RacerViews photographer, Jim Fonseca was at the TUSCC Laguna Seca round over the weekend for the new-for-2014 two race weekend. Here is the P and GTLM race gallery and rundown.
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MONTEREY, Calif. (May 4, 2014) – It was a breakthrough win achieved at a breakneck pace, caution-free and milestone-marked. The team of Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek tamed a field of Prototypes, co-driving their No. 2 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b/Honda to victory in the Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey powered by Mazda on Sunday – the first victory for a P2 Prototype in the inaugural TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.
This was significant – and fast, with the winners posting an average speed of 97.318 mph in the two-hour race on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course.
Brown and van Overbeek won the second of two races Sunday at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, featuring the TUDOR Championship’s Prototype (P) and GT Le Mans (GTLM) classes.
Sunday’s breakthrough win for the No. 2 came on the heels of an “adjustment of performance” made by IMSA that lessened horsepower capabilities for the Daytona Prototypes, which had won the season’s first three races.
Van Overbeek took the lead for good with 15 minutes remaining when he passed No. 10 Konica Minolta Corvette DP driver Jordan Taylor in Turn 3. Taylor and his brother Ricky finished second; finishing third were Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett, in the No. 01 Telcel Ford EcoBoost/Riley.
– See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/van-overbeek-takes-honda-powered-prototype-victory-lane?invalidate-cache=1399258925#sthash.3bzoz5Au.dpuf
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“This will probably soak in, in a week or so,” said Brown, who started the car from the pole. “We’ve worked really hard. I felt really good coming out of qualifying yesterday knowing that I had the fastest guy on the track racing with me.” – See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/van-overbeek-takes-honda-powered-prototype-victory-lane?invalidate-cache=1399258925#sthash.3bzoz5Au.dpuf
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“Gustavo made a fantastic start coming from P4 and ending up P2 after the first braking,” said Pierre-Alain Bouhet, Team Manager. “He was obviously faster than the No. 90 Corvette. He tried to pass him several times in the first 15 laps, but the No. 90 car toughly defended his position. After that, we asked Gustavo to stay back because we could see it would have ended up badly and he had to save the tires. At that point, we moved back to P3. We decided to pit early, put Alex in the car on new rubber tires, to try to overtake everyone in the pit. It was actually a good call, as we exited virtually second and fought for P1 with No. 90 again. – See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/oak-racing-victim-collision-laguna-seca%C2%A0?invalidate-cache=1399258925#sthash.ffCmAAix.dpuf
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“It’s was a really hard race,” said Barbosa. “After I got hit really hard, the car was never the same and on top of that I had to save fuel for the whole race. We really stretched our fuel mileage by a lot. We had a fast enough car to be on the podium today but with saving fuel the whole race it was nearly impossible to do anything else. I was just pacing myself compared to the No. 90 car behind me. The last lap was really tough but we managed to keep fourth place and considering the big hit we got early in the race, we salvaged a fourth place finish and that is what we need to keep doing.” – See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/action-express-racing-rallies-fourth-place-finish-and-maintains-championship-lead-laguna?invalidate-cache=1399258925#sthash.lEIsIWeH.dpuf
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Dominik Farnbacher, driver, No. 91 SRT Viper GTS-R
“That was not the best race we’ve had. We had a good start, but we got pushed out a little bit by the 55 BMW. After that, the 912 Porsche dive bombed me and ran into me and then I think my toe was broken. The toe was off so the car behaved very strange – massive understeer, massive oversteer – so we really had to fight the car. I just tried to keep it on the pavement and not go off, so I didn’t push a lot and then at some point a prototype hit me in the back. I think the tire started to fade away because it touched with the splitter. I just tried to stay alive out there.” – See more at: http://www.imsa.com/articles/srt-motorsports-laguna-seca-post-race-report?invalidate-cache=1399258925#sthash.XGpgiytX.dpuf
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The No. 911 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR factory program took the checkered flag in third position, equal to where the car of Nick Tandy (Great Britain) and Richard Lietz (Austria) started the race. However, following a post-race review, IMSA officials, the sanctioning body of the championship, applied a penalty for “on-track contact”, per Article 48.3 of the regulations. The penalty, the equivalent of a pit stop plus 60 seconds, dropped the car to ninth in the GTLM standings.
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The Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR brought home a fourth-place result here in Monterey. Porsche factory driver Wolf Henzler (Germany) started the race running the privately entered No. 17 Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 RSR as high as third before turning the car over to teammate Bryan Sellers (Braselton, Ga.). Following the stop, Sellers was able to bring the car home in fifth at the checkered flag. The team would gain one spot in the race results by virtue of a penalty assessed, post-race, to the No. 911 Porsche North America entry.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U0_6lcO0c4&list=PLf7wapfsaSfgvpsxKoew84n-7tIivYfIt&feature=share&index=3
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Photos by Jim Fonseca
Words from press materials
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