LG and LB and No, It's Not the Phone.

Having spent the 2008 ALMS season under the supervision of 2 great mentors, Cheech and Arakawa San (a.k.a Endless stomach) I received my first solo gig in the ALMS for the 2009 Long Beach Grand Prix. LG Motorsports, who previously ran in the world challenge series in their Riley-Technologies C6 corvette had a strong run against the PTG Panoz car at St. Petersburg and were looking for a strong finish for LBGP.

For Long Beach, Boris Said would be piloting the C6 and having previously worked with Yokohama, Boris had requested tires for the #28 car. Bossman agreed to the proposition and would supply tires and engineering support to the LG team. With two teams in the field, engineering duties would be split between Cheech and I and Cheech suggested that I should take the LG team, to utilize the knowledge I have gained and experience working with a team other than PTG. (Thanks Cheech - I owe you). I enthusiastically agreed but had my reservations as I wasn't sure that I was capable of handling the task at hand.

No matter how well built a car is or how capable a driver is, everything is transferred to the ground via the tires and choosing the tire to fit the task was my responsibility. Ultimately I felt that if I didn't perform my duties at a high enough level, the race would be loss due to my inadequacies as a tire engineer.

Being our first time with LG, I took a rather conservative approach and things seemed to be going well. I knew what hot air pressure that we wanted to obtain and selected the compounds for both the qualifying and race, based on the testing we had done and the feedback that the drivers provided.

However during qualifying, we got a red flag and on Boris’s fastest lap time. Uggggghhh, Thanks PTG! We waited to go out again after the red flag had cleared, but I told Boris that we should probably only do 1 out lap and a flyer and come in, as we wanted to save the tires for the race. In the ALMS series you must start the race on the tires you qualified on. So we ended up qualifying 9th where we could have achieved a 4th position based on the eclectic lap times that we were seeing. Having a high qualifying position on a street course is key as the track is narrow and it is difficult to pass anywhere but on the straights, and that is only if you have the power to do so after ensuring a higher exit speed than your rival.

Both Lou and Boris did a great job driving during the race and the crew had made an excellent pit stop, however during the race one of the BMW’s had nudged the #28 car sending it into a spin but Boris was able to recover. There didn’t seem to be any damage on the car and Louis, the crew chief, suggested just to keep driving. However the nudge has pushed the exhaust to where the body work was burning up, which ended up sending the C6 into flames. Boris managed to get out safely with some minor burns, but the car was totalled. The tires managed to hold up fine to the heat.

So overall a disappointing finish for LG and I. However they will return with a ligher, faster car and if they choose to run on Yokohama’s again. I will definitely volunteer to be their engineer. They were a great team to work with and I already have some ideas to improve the performace of the tires with the setup of the car. I’ll be looking forward seeing them back out on Yokohama’s again this season.

ALMS GT2 Race Report - St. Pete

FULLERTON, CA (Apr. 6, 2009) – The Yokohama Tire Corporation-sponsored Panoz Team PTG is on a roll – literally.

Another third place finish – this time at St. Petersburg, Florida, on April 4 – propelled PTG to second-place overall in points in the highly competitive 2009 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GT2 Class season. Drivers Ian James and Dominik Farnbacher, who placed third at Sebring in March, once again drove the strong-running Yokohama ADVAN® A005-shod Esperante GTLM, battling factory-backed Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and BMW E92 M3 teams, as well as the Riley Corvette C6, to the wire.

“You can’t beat going two-for-two in podium finishes to start the season,” said Mark Chung, Yokohama director, corporate strategy and planning. “We’re really on an ALMS streak because we ended the 2008 season with a podium finish at Laguna Seca, so this makes three in row.”

Chung said the St. Petersburg race was a thriller. “Team PTG really came through again with some top-notch driving. They were in a dogfight most of the race and it was a great, hard-fought contest. Congratulations on another strong performance by the Panoz team.”

Just as in Sebring, the drivers praised the consistency of the Yokohama ADVAN race slicks. “During the battle with the Corvette, our tire was better,” said Farnbacher, 24, of Ansbach, Germany. “Our tires lasted longer, which gave us the advantage. Since we had no problems with the tires, we made it back to the podium.”

Added co-driver James, 34, of Phoenix, Arizona: “We are excited to be back on the podium. The tires stayed consistent throughout the race. We are 100-percent focused on improving throughout the year.”

Next up for the team is the Long Beach Grand Prix, April 17-18 in Long Beach, California. For American Le Mans Series race details go to: http://americanlemans.com/

Yokohama Tire Corporation is the North American manufacturing and marketing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., a global producer and distributor of premium tires since 1917. Servicing a network of more than 4,500 points of sale in the U.S., Yokohama Tire Corporation offers a complete line of tires, including high-performance, light truck, passenger car, commercial truck and bus, as well as off-the-road mining and construction applications. For more information on Yokohama’s extensive product line, visit www.yokohamatire.com.

Yokohama is a strong supporter of the tire care and safety guidelines established by the Rubber Manufacturers Association and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration. Details can be found at the “Taking Care of Your Tires” section at www.yokohamatire.com.