The Tudor USCC race at Long Beach was restricted to just Prototype and GTLM classes. This means that Porsche only had three 911 RSRs on the track instead of the usual mix of both RSRs and GT3 Cup America’s (in the GTD) class. Never the less, Porsche faired well and retains the manufacturers points lead coming out of the weekend. Porsche’s full race report can be found after the pictures below.
The trio of Porsche 911 RSR entered in today’s Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach fought both the city streets of Southern California and the competition, and left retaining the lead in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Le Mans (GTLM) class Manufacturer Championship point standings. The No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Richard Lietz (Austria) took the checkered flag in fourth-place with the team car, the No. 912 of Playa del Rey, California’s Patrick Long and Denmark’s Michael Christensen, fifth in class. The No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR finished eighth.
The Race Hinged On A Single Pit Stop
The race hinged on a single pit stop with approximately one hour remaining in the 100-minute race, by far the shortest race of the season. First, the No. 911 stopped and Lietz relinquished the car to Tandy with fresh Michelin tires and a full fuel load from their fifth place qualifying position. One lap later, the No. 912 stopped with Long taking over from Christensen who was running sixth at the time. After the rotation, the No. 911 gained one spot moving to fourth while the No. 912 did the same, moving to fifth.
From the sole pit stop to the conclusion of the third round of the championship, Tandy ran a mostly unchallenged race to cross under the checkered flag 27-seconds behind the winning Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia. Long, on the other hand, had a heated battle with fellow Southern Californian Bill Auberlen in the No. 55 BMW Z4 GTE. Long held off the pressing BMW to take the top-five spot in front of his hometown crowd.
Tandy had this to say, “The result is better than our pace this weekend as we improved on our qualifying position. We scored two high points places for the team and gained points back on the championship leader. It’s not a podium but it’s two cars in the top-five, so it’s good.”
Team Falken Tire
The No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR with factory driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Ga.) also gained one spot on their starting position finishing eight with efficient pit work. The eighth-place follows a fifth earned during the debut of the privately entered 911 RSR at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March.
Team Falken Tire’s Wolf Henzler said, “We have to sit down now after this race and look at what we did and what we can do better. We still need to understand the car better and how it reacts to setup changes on the Falken tire. I think we will have something better for Laguna Seca.”
The next round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship will be held at the classic Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. on May 4. The weekend will feature separate races for the GTLM and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. The Porsche 911 GT America will race in a GTD/Prototype Challenge (PC), two-hour, 45-minute race followed by the GTLM and Prototype classes in their own two-hour, 45-minute race. It is the first time the format has been tried in the championship.
Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach GT Le Mans Results
1. Jan Magnussen (Denmark)/Antonio Garcia (Spain), Corvette C-7R – 75 laps
2. Dirk Mueller (Switzerland)/John Edwards (Cincinnati, Ohio), BMW Z4 – 75 laps
3. Oliver Gavin (UK)/Tommy Milner (Lake Mary, Fla.), Corvette C-7R – 75 laps
4. Nick Tandy (UK)/Richard Lietz (Austria), Porsche 911 RSR – 75 laps
5. Patrick Long (Playa del Rey, Calif.)/Michael Christensen (Denmark), Porsche 911 RSR – 75 laps
6. Bill Auberlen (Redondo Beach, Calif.)/Andy Priaulx (UK), BMW Z4 – 75 laps
7. Dominik Farnbacher (Germany)/Marc Goossens (Belgium), SRT Viper -75 laps
8. Wolf Henzler (Germany)/Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Ga, Porsche 911 RSR – 74 laps
9. Gianmaria Bruni (Italy)/Dane Cameron (USA), Ferrari F458 Italia – 73 laps
10. Jonathan Bomarito (Monterey, Calif.)/Kuno Wittmer (Canada), SRT Viper – 56 laps
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