Corvette Racing ended a long dry spell by winning the GT class of the American Le Mans Series at Long Beach, capitalizing on collisions by the Team RLL BMWs which dominated last season.
Corvettes finished first and fourth in GT. Oliver Gavin and Tom Milner got their first GT win in the #4 Corvette C6 ZR1, beating Joey Hand and Dirk Müller’s #56 BMW M3 by 5.68 seconds. The BMW was under hot pursuit by Scott Sharp in the #01 ESM Ferrari he shares with Johannes van Overbeek, which finished third, only 2.62 seconds behind the BMW and gaining.
“It certainly was a great job from Corvette Racing, putting together a great car right off the truck,” Oliver Gavin told alms.com. “I learned a lot from Tommy [Milner]. He was a bit of a Guinea pig for me today, seeing how the tires lasted, seeing it through the longer run. Tommy did a great job staying out of trouble in the first few laps. He gave me advice on time management.
“I knew we were third going out. But I got ahead of Scott Sharp quite quickly. It was harder to get ahead of Joerg, I managed to squeeze through. Then it was about managing and saving the tires. It got a bit hairy, with extra traffic, and there were a lot of cars going off. It kept you on your toes. I had enough gap to stay ahead of the BMW.”
The second Corvette finished fourth. The #3 Corvette was damaged in a first-lap accident which also sidelined the #55 BMW. Despite the damage, Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen managed to bring the car home only eight seconds behind the ESM Ferrari.
Two incidents changed the complexion of the GT race. On the first lap, Duncan Ende in the #25 PC Dempsey Racing Oreca tangled with Antonio Downs in the #8 Merchant Services PC Oreca. Jorg Mueller in the #55 RLL BMW slammed on his brakes to avoid the par, which got him rear-ended by Antonio Garcia in the #3 Corvette.
Apparently Mueller hit the PC cars anyway, because he ruined his cooling system. Garcia’s Corvette lost its hood, which caused it to understeer for the rest of the race.
On lap 17, Tom Milner squeezed underneath Joey Hand in the #56 BMW to take the class elad. Hand, concentrating on the Corvette ahead of him, cut across the nose of Guy Smith in the #16 Dyson Racing P1 Lola-Mazda which was about to overtake up the inside. Hand clipped Smith’s left front wing, breaking it while cutting his own right rear tire. Hand had to pit, which cost him a lot of track position and gave Milner in the Corvette time to open a gap.
“I got the lead in the opening stint,” said Tom Milner. “I was behind Joey in the BMW. I felt I was quick behind him. I just waited for an opportunity. He got held up exiting turn 8 or 7—I stayed on it and was able to sneak by there.
“Finally, I got a win in ALMS, racing since 2006. I’ve had some great podiums and big heartbreaks after chances to win.
“With an unknown car from the rain sessions, it was great to get a win that meant something. I learned a bit from last year where I had put myself in bad situations so I focused on keeping out this year.
“It’s a big team win today, not just about me, but the team, and my co-driver. ”
Next: GT Race Goes Down to the Wire
Johannes van Overbeek actually took the lead from the Corvette before the halfway mark; the ESM driver wanted the win as a birthday present perhaps. BMW retook the lead in the pits, (they didn’t need tires, having taken a full set when hand came in with a flat.) Müller couldn’t hold off Magnussen with older tires, though; the Corvette driver retook the lead after five laps.
The GT race went right down to the wire, with Scott Sharp gaining on Dirk Müller; if he had had another several laps he might well have finished second. Had it been a 2-hour, 45-minute race like most ALMS events, he might have been fighting for the lead at the end.
Farther back in the pack, series veteran Adrian Fernandez in the #007 Aston Martin Vantage showed that he could drive a GT car as well as a prototype, battling past Wolf Henzler’s #17 Falken Tire Porsche with a precise and very daring move, squeezing ahead with about the width of a sheet of paper between the two cars, but never making contact.
The most disappointed GT team was Alex Job Racing, which debuted its gorgeous black-and-gold Lotus Evora at Long Beach. Bill Sweedler went off on the first lap, then spun the Lotus to get back on track.
Unfortunately Tim Pappas in the #54 P2 Black Swan Lola-Honda had just been released from the pits, where he started since he missed qualifying. Pappas slammed into the Lotus, sidelining his own car and doing enough damage that the Lotus needed several stops to make repairs. AJR wasn’t planning to win the race, but they certainly hoped for a less jarring debut.
The American Le Mans Series stays in California for its next race, the American Le Mans Monterey Presented by Patrón, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 12.
The ALMS Monterey event will be a true endurance race—a six-hour contest against fatigue both human and mechanical, as well as against other cars in five classes. Racing fans on or anywhere near the West Coast won’t want to miss this one.
Not only is Laguna Seca an historic track, not only does it offer great vantage points for spectators and photographers, but the length of the race ensures that fans will get plenty of chances to see the action from many angles. Tickets are available through the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca website.
