At the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR fielded by the Falken Tire squad, Porsche works driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) and his teammate Bryan Sellers (USA) finished round two of the American Le Mans Series season in sixth place. With this result, they were the best of the Porsche pilots on the famed street circuit in California. As the track was wet during free practice and the qualifying was even cancelled due to heavy rain, the pair as well as the other Porsche teams had no chance to find a good race set-up for the new Porsche 911 GT3 RSR at its first outing in Long Beach. On race day the sun came out.
With the qualifying session interrupted, the starting grid was determined by the results from the season-opener in Sebring. This saw Porsche works drivers Patrick Long (USA) and Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) start the race from a lowly tenth position. Putting in a strong drive, Patrick Long charged ahead to fourth place, but ran over a tiny vehicle part that lay on the track after an accident. The debris slashed the tire and forced him into the pits where he lost precious seconds. Because it is virtually impossible to overtake on this narrow city circuit, he had no chance to get ahead. His Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR finally crossed the finish line in seventh place, followed by Sascha Maassen (Germany) and Bryce Miller (USA) in Paul Miller Racing’s 911. In the second Flying-Lizard racer, Porsche factory pilot Marco Holzer (Germany) secured ninth place with his teammate Seth Neiman (USA).
Head of Motorsport at Porsche, Hartmut Kristen, said: “During free practice the track was wet and the qualifying was stopped due to heavy rainfall. So our teams didn’t get the chance to find a suitable set-up for the new 911 GT3 RSR’s first race in Long Beach and they weren’t able to explore the full potential of the vehicle. Apart from that, we need to work with the American Le Mans Series to find a solution that gives us a comparable classification to our competitors. Three of our opponents are competing with a much larger air-restrictor than ours and hence with significantly more power output.”
Round three of the American Le Mans Series takes place on 12 May in Laguna Seca/California.
Result
GT class
1. Gavin/Milner (GB/USA), Chevrolet Corvette, 84 laps
2. Hand/Müller (USA/D), BMW E92 M3, 84
3. Sharp/van Overbeek (USA/USA), Ferrari F458 Italia, 84
4. Magnussen/Garcia (DK/E), Chevrolet Corvette, 84
5. Fernandez/Turner (MEX/GB), Aston Martin Vantage, 83
6. Henzler/Sellers (D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
7. Bergmeister/Long (D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
8. Maassen/Miller (D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 83
9. Holzer/Neiman /D/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 81
10.Brown/Cosmo (USA/USA), Ferrari F458 Italia, 80
GTC class
1. Faulkner/LeSaffre (IRL/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 79 laps
2. Keen/MacNeil (USA/USA), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 79
3. Cumming/Valiante (CAN/CAN), Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, 79
Points’ standings
GT class
Driver
1. Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, BMW, 40 points
2. Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner, Chevrolet, 37
3. Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia, Chevrolet, 30
4. Jonathan Summerton, BMW, 24
5. Jordan Taylor, Chevrolet, 20
6. Scott Sharp, Johannes van Overbeek, Ferrari, 19
8. Sascha Maassen, Bryce Miller, Porsche, 15
10. Wolf Henzler, Bryan Sellers, Porsche, 13
11. Seth Neiman, Porsche, 12
12. Darren Law, Andy Lally, Porsche, 10
13. Jörg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, Porsche, 9
Manufacturers
1. BMW, 40 points
Chevrolet, 40
3. Ferrari, 27
4. Porsche, 23
Teams
1. BMW Team RLL, BMW, 40 points
Corvette Racing, Chevrolet, 40
3. Extreme Speed Motorsports, Ferrari, 25
4. Paul Miller Racing, Porsche, 20
5. Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche, 18
