Two Michelin-backed racing teams, Highcroft HPD Racing and Flying Lizard Porsche, took checkered flags in their respective classes during the recent American Le Mans Series (ALMS) competition at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif.
Starting from the back of the field, Highcroft drivers Simon Pagenaud, David Brabham and Marino Franchitti combined to move on up, build a lead, fall behind and then reclaim the front spot in the final hour by double-stinting their soft-compound Michelins for a 30-second margin for their second win of the season.
Finishing second was the CytoSport Porsche RS Spyder driven by Klaus Graf, Sascha Maassen and Memo Gidley.
Completing a Michelin sweep of the overall podium and taking the victory in the new LMP Challenge class was the Level 5 Motorsports car of Christophe Bouchut, Scott Tucker and Mark Wilkins. Finishing second in the class and fourth overall was the Genoa Racing car of Tom Sutherland, Kyle Marcelli and Tom Weickardt.
Meanwhile, another late race double-stint, this one with medium compound Michelins, helped deliver another victory for the defending race- and series-champion Flying Lizard Porsche of Patrick Long and Joerg Bergmeister. Making a fuel-only stop in the final 30 minutes, Long made his winning move on the final restart with just eight minutes remaining to secure the win.
“We came from P8 and had a lot of discussion over the radio about was this going to be a call to go for points or go for the win,” says Long. “The BMW decided not to change tires, so we decided not to change tires,” he recounts.
“It was a straight fight,” Long continues, “our Michelin tires against their tires. On that last restart going into Turn 11, it went green. I had about three-quarters of a car width and I took it, and we went three wide through 11 and brought it home.”
Corvette Racing finished third in the class with Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin, ahead of the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni. The top three in the GT class all finished within three seconds.
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