The race will be streamed live on ESPN3 starting at 4:15 p.m.and highlights will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. Sunday, May 13. Qualifying will be streamed live at 6:55 p.m. Friday, May 11, on ESPN3.
Next: The Results
| American Le Mans Series at Long Beach | |||||||||
| # | CP | class | Car | Laps | Behind leader | Behind next | Behind class | Drivers | |
| 1 | 6 | 1 | P1 | HPD ARX-03a | 86 | - - - | - - - | Klaus Graf, Lucas Luhr | |
| 2 | 16 | 2 | P1 | Lola B12/60 | 86 | 43.66 | 43.66 | 43.66 | Chris Dyson, Guy Smith |
| 3 | 06 | 1 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 84 | 2 laps | 2 laps | - - - | Ryan Dalziel, Alex Popow |
| 4 | 5 | 2 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 84 | 2 laps | 28.34 | 28.34 | Memo Gidley, Mike Guasch |
| 5 | 05 | 3 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 84 | 2 laps | 13.77 | 13.77 | Colin Braun, Jonathan Bennett |
| 6 | 4 | 1 | GT | Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 | 84 | 2 laps | 5.68 | - - - | Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner |
| 7 | 56 | 2 | GT | BMW E92 M3 | 84 | 2 laps | 4.26 | 4.26 | Joey Hand, Dirk Müller |
| 8 | 01 | 3 | GT | Ferrari F458 Italia | 84 | 2 laps | 2.62 | 2.62 | Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek |
| 9 | 3 | 4 | GT | Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 | 84 | 2 laps | 7.99 | 7.99 | Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia |
| 10 | 055 | 1 | P2 | HPD ARX-03b | 83 | 3 laps | 1 lap | - - - | Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut |
| 11 | 007 | 5 | GT | Aston Martin Vantage | 83 | 3 laps | 11.65 | 1 lap | Adrian Fernandez, Darren Turner |
| 12 | 17 | 6 | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 83 | 3 laps | 4.52 | 4.52 | Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers |
| 13 | 45 | 7 | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 83 | 3 laps | 14.91 | 14.91 | Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long |
| 14 | 48 | 8 | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 83 | 3 laps | 1.20 | 1.20 | Bryce Miller, Sascha Maassen |
| 15 | 20 | 3 | P1 | Lola B11/66 | 83 | 3 laps | 13.61 | 3 laps | Michael Marsal, Eric Lux |
| 16 | 8 | 4 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 83 | 3 laps | 4.31 | 1 laps | Kyle Marcelli, Antonio Downs |
| 17 | 37 | 2 | P2 | Morgan | 82 | 4 laps | 1 lap | 1 lap | Martin Plowman, David Heinemeier Hansson |
| 18 | 25 | 5 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 81 | 5 laps | 1 lap | 2 laps | Duncan Ende, Henri Richard |
| 19 | 95 | 3 | P2 | HPD ARX-03b | 81 | 5 laps | 38.20 | 1 lap | Scott Tucker, Luis Diaz |
| 20 | 44 | 9 | GT | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 80 | 6 laps | 1 lap | 3 laps | Seth Neiman, Marco Holzer |
| 21 | 02 | 10 | GT | Ferrari F458 Italia | 80 | 6 laps | 54.59 | 54.59 | Ed Brown, Guy Cosmo |
| 22 | 52 | 6 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 80 | 6 laps | 0.55 | 1 laps | Butch Leitzinger, RudyJunco |
| 23 | 34 | 1 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 79 | 7 laps | 1 lap | - - - | Peter LeSaffre, Damien Faulkner |
| 24 | 22 | 2 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 79 | 7 laps | 3.11 | 3.11 | Cooper MacNeil, Leh Keen |
| 25 | 11 | 3 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 79 | 7 laps | 21.60 | 21.60 | Chris Cumming, Michael Valiante |
| 26 | 32 | 4 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 78 | 8 laps | 1 lap | 1 lap | James Sofronas, Alex Welch |
| 27 | 66 | 5 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 76 | 10 laps | 2 laps | 2 laps | Emilio Di Guida, Spencer Pumpelly |
| 28 | 24 | 6 | GTC | Porsche 911 GT3 Cup | 74 | 12 laps | 2 laps | 2 laps | Bob Faieta, Michael Avenatti |
| 29 | 55 | 11 | GT | BMW E92 M3 | 71 | 15 laps | 3 laps | 9 laps | Jörg Müller, Bill Auberlen |
| 30 | 9 | 7 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 69 | 17 laps | 2 laps | 11 laps | Tomy Drissi, Bruno Junqueira |
| 31 | 23 | 12 | GT | Lotus Evora | 57 | 29 laps | 12 laps | 14 laps | Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell |
| 32 | 7 | 8 | PC | Oreca FLM09 | 35 | 51 laps | 22 laps | 34 laps | Tony Burgess, James Kovacic |
| 33 | 54 | 4 | P2 | Lola B11/80 | 1 | 85 laps | 34 laps | 80 laps | Timothy Pappas, Jeroen Bleekemolen |
