Scott Sharp – Patron Highcroft Racing – Acura ARX-02a (LMP1) : “I love Long Beach, it is definitely one of my most favorite tracks. I remember scoring the pole there many years ago in Trans Am and also had a great race one year in CART for PacWest before having a transmission problem. It has always been a great track for me, but I hadn’t been back for quite a while before last year and it was brilliant to return with Brabs and Patrón Highcroft Racing and take the win. It certainly cemented great memories for me. We are still in the very early stages of development with the new Acura and there are going to be some ups and downs until the car gets fully developed – probably towards the end of the year. After the win at St Pete we have some great momentum. Our engineering staff is doing a great job in working out the best setup and they gave us a great car at the last race. It is excellent to be in the position we are in now with a bit of a points gap but it is only the third race of ten. We still have a long way to go and there are a lot of points on the table. We have to keep doing what we are doing and above all – we have to finish races.”
David Brabham – Patron Highcroft Racing – Acura ARX-02a (LMP1) : “St Pete was a fantastic result for us and when you win your first race of the year it really gives you a lot of confidence. You go from thinking you can win, to knowing you can win and last year that made a huge difference for Patrón Highcroft Racing. Tequila Patrón is the title sponsor for the Long Beach event and last year was one of those races where you couldn’t have written the script better – it was a fantastic finish. We are going there with a lot of confidence, we really like the track and the overall event is brilliant. The track at Long Beach is a little different to St Pete. The Michelin tires behave differently and it is a tricky circuit. I really enjoy racing at Long Beach and the place has a great history. That gives the entire event that special something. Despite having a points lead, we have to be very careful the way we think. We have to go into every race weekend going for the win. A points cushion is very handy because anything can happen in this type of racing but we can’t rely on that. We are going to every race to win it.”
Gil de Ferran – de Ferran Motorsports – Acura ARX-02a (LMP1) : “Obviously it was really disappointing to face retirement at St Petersburg when we had dominated the race for so long. We had pole position thanks to Simon and the car felt fantastic early in the race but this was an unforeseen problem. These things are going to occur when you are running a brand new car so we are hoping that this is the end of our bad luck.”
Simon Pagenaud – de Ferran Motorsports – Acura ARX-02a (LMP1) : “I am really looking forward to Long Beach. I love street circuits and our car has handled them really well so far. I think it is the big front tires which helps the braking, but around the St Petersburg streets the car was fantastic to drive and although Long Beach is probably a little more bumpy I don’t really have any concerns. We just need to keep up our qualifying performance and start reeling in the points.”
Adrian Fernandez – Lowe’s Fernandez Racing – Acura ARX-01b (LMP2) : “Long Beach has always been special to me. I have been close to winning in the past, but second in 2003 is as close as I have gotten. Now, our Lowe’s team is really rolling with two straight wins. It would be great to win Long Beach for our team and the Lowe’s people. It will be a tough race though.”
Luis Diaz – Lowe’s Fernandez Racing – Acura ARX-01b (LMP2) : “Last year, I was disappointed after qualifying because I thought we had a car for the pole. And I led the race for some time. But we didn’t get the win. Now, I really want the Long Beach win.”
Doug Fehan – Corvette Racing program manager (GT1) : “Long Beach is a great place to say goodbye to GT1 in the United States. The race is a hugely successful event attended by thousands of fans, so it’s a very fitting place to finish the GT1 program by taking the Corvettes to the people. When the checkered flag falls at Long Beach, I think it will be a moving experience for everyone on the team. It will mark the closing of one chapter, the likes of which will never be written again in Corvette history. At the same time, it will mark the opening of another chapter that will eventually see Corvette competing in a global GT class under the international regulations that will come into effect next year. That is one of the most exciting challenges that this team has undertaken, and it will be the culmination of a decade of development and continuous improvement that has made Corvette the standard by which GT cars are now measured.”
Johnny O’Connell – Corvette Racing (GT1) : “I’ve been there for all but two years of competition in GT1, so there will certainly be some sadness when we finally say goodbye to such an amazing car. There is a huge Corvette following in Southern California, so to let them see the Corvette C6.Rs in their last GT1 race in the U.S. is very special. The GT1 Corvettes are among the coolest cars in racing history, and they’ve left their mark in the record books for Corvette, for Chevrolet and for sports car racing. Over the years we’ve had great battles and rivalries with Viper, Ferrari, Saleen, Maserati, and Aston Martin. But we’re moving to an even more competitive arena, and that’s another example of Chevrolet taking on challenges. The commitment to compete on the world stage is something that everyone at Chevrolet can be proud of.”
Eric Ingraham – Team manager – Flying Lizard Motorsports – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (GT2) : “This is the third race of the season and the points spread is very narrow: three teams (Flying Lizard, Panoz Team PTG, and Risi Competizione) are within 10 points of one another. The GT2 field is proving to be extremely tough this year, and there will be seven different manufacturers in class at Long Beach, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. At Long Beach, the track is so varied that each type of car is going to perform well on different parts of the track. It will make for exciting racing, to be sure, and will certainly make it difficult for any one car to pull away from the pack early on.”
Craig Watkins – Chief engineer – Flying Lizard Motorsport – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (GT2) : “At first glance the two street courses appear similar, but they actually vary significantly in road surface, track layout and environment so our setup will be quite different. Long Beach is mostly concrete, which is more abrasive on tires than the asphalt of St. Pete. It’s harder to get mechanical grip on concrete, so our camber settings will play an important role. And where St. Pete was a mix of medium and high speed turns, Long Beach combines some very slow turns with fast straights and arcing turns. It’s critical to get the gearing right to accommodate both. And at Long Beach, we’ll see less humidity and cooler temperatures than St. Pete which will definitely affect our compound choice. We know what the variables are, but we won’t know for sure how it all fits together until we get on track on Thursday.”
Dirk Werner – Farnbacher Loles Racing – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (GT2) : “It will be my first time to race in Long Beach, but I hope with my experiences from European street courses like Monaco and coming from the St. Pete race, I won’t need too much time to adapt to the track. I know that our car will be fast as it was in St Pete., which we proved with the fastest race lap. Wolf and I have to stay away from the walls and hopefully we can bring home our first win of the season. The whole team really needs a good result.”
Wolf Henzler – Farnbacher Loles Racing – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (GT2) : “Dirk and I still expect to compete for the series title, even though we didn’t get as many points as we wanted in the first two rounds. There are still a lot of races left and I know we have a good chance to win the Championship for Farnbacher Loles.”
Jaime Melo – Risi Competizione – Ferrari F430GT (GT2) : “Long Beach is a little bit different from St Petersburg, but both tracks are bumpy so the most important thing is to have a good car over the bumps. Our car is really good between the walls and we have a good base set up so we just have to work on improving what we had last year. Like at St Pete there may not be many yellows, but we have to be prepared for pit stops at any time. I’m not worried about this because our Risi guys are very quick and slick on these; we cannot lose any time in the pits like we did last year [when a starter motor issue delayed the #62 car]. We will need to push from the first to the last minute as Porsche will be strong again, but I think we will be really competitive.”
Pierre Kaffer – Risi Competizione Ferrari F430GT (GT2) : “I really think we could have won the St Pete race as we had the pace over a stint and, of course, the #87 car had problems. I always believe that things happen for a reason and although I don’t know what caused our suspension problems, I’m absolutely sure it won’t happen again. I will be downloading a lap of Long Beach on the internet so will be concentrating on that now. It’s quite difficult to have such a short time in the car before the race so you have to concentrate very hard, but I love street tracks so I’m really looking forward to it.”
From teams’ press release,
Cécile Bonardel