Lucas Luhr made an opening-lap pass on Dyson Racing’s Chris Dyson before speeding away to overall victory on Saturday night, in Long Beach.
The winner was leading by more than a minute (70 seconds) on Dyson before a full-course caution for a GT contact ended the race, eight minutes before the scheduled finish.
“I had the plan in my head to get around Chris in the first corner but he did a good job staying ahead,” Luhr said. “But I could see I was quicker and made my move a few turns later. We had some issues in the first practice and didn’t do many laps, [but] the car was running perfectly today.”
If the LMP1 race was pretty much settled after the pass, the GT race was very fierce with Joey Hand’s BMW M3 GT, Patrick Long’s Porsche 911 GT3 and Oliver Gavin’s Corvette C6.R exchanging the lead.
Just before the 30-minute mark, Hand was caught out by teammate Bill Auberlen, who spun in turn 2 and blocked the course. Gavin seized the moment and took the lead on lap 44.
“My eyes were popping out of my head but that’s how street racing is,” Hand said. “The incident with Bill was interesting. I went to the right and he went to the right. It wasn’t his fault because he couldn’t see me.”
Some 10 minutes later, Long attempted a pass on Gavin but Hand, from third, seized his moment in return and passed both driver – struggling in their battle, in traffic – to take the lead.
Long used his Porsche engine power to regain the lead moment after that, but a contact with the Ferrari of Scott Sharp sent him to retirement shortly after. A perfect last stop for Hand meant a second victory in a row for him and his co-driver Dirk Mueller.
“The GT battle was fantastic from the beginning,” added Hand. “There are so many moments. It an absolute battle and I knew I had to push like crazy… Jan [Magnussen] pushed really hard toward the end, and I was really happy to see the yellow at the end.”
Magnussen and Gavin finished in second while third place went to Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo in a Ferrari F458 Italia. The GT top-3 finished in 5th to 7th place in the overall race standing.
Chris Dyson took the second position in LMP1 with Guy Smith while Ricardo Gonzalez and Gunnar Jeannette took the LMPC win and completed the overall podium with a third place finish.
The next race is scheduled for July 8-9 in Lakeville, Connecticut.
The winner was leading by more than a minute (70 seconds) on Dyson before a full-course caution for a GT contact ended the race, eight minutes before the scheduled finish.
“I had the plan in my head to get around Chris in the first corner but he did a good job staying ahead,” Luhr said. “But I could see I was quicker and made my move a few turns later. We had some issues in the first practice and didn’t do many laps, [but] the car was running perfectly today.”
If the LMP1 race was pretty much settled after the pass, the GT race was very fierce with Joey Hand’s BMW M3 GT, Patrick Long’s Porsche 911 GT3 and Oliver Gavin’s Corvette C6.R exchanging the lead.
Just before the 30-minute mark, Hand was caught out by teammate Bill Auberlen, who spun in turn 2 and blocked the course. Gavin seized the moment and took the lead on lap 44.
“My eyes were popping out of my head but that’s how street racing is,” Hand said. “The incident with Bill was interesting. I went to the right and he went to the right. It wasn’t his fault because he couldn’t see me.”
Some 10 minutes later, Long attempted a pass on Gavin but Hand, from third, seized his moment in return and passed both driver – struggling in their battle, in traffic – to take the lead.
Long used his Porsche engine power to regain the lead moment after that, but a contact with the Ferrari of Scott Sharp sent him to retirement shortly after. A perfect last stop for Hand meant a second victory in a row for him and his co-driver Dirk Mueller.
“The GT battle was fantastic from the beginning,” added Hand. “There are so many moments. It an absolute battle and I knew I had to push like crazy… Jan [Magnussen] pushed really hard toward the end, and I was really happy to see the yellow at the end.”
Magnussen and Gavin finished in second while third place went to Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo in a Ferrari F458 Italia. The GT top-3 finished in 5th to 7th place in the overall race standing.
Chris Dyson took the second position in LMP1 with Guy Smith while Ricardo Gonzalez and Gunnar Jeannette took the LMPC win and completed the overall podium with a third place finish.
The next race is scheduled for July 8-9 in Lakeville, Connecticut.