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News Archive
Long Beach 2010
Added 04/21/10
It is
always fun going to Long Beach, as I did a lot of my early racing in
southern California and I get the opportunity to run across old
friends. But for us in the American Le Mans Series, the race is
always a challenge as we never get good track time, and the
importance of rolling off the truck with a good race car is unreal
important. At Corvette Racing we have the most amazing engineers,
and we had a good car from the get go.
It
was my turn to qualify, and I was pleased to get third. My tires
went off more than I expected them too, and got held up some on my
best lap, but all in all I felt we were in good position. The
Ferrari as I expected was very fast and got the pole, and then Wolf
Henzler in the Kumho Tire Porsche was very fast as well. They
really have stepped up on their tires, and I think they will be a
force to recon with all year.
My
stint for the most part was pretty uneventful. There was hard
racing between the Ferrari and Porsche right in front of me, and
early in the race I was content to just hold position and see what
would happen. Jorg in the 45 car was behind me, but lacked just a
tic of pace so I wasn’t that concerned with him. My only big
problem was when a LMPC car got between myself and the Ferrari and
Porsche and held me up for about 4 laps. That cost me a lot of
time and at about an hour into the race there was a full course
caution which bunched us all up again and allowed everyone to stop.
Jan
got into the car, and having a tic of problem getting the steering
wheel on, restarted in 6th. Knowing how hard it would
be to work through traffic I knew he would have a challenge ahead of
him. Both BMW’s did not take tires on their stop and as a result
they were first and second…. But would have their hands full when
things went green not having good tires.
Jan
did an awesome job working back to the front, and managed to get up
to second. So for us a great rebound from Sebring. The 45 car
of Jorg and Patrick Long ended up winning, and they both drove a
great race, had a good pit stop, and I know that all year we will
have good battles with them.
As
always the guys on Corvette Racing, did an awesome job. Where the
paddock was set up was a complete embarrassment as there was
virtually no room for the guys to work on the car, and I know how
frustrated they must have been. I barely heard them complain
though, and instead did what they always do which is give us great
cars and 100 percent effort.
The
next thing on our schedule is to do some testing in preparation for
Le Mans. As always that race is the cornerstone of our season,
and we plan on being totally ready for the job we need to do. A
new challenge for sure for us being in GT 2 and we plan on getting
another win for Corvette and America. But before then we also
have a race to run at Laguna. I know that both Jan and I feel that
place owes us one, and count on everyone on the #3 car being ready,
and as hungry as ever….
Johnny O
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