing had a quiet race in their Vantage, coming out of the race with a strong fifth place finish.

The AJR Lotus had a miserable debut, getting hit very early on after spinning and losing significant time in the pits, but it did finish the race, albeit 27 laps adrift of the class winner.

P2 was a meltdown again.  A strong early race by Conquest went for naught, as a couple of penalties for speeding in the pit lane cost them time on track and then a late stop for fuel with ten minutes remaining dropped them down to second in class. 

It was a tough blow for the new to endurance racing team, but they’ll bounce back; “We had a very good car this weekend and we definitely should’ve won the race,” said team owner Eric Bachelart. “The drivers and the crew did an outstanding job - unfortunately we had a couple of pit speed violations that made us lose time - but we proved how strong we can be and I’m very confident that we’ll win; this team has a lot of potential. I’d like to thank Nissan North America and NISMO because they’ve done a great job with this engine and have been great to work with.”

Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut inherited the P2 class win for Level 5, down in tenth place overall.

Not sure what to think about a PC car finishing on the overall podium, but I guess you can just chalk it up to being one of those races.  Finishing third overall and first in LMPC was the CORE Motorsports entry for Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel.  The Sebring-winning Venezuelan won again, with a big assist from Dalziel. 

Just like at Sebring, CORE finished first and third in the class and is currently leading the class points

For Dalziel, this was a race he really wanted, as he has some history here at Long Beach; “Excellent win today. It's my ten year anniversary and this was my first race when I moved to the US in 2002. I bugged Core to let me race here and help Alex extend his lead in the championship. The heat they put on him today and the way he excelled was huge. The car was really good for me and the team did a great job. The pit stop was a great success. It was difficult staying ahead of Memo - we tried to pace and save fuel, and at the end they gave me the green light to extend it and I had a lot of fun putting it through its paces."

Alex Popow - “It was a little stressful for me first time driving long beach. Yesterday I just did three laps. I said it would be a big challenge for me starting on pole. From the first lap I started to pull away. Then we started to save fuel for the second half of my stint. I lost first place for just a couple of laps. Then the team did a great job in the pits stops. We got the lead back in the pits and Ryan did a great job keeping the car in front.”

GTC was won by Green Hornet over AJR.  A great second half push by Damien Faulkner gave the team the lead, one which the Irishman was able to hold to the end.  This was the first win for the team in ALMS competition.

Not a bad race at all, especially considering the circumstances in which this race took place, with extremely limited track time before the green flag, and the competitors ought to be congratulated for keeping the race as incident-free as it was.  Usually, even under the best of circumstances, a street course race can become a crash fest.  Yes there were some incidents, but surprisingly many of the competitors came away from here in pretty good shape.  It’s notable that those that had success in the race were those that kept things clean in the race.

That said, it’s nice to get Long Beach out of the way.  It may be the shortest race on the schedule, but in some ways it’s the longest event of them all.  Next up – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Gary Horrocks