The 2014 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach was a sports car race held on the Long Beach Street Circuit in California, United States, on 11–12 April 2014 as part of the Long Beach Grand Prix event weekend. The race was the third round of the inaugural Tudor United SportsCar Championship season and held exclusively for the Prototype and GT Le Mans categories, the first such event in the history of the series to not feature all four classes. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas followed their 2014 12 Hours of Sebring victory with a win at Long Beach, and giving Chip Ganassi Racing their second victory in the history of the sports car event. Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing's Chevrolet Corvette DPs completed the race podium. Jan Magnussen and Antonio García earned Corvette Racing their first GTLM category win of the season, as well as the first win for the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.

Background

Preview

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed that the race was part of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship schedule in September 2013. ^[1] It was the first year that the race was part of the series calendar, and the ninth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2006 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively. ^[1] The race was the third of 2014's thirteen scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, the shortest of the season in terms of distance, and it was the first round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. ^[1] The race was held at the eleven-turn 1.968 mi (3.167 km) Long Beach street circuit in Long Beach, California on April 12, 2014. ^[1]

Entry list

A total of 21 cars took part in the event split across 2 classes. ^[2] In P, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and Action Express Racing scaled down to one car. Starworks Motorsport, Fifty Plus Racing, and DeltaWing Racing Cars skipped the event. ^[3] Muscle Milk Pickett Racing missed the event in order to focus on testing its Oreca 03 before the team closed. ^{[4] [5] [6]} In GTLM, Krohn Racing were absent. Dane Cameron replaced Matteo Malucelli who got suspended for dangerous driving at Sebring, in the Risi Competizione entry. ^{[7] [8]}

Practice

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday morning and one on Friday afternoon. The first session lasted two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 30 minutes. ^[9]

Practice 1

The first practice session at 7:40 am PT on Friday and ended with Scott Pruett topping the charts for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, with a lap time of 1:16.441. ^[10]

Final Practice

The second and final practice session took place at 5:05 pm PT on Friday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:16.081. ^[12]

Qualifying

Pruett in the No. 01 CGR Riley DP took his first pole position of the season with a lap of 1 minute, 15.325 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Negri whose best lap in the No. 60 MSR car was 0.041 seconds slower. ^[14] Christian Fittipaldi qualified the No. 5 AER Corvette DP in third. ^[15] Olivier Pla's No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan was the highest placed of all the LMP2 entrants in fourth position. ^[14] The No. 10 Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor started from fifth place. ^[14]

In GTLM, Magnussen took his pole position of the season with a lap of 1 minute and 17.939 seconds. ^[16] He was joined by Bill Auberlen's No. 55 BMW Z4 on the grid's front row with his best lap being 0.152 seconds slower, and Dirk Müller drove the No. 56 BMW to third place. ^[17] Milner qualified the No. 4 Corvette in fourth position. ^[17] The two Porsches were fifth and sixth (the No. 911 car driven by Tandy in front of the No. 912 vehicle of Christensen). ^[17]

