Last-Lap pass gives Patron Highcroft Long Beach Win

Simon Pagenaud and Patrón Highcroft Racing won a titanic battle with Aston Martin Racing’s Adrian Fernandez to win the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach on Saturday with a last-lap pass in his HPD ARX-01c. The young Frenchman beat Fernandez across the line by 0.353 seconds.

Team’s first overall victory at historic street circuit

Pagenaud and David Brabham won despite an early penalty for avoidable contact with the Lola-Aston Martin. Pagenaud had ceded the lead to Fernandez with six minutes but ran wide at Turn 5 on the final lap. That was all the opening Pagenaud needed for the team’s first overall victory at Long Beach and first win since Mosport last season.

Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long won in GT for Flying Lizard Motorsports, their second straight Long Beach victory. Long, driving the duo’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, finished four seconds ahead of Corvette Racing’s Jan Magnussen and Johnny O’Connell.

In LMPC, the duo of Gunnar Jeannette and Elton Julian won in G-Oil’s Green Earth Team Gunnar ORECA FLM09. It was the first victory for the drivers and the team with all finishing second in class at the season-opening Sebring race.

Jeannette crossed the finish line by a lap over Sebring class winners Christophe Bouchut and Scott Tucker in Level 5 Motorsports’ entries.

Butch Leitzinger and Juan Gonzalez won in GTC for Alex Job Racing, just as they did at Sebring with their Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. Leitzinger won by 1.753 seconds over GMG Racing’s entry of James Sofronas and Bret Curtis.

The next round of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is the American Le Mans Series Monterey presented by Patrón. The six-hour race is set for 2:30 p.m. PT on Saturday, May 22 from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. CBS Sports will broadcast the race from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 29. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242. Visit the Series’ schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.

Full results – Here

Courtesy ALMS © RIF