CORE autosport continued its winning ways in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) with a decisive win on the streets of Long Beach. The #06 Soloson Import ORECA FLM09 of Alex Popow and Ryan Dalziel finished first in the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) class (third overall) in Saturday’s Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach after starting on the pole.

This is the second win for the #06 in 2012 out of two ALMS rounds this season, with the first at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. It was also the second year in a row that the team won the pole and the race on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit.

The sister #05 Composite Resources machine, driven by team founder Jon Bennett and Colin Braun, finished in the third position (fifth overall) after starting in the same spot.

Typical southern California sunshine greeted the Rock Hill, SC-based CORE autosport team on Saturday, welcome after Friday’s deluge which wreaked havoc on the ALMS field for the sole practice session and caused qualifying to be cancelled.

The #06 car began the two-hour event with Popow behind the wheel. The Venezuelan driver – a very experienced racer but an ALMS rookie – had only turned a handful of wet laps at the course and had never raced at Long Beach prior. Starting off in the LMPC pole position (8th overall), Popow immediately gunned for the front, ricocheting off of two “faster” LMP2 cars on the first lap but holding onto the first spot until about 50 minutes into the race when he dropped to second spot after contact with a slower GT car.

Popow turned the car over to Dalziel at the 56 minute mark during a full-course caution period, and fast work by the CORE autosport team allowed the #06 to return to the first spot once again. When the green flag flew with 54 minutes to go, Dalziel was fast while saving fuel, pulling out a decisive lead over the second place car – to more than 20 seconds by the time the checkered flag was waved.

This was a special victory for Scotland native Dalziel, as he not only celebrated his 30th birthday this race weekend, but also his 10th year of racing in North America.

For the #05 machine, team founder Bennett was caught in the first-lap melee and within the first minute had lost two spots in the LMPC class, and more than five in the overall standings. For the next 55 minutes Bennett steadily worked his way through GT traffic, returning the car to the third position. Braun was able to take over the boss’ machine and hold onto the spot while dispatching all lower-class traffic, bringing the car home safety and rounding out the LMPC podium.

Next for the CORE autosport team is the third round of ALMS competition, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Ca. The six-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey Presented by Patrón takes place on Saturday, May 12, with the first practice session on Thursday, May 10th.

Source : CORE autosport