American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long drives through traffic. Photo © Rick Dole
Patrick Long and Sascha Maassen claimed 3rd place at the American Le Mans Series Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday, after Long qualified third and had a brilliant first stint. At the start, Long passed Simon Pagenaud going into turn one, and by turn seven, passed Scott Sharp’s pole-sitting Acura for the lead. Patrick led overall until lap 7, when the higher-torque LMP1-class Audi R10s had worked their way through traffic and overtook him on the front straightaway. Long continued to lead the LMP2 class for the first hour of the race, until the first caution flag came out. At just over half-distance, he turned the car over to his teammate Sascha Maassen, who battled back from fifth to finish an eventual third. Long and Maassen have steadily gained ground back from their zero-points race at the season opener in Sebring, and have pulled into a tie for 3rd in the championship as the American Le Mans Series hits its summer stretch.
Long said, “It was a great weekend, certainly with very challenging race conditions and such a tight layout at Lime Rock. The new paving made the race much more interesting and strategic. The balance was setting a good race pace and minimizing risk, as racing at Lime Rock is all about traffic management. In the end, 3rd place was a slight disappointment after all the promise during the week, but we were able to capitalize on the misfortune of some of the other teams and move up in the championship, which has been our goal all season. Looking forward, our main goal is victory, and Mid-Ohio and Road America are two of my favorite tracks on the calendar, so I‘m pretty pumped about this coming weekend!”