“Hey folks! I am back to France from Long Beach and I jumped at the chance to write you a chronicle from my office about Team De Ferran Motorsport Acura ARX-02a’s first victory at Long Beach.
“In my previous chronicle, I explained to you how our car is comfortable on street-tracks partly thanks to our big front tires. From the free practice first laps, I noticed that our car was doing pretty well in the streets of Long Beach.
“This weekend, it has been Gil de Ferran’s turn to qualify the car and he did a great job as he failed pole position for only 0.072 second, after a long-lasting fight with David Brabham.
“On Sunday, when I started from the front row, I had completed 14 laps only in the streets of Long Beach. When the race has started, I could overtake Scott Sharp braking in Turn 1. I then had a six-second lead when all of a sudden I lost a piece of bodywork at the rear and so a lot of downforce. Sharp could close up and the fight could start. He damaged my extractor when he tried one again to pass me. I finally could better squeeze in traffic than the Highcroft Racing Acura and could take back the lead when they pitted.
“As we were good at saving gas, I could run two more laps than the other Acura and I hence could increase my lead enough so Gil could stay in front of David Brabham on his out-lap. Gil then maintained his lead and we could win our first victory at Acura’s home track. It has been a perfect weekend for Acura with victories in both LMP1 and LMP2 classes, thanks to Fernandez Racing.
“It is a very special feeling, partly because our partners XM Radio and Panasonic have been on the event. The team effort has been awesome since De Ferran Motorsports has been settled, less than one year ago.
“The up-coming ALMS race is scheduled at Salt Lake City, Utah. This is a very fast track where our Acura’s very sharp aero should be decisive on this gorgeous circuit. Salt Lake City has been our first race ever last year, but also our first podium.
“Meanwhile, I am back to Europe to run the 1000Km of Spa with a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. I hopefully can meet some of you for a probably very tough race.”
Simon
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