Patrick Long engaged in a race-long duel at Road America, in Elkart Lake, WI in this weekend’s American Le Mans Series race, finishing 4th in the hyper-competitive GT class. Long and teammate Jörg Bergmeister qualified 5th in class, and spent the 4-hour race in the thick of the GT action in a race which saw a constantly high pace and clean battles around the high-speed Road America circuit.
Patrick double-stinted during the middle of the race and said he thought the team gave its’ all.
Long said, “The team executed perfectly today. We’ve run a lot of races performing just like we did over the last four hours. We didn’t have what we needed for a podium, but we beat a lot of cars that had faster lap times and we delivered 100 percent–I’m very proud of our result.”
He continued, “Our strategy put us in a position for a top finish, and our pit stops were perfect – and both Joerg and I had good driving stints, so we would have hoped for a better finish, but, at the end of the day, the Flying Lizards were happy with our day. The difference between fourth and first lies in an area that is outside of our control.”
Patrick next races at Infineon Raceway, in Sonoma, California next weekend, Aug. 26-28, with TruSpeed Motorsport in the Pirelli World Challenge Series. Live streaming of the dual races from Sonoma can be seen at https://www.world-challengetv.com.
The following weekend, the ALMS makes its debut on the streets of Baltimore, MD, September 2-3. Live streaming of qualifying and the Baltimore Grand Prix can be seen on https://www.espn3.com