{"id":3967,"date":"2010-03-30T21:45:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T01:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=3967"},"modified":"2010-03-30T21:55:12","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T01:55:12","slug":"bmw-rlrs-star-gives-long-beach-a-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/alms\/bmw-rlrs-star-gives-long-beach-a-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW RLR’S STAR GIVES LONG BEACH A ‘HAND’"},"content":{"rendered":"
The one place where Joey Hand wants to win a race more than any other is Long Beach<\/span><\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0\"JHand033010_1\"This year\u2019s running of the Tequila Patr\u00f3n American Le Mans Series at Long Beach could be his best chance yet. The BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team may very well be in its best form ever heading to Round 2 of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

\u201cLong Beach is my favorite race in the world,\u201d the 31-year-old California driver said. \u201cSome people might find that a little crazy, but it is an awesome venue – full of great people, sunshine and a super layout. I love staying at the Hyatt, coming down the elevator right into the paddock.\u201d<\/p>\n

For someone who grew up following road racing in the Golden State, having such affinity for the historic Long Beach event isn\u2019t out of the ordinary. His first professional race there was a third-place finish in Toyota Atlantic in 2001, and he was on pole position the following year. In five starts, he has finished in the top-five three times.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, he could probably drive the BMW M3 that he\u2019ll share with Dirk M\u00fcller around the circuit in his sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I hit the track there are only two things on my mind; go fast and keep it off the walls,\u201d said Hand, who finished third in GT2 with M\u00fcller and Andy Priaulx at Sebring two weeks ago. \u201cThere is a very fine line between success and failure. You must be late on the brakes into Turn 1, chop through the flowers at the apex of the Fountain Corner (my favorite), and use every bit of the track heading onto the backstretch. Most critical is the long left before the hairpin. Because of a sealer on the surface it is so slippery you can quickly feel like you\u2019re in one of those YouTube videos of a deer getting into someone\u2019s home and trying to run on linoleum. Get the picture?!?<\/p>\n

\u201cLong Beach has it all; the track configuration, people, scenery, and fast cars.\u201d\"JHand033010_main\"<\/p>\n

The Tequila Patr\u00f3n American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patr\u00f3n. The race, set at the historic Long Beach street circuit, is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 17 with coverage on SPEED set for 8 to 10 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche \u2013 a production of Radio Show Limited \u2013 as well as Sirius and XM. Visit the the Series\u2019 schedule page<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Courtesy ALMS \u00a9 RIF<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The one place where Joey Hand wants to win a race more than any other is Long Beach \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[9],"tags":[5264,5334,969,207,790,100,190,186,751],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3967"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3970,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions\/3970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}