ALMS Round 3: Long Beach, April 18-20, 2008

[dxk1]

How about Brabham beating both Penskes?

DK

[1969MGCGTdriver]

time for another penske protest?

[Simon Speichert]

Wow, what a race to listen to. Acura take their first sprint race win, Patron wins the race they title sponsored, and Tafel take their second straight win! Can't wait to watch this tomorrow.

[AndreasDavour]

Well done Brabs!!

[cmk]

Tony Dowe vindicated by a 430 chassis that loves its tyres and a committed star in Dirk Muller. Awesome.

Wonderful result all around - the Audi 1-2 is a case of victory against the odds (who would have said that 2 years ago?) and Brabs in the Highcroft Acura bringing a class win for Acura for the first time since Sebring 07 is sensational.

[nasdriv87]

finally an acura win, i don' remember atm when was the last win!!

[peckadj]

i didn't listen to rlm but what happend to the penske and fernadez pace after the pit stops!?

what a difference when brabs drove the car!!

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by nasdriv87

finally an acura win, i don' remember atm when was the last win!!

Last Acura win was Sebring in 2007.

DK

[nasdriv87]

Originally Posted by peckadj

i didn't listen to rlm but what happend to the penske and fernadez pace after the pit stops!?

what a difference when brabs drove the car!!

yep. i guess the same occurred when christian took the agr acura

[Stefvh]

I think some did not change tyres.

[nasdriv87]

Originally Posted by 1969MGCGTdriver

time for another penske protest?

lol. i guess not this time!!!

[dxk1]

Great strategy by Tafel just changing two tires and getting out first.

DK

[HORNDAWG]

Simply superb! Way To Go Brabs!

L.P.

[CarolK]

The Audi 1-2 couldn't have been any better as was Brabs taking third. GT2 was reminisent of Sebring two years ago only one more car in the equation. Too bad Wolf didn't get past for the win. For a short time I thought it had the makings of a green/white/checkered Nascar finish.

Glad the real racing circuits and longer races are back in a few weeks.

Carol

[Hugewally]

Originally Posted by dxk1

Great strategy by Tafel just changing two tires and getting out first.

DK

I believe they didn't change tires at all...

[dj4monie]

The race was great!

Once again proud of the turnout, SoCal is the best!

We understand good racing and stay home when its not good, we'll never see Grand Am back in this market, they are not welcome. The fans have spoken! Met a new fan in the stands, asked some questions about some of the cars in GT2 when he overheard me talk to my friend about some of the cars.

People packed all stands all down Shoreline Drive!, people everywhere and excitied, standing up when a pass might happen. I was in the stands at the braking point for turn 1.

ALMS@Long Beach until at least 2013! It will ONLY get better and the racing better.

Dirk Muller in the Tafel Ferrari did a great job of keeping the Flying Lizards behind him for the final minutes of the race. Tafel should leave California with the GT2 points lead and Risi is again out of the podium. I think #61 with an earlier stop finished in the top 5, well done for the rookies.

The P1/P2 battle wasn't that close at first, I think the track needed to rubber in. The Audi's were not getting any closer to the Porsches and the Acuras no closer to the Audi's it was a fair split for the first 30-35 mins.

The Vantage V8 sounds sensational!

When ALMS is in your town, turnout, you won't be disapointed...

And some of SoCal's hottest ladies were abound too, too bad I forgot my camera they were everywhere, love Cali in the summertime, ain't so bad when its a nice spring day and sunny.... -

Viva La ALMS!

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by Hugewally

I believe they didn't change tires at all...

Yep took a shot and no tire change, that's how come they got the driver change and got out front on the 2nd yellow.

[dj4monie]

Originally Posted by dxk1

How about Brabham beating both Penskes?

DK

Brabs make the pass on the back straight, everybody cheered! They cheered louder when he came back around to the Turn 1 breaking point where I was in the stands, especially some Patrón reps next to me.

[chernaudi]

Did anything happen to Dumas late in the event? Werner had no troble running him down on the front straight-to be expected. And Pirro blew by Dumas on the restart-again, expected. But Brabham passed him on the last lap and pulled away.

Did something go wrong, or did the Spyder fall of performance wise, is it seemed the once someone passed Dumas, his Porsche fell behind them like a rock.

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by Hugewally

I believe they didn't change tires at all...

According to the Planetlemans race wrap-up, Tafel changed two tires but according to ALMS web site pit notes they changed no tires. Either way the strategy was to pass the Porsches in the pits and it worked to perfection. When you have a Muller driving you have a good chance to make it stick.

DK

[Simon Speichert]

And a giant "up yours" to the ABC affiliate in Seattle, who have decided it's more important to air infomercials, and have scheduled the ALMS race for 3 AM. Time to email ALMS brass, and let them know they're not getting what they paid for in a market that's pretty important to them.

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by Simon Speichert

And a giant "up yours" to the ABC affiliate in Seattle, who have decided it's more important to air infomercials, and have scheduled the ALMS race for 3 AM. Time to email ALMS brass, and let them know they're not getting what they paid for in a market that's pretty important to them.

All ready did that for the St. Pete race and they just said, in not so many words, oh well you will just have to live with it as it is a "Network' prerogative to air it when it best suits them (the network). And I agree with your thoughts on the market as it was one the top markets for the Sebring broadcast.

In addition, ratings for SPEED's 11 hours of coverage increased 17 percent to 173,000 households with Tampa-St. Petersburg (.52 rating), Las Vegas (.49 rating) and Seattle-Tacoma (.47 rating) coming in as the highest-rated markets. SPEED also reported outstanding positive viewer response to both its Thursday night Live Sebring Special and the race broadcast itself, the first event ever shown in high definition on the network.

link Their attitude just boggles my mind! Good luck.

L.P.

[broadrun96]

Never mind the time the race is on, it's not worth watching anyway. I think they managed to miss EVERY event on track and cut to bad angles to show passes or the speed difference between P1 and P2 on the front stretch. Doesn't matter if ALMS is getting the time for free or getting paid tons for the airtime, never gonna bring in new fans with coverage like the last 2 races, it makes the GA fans argument for them that the series can be confusing. And the entire crew seems like they would rather be somewhere else entirely, and the commercial breaks were only slightly less frequent than if infomercials were on instead. Thankfully their turn is over and back to speed for a few races, maybe NBC will learn from the last 2 broadcasts and we as fans can get the ALMS's attention about how bad it was and get back to speed or force some changes or get over to ESPN/2.
Sorry for the coverage rant but this was ridiculous.

[RaiseYourFist]

After the race they interviewed one of the Penske drivers (forgot who) and he said that his car was so slow in the last stint because the electronics were not working right and the traction control had failed and the engine mapping was wrong or something similar to that.

[rich07]

Way to go Brabs!!! Finally, a win for the Highcroft guys!!