1-2 Finish for Team Felbermayr Proton at Paul Ricard

Last weekend, Patrick Long raced in the European-based Le Mans Series in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR with Team Felbermayr Proton, teaming with Martin Ragginger and Christian Ried, finishing 2nd in the GT2 class and claiming a 1-2 finish both for the team and for Porsche. The race, held at the Paul Ricard HTTT in the south of France, was the opening round of the 2010 Le Mans Series.

“Last weekend, racing at Circuit Paul Ricard was a very cool outcome. We had a fight on our hands immediately because the Porsches were outnumbered by Ferraris by about three-to-one, and there were some very competitive cars in the mix. Being able to achieve a 1-2 finish for Porsche was fantastic, but it was also great to get the 1-2 finish for the team, Felbermayr Proton. We had a bit of a rough week, but were able to run through some development setups for the entire season for the team and we had minimal track time. We had adopted our sister car’s setups which worked well but were certainly different to drive. In the race, we kept our heads down and just barged our way through the field – it was a great result! Being able to do an 8-hour race at Paul Ricard was pretty special – I’d driven there during my Red Bull Formula One Driver Search experience, as well as had some some Porsche RS Spyder testing there, and it is one seriously cool place to race. It was great to be back racing in Europe and in the LMS as well – I hadn’t raced in that series since the inaugural season in 2004.”

Streets of Long Beach Preview

Southern-California born and bred, Patrick Long will return to the streets of Long Beach for the 2010 Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Race on April 16-17. Patrick and teammate Jörg Bergmeister will look to defend their 2009 victory at Long Beach, the second of what would become five consecutive wins en route to the ALMS GT2 Driver’s Championship for the duo. Long has had a successful history at Long Beach, including a remarkable sweep from fourth to the overall race lead into turn one of the opening lap of the 2008 race, while driving a Penske Porsche RS Spyder. (Video footage of race start here)Patrick has finished on the podium every year sportscars have competed at Long Beach, including 2nd in a Daytona Prototype in 2006, 2nd in GT2 in 2007, 3rd in LMP2 in 2008, and 1st in GT2 in 2009.

Source : Patrick Long Motorsports