Qualifying results

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

Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	P	01	Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates	Scott Pruett	1:15.325	_	1‡
2	P	60	Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian	Oswaldo Negri Jr.	1:15.366	+0.041	2
3	P	5	Action Express Racing	Christian Fittipaldi	1:15.571	+0.246	3
4	P	42	OAK Racing	Olivier Pla	1:15.668	+0.343	4
5	P	10	Wayne Taylor Racing	Ricky Taylor	1:15.743	+0.418	5
6	P	90	Spirit of Daytona Racing	Michael Valiante	1:15.952	+0.627	6
7	P	2	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Johannes van Overbeek	1:17.129	+1.804	7
8	P	1	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ryan Dalziel	1:17.833	+2.508	8
9	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Jan Magnussen	1:17.939	+2.614	9‡
10	GTLM	55	BMW Team RLL	Bill Auberlen	1:18.091	+2.766	10
11	GTLM	56	BMW Team RLL	Dirk Müller	1:18.246	+2.921	11
12	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Tommy Milner	1:18.489	+3.164	12
13	P	31	Marsh Racing	Boris Said	1:18.549	+3.224	16
14	GTLM	911	Porsche North America	Nick Tandy	1:18.574	+3.249	17
15	GTLM	912	Porsche North America	Michael Christensen	1:18.675	+3.350	13
16	GTLM	62	Risi Competizione	Giancarlo Fisichella	1:19.037	+3.712	14
17	GTLM	91	SRT Motorsports	Dominik Farnbacher	1:19.223	+3.898	15
18	GTLM	17	Team Falken Tire	Bryan Sellers	1:19.270	+3.945	18
19	GTLM	93	SRT Motorsports	Jonathan Bomarito	1:19.980	+4.655	19
20	P	07	Speedsource	Tristan Nunez	1:25.331	+10.006	20
21	P	70	Speedsource	None	No Time Established		21
Sources: [18] [19]

Race

Race result

Class winners are indicated with bold.

Final race classification Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Time/Retired Engine 1 P 01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Scott Pruett Memo Rojas Riley MkXXVI C 77 1:40:46.184‡ Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6 2 P 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor Jordan Taylor Chevrolet Corvette DP C 77 +0.759 Chevrolet LS9 5.5 L V8 3 P 5 Action Express Racing João Barbosa Christian Fittipaldi Chevrolet Corvette DP C 77 +4.251 Chevrolet LS9 5.5 L V8 4 P 42 OAK Racing Olivier Pla Gustavo Yacamán Morgan LMP2 C 77 +29.247 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 5 P 90 Spirit of Daytona Racing Michael Valiante Richard Westbrook Chevrolet Corvette DP C 77 +1:19.445 Chevrolet LS9 5.5 L V8 6 DNF P 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel HPD ARX-03b C 76 Did Not Finish Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6 7 P 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek HPD ARX-03b C 76 +1 lap Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6 8 GTLM 3 Corvette Racing Jan Magnussen Antonio García Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 75 +2 Laps‡ Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 9 GTLM 56 BMW Team RLL John Edwards Dirk Müller BMW Z4 GTE M 75 +2 Laps BMW 4.4 L V8 10 GTLM 4 Corvette Racing Tommy Milner Oliver Gavin Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 75 +2 Laps Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8 11 GTLM 911 Porsche North America Nick Tandy Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR M 75 +2 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 12 GTLM 912 Porsche North America Patrick Long Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSR M 75 +2 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 13 GTLM 55 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen Andy Priaulx BMW Z4 GTE M 75 +2 Laps BMW 4.4 L V8 14 GTLM 91 SRT Motorsports Dominik Farnbacher Marc Goossens Jonathan Bomarito SRT Viper GTS-R M 75 +2 Laps SRT 8.0 L V10 15 GTLM 17 Team Falken Tire Bryan Sellers Wolf Henzler Porsche 911 RSR F 74 +3 Laps Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 16 GTLM 62 Risi Competizione Giancarlo Fisichella Dane Cameron Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 M 73 +4 Laps Ferrari 4.5 L V8 17 P 07 Speedsource Tristan Nunez Joel Miller Mazda Prototype C 71 +6 Laps Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel) 18 DNF GTLM 93 SRT Motorsports Jonathan Bomarito Kuno Wittmer Marc Goossens SRT Viper GTS-R M 56 Did Not Finish SRT 8.0 L V10 19 DNF P 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian John Pew Oswaldo Negri Riley MkXXVI C 39 Did Not Finish Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6 20 DNF P 31 Marsh Racing Eric Curran Boris Said Chevrolet Corvette DP C 22 Did Not Finish Chevrolet LS9 5.5 L V8 21 DNF P 70 Speedsource Sylvain Tremblay Tom Long Mazda Prototype C 3 Did Not Finish Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel) Source: [20] [21]

Tyre manufacturers Key Symbol Tyre manufacturer C Continental M Michelin F Falken Tire

References