2015 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase

The layout of the Long Beach Street Circuit

The 2015 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It was held at Long Beach street circuit in Long Beach, California on 18 April 2015. The race was the third round of the 2015 Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

Background[edit]

The event was run as a support race to the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the annual IndyCar Series race held at the circuit. The Pirelli World Challenge and Stadium Super Trucks also ran during the weekend. The race was also the joint-shortest of the season, at just 100 minutes, identical to the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic.

Entries[edit]

A total of 17 cars took part in the event; 9 in the Prototype (P) class and 8 in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class.[1] The Prototype Challenge (PC) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes would not be participating in the event. After only competing on permanent circuits since its competition debut in 2012, The DeltaWing would make its first appearance at a street course.[2] Due to scheduling conflicts for full-season drivers Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, who were preparing for their LMP1 debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship, drivers Frédéric Makowiecki and Richard Lietz would replace them for the Long Beach event.[3]

Practice[edit]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The first session lasted two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 35 minutes.[4]

Practice 1[edit]

The first practice session at 7:45 am PT on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:16.063.[5]

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap
1 P 31 Action Express Racing Dane Cameron 1:16.063 _
2 P 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Richard Westbrook 1:16.141 +0.078
3 P 5 Action Express Racing João Barbosa 1:16.159 +0.096
Source:[6]

Final Practice[edit]

The second and final practice session took place at 4:45 pm PT on Friday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:15.879.[7]

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap
1 P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor 1:15.879 _
2 P 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Pruett 1:16.165 +0.286
3 P 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Eric Curran 1:16.447 +0.568
Source:[8]

Qualifying[edit]

Qualifying was broken into two sessions. The first session of qualifying was for the GTLM class. Bill Auberlen qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry.[9]

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the No. 10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing.[10][11]

Qualifying results[edit]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap Grid
1 P 10 United States Wayne Taylor Racing United States Ricky Taylor 1:14.790 _ 1
2 P 01 United States Chip Ganassi Racing United States Scott Pruett 1:15.048 +0.258 2
3 P 5 United States Action Express Racing Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 1:15.274 +0.484 3
4 P 90 United States VisitFlorida.com Racing Canada Michael Valiante 1:15.553 +0.763 4
5 P 31 United States Action Express Racing United States Eric Curran 1:15.915 +1.125 5
6 GTLM 25 United States BMW Team RLL United States Bill Auberlen 1:17.268 +2.478 6‡
7 P 0 United States DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone Mexico Memo Rojas 1:17.405 +2.615 7
8 P 60 United States Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian United States John Pew 1:17.427 +2.637 8
9 GTLM 24 United States BMW Team RLL United States John Edwards 1:17.516 +2.726 9
10 GTLM 62 United States Risi Competizione Italy Giancarlo Fisichella 1:17.709 +2.919 10
11 GTLM 3 United States Corvette Racing Denmark Jan Magnussen 1:17.739 +2.949 11
12 GTLM 4 United States Corvette Racing United Kingdom Oliver Gavin 1:17.756 +2.966 12
13 GTLM 912 United States Porsche North America Austria Richard Lietz 1:17.932 +3.142 16
14 GTLM 911 United States Porsche North America France Patrick Pilet 1:18.185 +3.395 17
15 GTLM 17 United States Team Falken Tire United States Bryan Sellers 1:18.728 +3.938 13
16 P 70 United States SpeedSource did not participate 14
17 P 07 United States SpeedSource did not participate 15
Source:[12]

Results[edit]

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Final race classification
Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Time/Retired
Engine
1 P 10 United States Wayne Taylor Racing United States Jordan Taylor
United States Ricky Taylor
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 1:40:59.571‡
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
2 P 01 United States Chip Ganassi Racing United States Joey Hand
United States Scott Pruett
Ford EcoBoost Riley DP C 78 +3.300
Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L V6 Turbo
3 P 90 United States VisitFlorida.com Racing United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Canada Michael Valiante
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +18.242
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
4 P 31 United States Action Express Racing United States Eric Curran
United States Dane Cameron
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +21.864
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
5 P 5 United States Action Express Racing Portugal João Barbosa
Brazil Christian Fittipaldi
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +50.468
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
6 P 60 United States Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian United States John Pew
Brazil Oswaldo Negri Jr.
Ligier JS P2 C 76 +2 laps
Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo
7 GTLM 25 United States BMW Team RLL United States Bill Auberlen
Germany Dirk Werner
BMW Z4 GTE M 76 +2 Laps ‡
BMW 4.4 L V8
8 GTLM 62 United States Risi Competizione Germany Pierre Kaffer
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 M 76 +2 Laps
Ferrari 4.5 L V8
9 GTLM 3 United States Corvette Racing Spain Antonio García
Denmark Jan Magnussen
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 75 +3 Laps
Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8
10 GTLM 911 United States Porsche North America France Frédéric Makowiecki
France Patrick Pilet
Porsche 911 RSR M 75 +3 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
11 GTLM 24 United States BMW Team RLL United States John Edwards
Germany Lucas Luhr
BMW Z4 GTE M 75 +3 laps
BMW 4.4 L V8
12 GTLM 17 United States Team Falken Tire United States Bryan Sellers
Germany Wolf Henzler
Porsche 911 RSR F 75 +3 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
13 P 07 United States SpeedSource United States Tom Long
United States Joel Miller
Mazda Prototype C 75 +3 Laps
Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)
14 GTLM 4 United States Corvette Racing United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Tommy Milner
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 74 +4 Laps
Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8
15 P 70 United States SpeedSource United States Jonathan Bomarito
United States Tristan Nunez
Mazda Prototype C 74 +4 Laps
Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)
16 GTLM 912 United States Porsche North America Germany Jörg Bergmeister
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR M 60 +18 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
17 P 0 United States DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone Mexico Memo Rojas
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
DeltaWing DWC13 C 9 Did not finish
Élan (Mazda) 1.9 L I4 Turbo
Source:[13]
Tyre manufacturers
Key
Symbol Tyre manufacturer
C Continental
M Michelin
F Falken Tire

References[edit]

  1. ^ "17 Cars on Long Beach Entry List". sportscar365.com. 8 April 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  2. ^ "DeltaWing goes where it has never gone before: A street course". motorsport.com. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  3. ^ "Porsche Set to Switch Up Long Beach GTLM Lineup". sportscar365.com. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  4. ^ Dagys, John (April 18, 2015). "Continental Tire Keys to the Race: Long Beach". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  5. ^ Dagys, John (April 17, 2015). "Cameron Tops Opening Practice at Long Beach". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  6. ^ "ResultsQuery" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. April 18, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  7. ^ Dagys, John (April 17, 2015). "Ricky Taylor Quickest in Final Practice at Long Beach". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  8. ^ "ResultsQuery" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. April 18, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  9. ^ Dagys, John (April 17, 2015). "Auberlen Leads BMW 1-2 in GTLM Qualifying at Long Beach". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  10. ^ Dagys, John (April 17, 2015). "Ricky Taylor Rockets to Long Beach Pole". sportscar365.com. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  11. ^ "TUSCC: Long Beach, Qualifying, Taylor In Prototype While Auberlen Leads BMW Sweep". dailysportscar.com. April 18, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  12. ^ "ResultsQuery" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. April 18, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  13. ^ "ResultsQuery" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 17 December 2022.


United SportsCar Championship
Previous race:
12 Hours of Sebring
2015 season Next race:
Monterey Grand Prix