2015 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase

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.

The layout of the Long Beach Street Circuit

Background

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

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

Results

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Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Final race classification
Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Tire Laps Time/Retired
Engine
1 P 10   Wayne Taylor Racing   Jordan Taylor
  Ricky Taylor
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 1:40:59.571‡
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
2 P 01   Chip Ganassi Racing   Joey Hand
  Scott Pruett
Ford EcoBoost Riley DP C 78 +3.300
Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L V6 Turbo
3 P 90   VisitFlorida.com Racing   Richard Westbrook
  Michael Valiante
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +18.242
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
4 P 31   Action Express Racing   Eric Curran
  Dane Cameron
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +21.864
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
5 P 5   Action Express Racing   João Barbosa
  Christian Fittipaldi
Corvette Daytona Prototype C 78 +50.468
Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
6 P 60   Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian   John Pew
  Oswaldo Negri Jr.
Ligier JS P2 C 76 +2 laps
Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo
7 GTLM 25   BMW Team RLL   Bill Auberlen
  Dirk Werner
BMW Z4 GTE M 76 +2 Laps ‡
BMW 4.4 L V8
8 GTLM 62   Risi Competizione   Pierre Kaffer
  Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 M 76 +2 Laps
Ferrari 4.5 L V8
9 GTLM 3   Corvette Racing   Antonio García
  Jan Magnussen
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 75 +3 Laps
Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8
10 GTLM 911   Porsche North America   Frédéric Makowiecki
  Patrick Pilet
Porsche 911 RSR M 75 +3 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
11 GTLM 24   BMW Team RLL   John Edwards
  Lucas Luhr
BMW Z4 GTE M 75 +3 laps
BMW 4.4 L V8
12 GTLM 17   Team Falken Tire   Bryan Sellers
  Wolf Henzler
Porsche 911 RSR F 75 +3 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
13 P 07   SpeedSource   Tom Long
  Joel Miller
Mazda Prototype C 75 +3 Laps
Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)
14 GTLM 4   Corvette Racing   Oliver Gavin
  Tommy Milner
Chevrolet Corvette C7.R M 74 +4 Laps
Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8
15 P 70   SpeedSource   Jonathan Bomarito
  Tristan Nunez
Mazda Prototype C 74 +4 Laps
Mazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)
16 GTLM 912   Porsche North America   Jörg Bergmeister
  Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR M 60 +18 Laps
Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
17 P 0   DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone   Memo Rojas
  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

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  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