ALMS:Porsche RS Spyder takes first overall win at Long Beach

[Plex]

The first American Le Mans Series race ever to be held on the Long Beach street circuit will be one to remember. For the first time since 2000 there was no Audi on the overall podium and it was the first defeat for the Audi R10. The Porsche RS gave Porsche its first clean sweep of the overall podium, the first manufacturer to achieve this.



At Long Beach the start of the race was very smooth, as opposed to the race in St Petersburg two weeks ago. All cars came through in one piece and it was the Andretti Green Racing Acura that led the pack for the first part of the race. Briscoe made a small detour via the pit lane when he suffered a puncture; he rejoined the field at almost the back. Unfortunately for the leading Penske car the safety car was deployed when the Rahal Letterman Racing Porsche 997 hit the wall in turn 9. Clearing the track took longer than expected and by the time the Porsche was gone thirty minutes of the race had been gone and driver changes could be made. Then it all became a very tactical game, which was won by Penske.

At around the 30 minute mark the number 7 Porsche RS Spyder came in, change drivers and got out again. At the end of the race this strategy (including no new tyres) had worked out perfectly and the Porsche ended on the top spot. The sister car got back all the way to the top to score the second place for Penske and the nr 16 Dyson Racing Porsche made it a Porsche clean sweep.



Audi therefore only won the LMP1 category, and missing out on that overall win will probably spark some rumours again. During qualifying on Saturday it became clear that the Audi suffered a lot from the slow hairpin at the end of the lap and the slow corner around the famous Long Beach fountain. The car lost so much momentum that the long straights did not make up for the lost time. With Capello having braking problems during the day, having an accident on Fiday and being punted of by one of the GT2 Porsches it became clear that Audi would not go for the win. Both drivers unanimously agreed, this car was not able to win on Long Beach no matter what trouble they had. The Intersport Creation took the final LMP1 podium place.

The new entry in LMP1, Team Cytosport, never made it to the start. The car was withdrawn with differential problems.

In GT2 it was once again the Ferrari 430 of Mika Salo and Jaime Melo that won the race, showing the dominance the Ferrari still has. The 430 was under threat by a Flying Lizards Porsche and Team PTG Panoz but a great pitstop strategy by the Rizi Competizione team meant the rest of the GT2 field had no chance to beat the Finnish/Brazilian pairing for the third time in a row this season. The Flying Lizard car of Patrick Long and Darren Law took second place and the Jonsson/Lazzaro Risi Ferrari completed the podium.



The GT1 victory was once again for the Ollie's. Gavin and Beretta won their third consecutive race of this season, further increasing their lead. Let's just hope there will be more competition (soon) as just two Corvettes are not what the fans want to see.



Next time the American Le Mans Series will be driving at the Grand Prix of Houston, a regular 2 hour 45 minute race, to take place on Saturday
evening. This race will take place in a week time.

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