The “dynamic duo” of Patrick Long and Jorg Bergmeister flexed their muscles once again to win the third straight ALMS GT2 Race. While the season got off to a bit of a rocky start with troubles at Sebring, it’s been smooth sailing with wins in St. Pete and Long Beach. Today’s win at Utah only adds to the their commanding point lead and puts them in a great position for an overall series win.
The duo led pretty much the entire way and finished 74.559 seconds ahead of Farnbacher Loles Racing’s Porsche of Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler.
The only time the Lizard car fell out of the lead was the first half of the opening lap when Pierre Kaffer in the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT and Tommy Milner in one of BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team’s BMW M3s spun at the start, impeding Bergmeister slightly while Lieb charged past. Bergmeister made the pass back into the lead later in the lap.
“The biggest thing is the test we had here after Long Beach for two days,” Bergmeister said. “We only had to make minor changes to the car for qualifying and we only did one lap to save the tires. At the beginning, Marc was very good but I was able to keep him behind me after the first lap.”
Long said Sunday was a matter of turning consistent lap times that were similar to the pursuing Farnbacher Loles entry.
“My stint was relatively uneventful although it was tight among the prototypes in the first three turns,” he said. “It was like a game of chess in my stint getting the Farnbacher Loles car within the gap Jörg had. He could try to get close but as soon as I could tell they used their tires, I could attack and really build up and establish the lead.”
ALMS action returns in mid July for the Northeast Grand Prix at scenic LimeRock Park in Lakeville, CT. Be sure to check back later this week for FlatSixes.com’s interview with Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler.
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[Source: 993C4S, ALMS]