CORE autosport celebrated both of its cars finishing on their American Le Mans Series class podiums at VIRginia International Raceway for the Oak Tree Grand Prix. Both the No. 06 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and the No. 05 ORECA FLM09 finished second in their classes in the penultimate round of the 2013 season.
Starting from seventh on the GT grid, Colin Braun initially fell back in the opening laps of the two hour and 45 minute race, but a clever pit strategy had the No. 06 crew holding out longer than the rest of the class before making its second pit stop and driver change. When a full-course yellow was issued shortly after Patrick Long climbed into the car, the team was able to pit for fuel only, which resulted in Long jumping to third in the GT order.
On the restart, Long shot to the GT lead just before another full course caution came out for a big accident between a GT and GTC car in the Uphill Esses. Long did not pit during the lengthy cleanup that followed and retained the lead into the race’s final restart.
Long first had to defend the lead from the No. 3 Corvette driven by Jan Magnussen, but it was a hard charging Matteo Malucelli in the No. 62 Ferrari that soon became the bigger threat. Long did his best to hold off the Ferrari, but was overtaken exiting Turn 11 with 27 minutes remaining in the race.
His attention then turned back to Magnussen’s Corvette, which loomed in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR’s mirrors. Long’s nimble work through traffic delayed the Corvette as the minutes counted down and at the checkered flag Long held second place by 0.685-second over the Corvette. The runner-up finish marks CORE autosport’s highest GT finish since first entering the category in Round Three. It is also Braun’s first ALMS GT podium.
In PC, Jon Bennett started the No. 05 ORECA FLM09 from second and though he initially lost ground in the opening laps, he fought back to third place before handing the car over to Tom Kimber-Smith, who held onto the spot through the next pit stop. Quick work by the CORE autosport crew helped Kimber-Smith gain a position in the pits and re-enter the course in second place.
A quick stop for fuel with 50 minutes remaining slid Kimber-Smith back to third, but still within striking distance. Sure enough, with 20 minutes remaining, Kimber-Smith passed the No. 7 PC car driven by Rusty Mitchell and had second-place back in hand. Unfortunately, the gap to the leader proved to be insurmountable with the little time remaining in the race.
The runner-up finish comes on a day when CORE and Bennett’s nearest competition in the PC Championships finished fifth. CORE is now tied with PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports in the Team Championship and Bennett’s deficit in the Driver Championship has narrowed to 12.
Petit Le Mans, the final round of the 2013 American Le Mans Series season and the final ALMS event ever, takes place at Road Atlanta, Oct. 16 – 19. The 10-hour race begins at 11:30 a.m. ET on Oct. 19, races into the dark and finishes at approximately 9:15 p.m. The race broadcast will alternate between FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 starting at 11 am on Oct. 19.
Colin Braun, Driver: No. 06 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR : “The start was tough. Being on the outside like I was, I got pushed into the dirt and there’s not a lot of traction out there. I also struggled behind some of the slower PC cars trying to get going. That backs the whole field up, but that’s what makes multi-class racing interesting. The guys did a great job on pit road. The most important thing was we ran long on my second stint. A lot of other GT teams pitted, but because we went so long before our second stop, when the yellow flag came out for the big accident it mean we didn’t have to take tires when everyone else did. It really played into our favor and gave us good track position. Pat did a good job at the end using GTC traffic to hold the Corvettes off and the Ferrari for a while. Watching on, I knew we probably didn’t have the outright pace that we needed, but I also knew we had good fuel strategy and Pat was really good in traffic. After a while it looks like the BMWs and Corvettes were more worried about racing each other than Pat, so it worked out well for us.”
Patrick Long, Driver: No. 06 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR : “It was the best place to be in terms of track position. The crew got the job done in the pits and set us up for a great run. The balance being defensive, but not over defensive. I was trying to not overdrive my tires while still holding the Ferrari off. Once he got by me down the back straight it was about putting my head down and doing qualifying laps until the end trying to hold off the Corvette. Colin did an excellent job in his opening stint. He ran extra long which set us up to take on less fuel and no tires in the last stop. We took the risk and went off sequence. It wasn’t our day pace-wise, but there’s more to a race than lap times. I was looking for the GTC traffic. Normally when you have a lead, you’re dreading traffic, but at that point it was the only bullet I had left in the chamber. Luckily we got to those guys just in time, otherwise it would have been tough to hang on to a podium. It’s been a tough couple of rounds and this is giving us good momentum heading into Petit Le Mans. The team did a great job of staying focused and getting the job done all weekend long.”
Jon Bennett, Driver: No. 05 ORECA FLM09 PC : “It was a great day, a couple of strategy things that we decided to do put me at the back of the GT field for a bit and those guys were not messing around today! I had to wait a bit for things to settle down, but ultimately we got through them. We actually had a pretty flawless day. It was great having Morgan Brady on the radio and engineering the car again. I’m also very proud of the other side of our business with the Porsche getting back on the podium and finishing P2. It’s a great accomplishment and a testament to how hard the guys have worked. We had really good pit stops and everyone was working together. We had a little bit of a reorganization after COTA and it’s nice to see us getting back on form. It really makes me look forward to Petit.”
Tom Kimber-Smith, Driver: No. 05 ORECA FLM09 PC : “At one point we came into the pits third and we left in second and nearly took the lead in pit lane. The guys did a great job. I had a good dice at the end, but the safety car stayed out a bit longer than we thought, which didn’t play into our hands. After the disappointment of losing our points at COTA, finishing second feels fantastic. This really helps Jon out in the championship and it helps the team out as well. It’s not nice to see your competition hit trouble, you want to win head-to-head on the track, but I think it gave the team a boost of confidence and hammered home how important it would be for us to finish well. That’s what we did. I think a win was in reach, but we just missed out a bit on strategy because of the safety car. I think everyone on the team seems to be on a high now. We finish third at COTA, second at VIR, so now there’s only one place to go.”