Highcroft comes from last to victory at Laguna Seca

May 23rd, 2010

Highcroft Racing came from the back of the 35-car grid to take victory by seven laps in an incident-packed six-hour American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca.

Having lost their front row slot when the officials judged that the minimum mileage per driver in Friday practice had not been achieved, Highcroft HPD trio David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti had to start last.

While Pagenaud made rapid progress through the field, Intersport’s Clint Field took second from Klaus Graf’s CytoSport Porsche off the line and then overhauled the pole-sitting Dyson Lola-Mazda further around the opening lap to take the early lead.

Field led most of the opening hour, though under increasing pressure from Graf, with whom he swapped first place a few times just before a turbo failure ended Intersport’s impressive race.

By that time Highcroft was up to third and soon passed Dyson for second, with a close three-way lead fight then developing until mistakes on restarts by both Dyson and CytoSport appeared to hand Highcroft an easy win.

First Memo Gidley spun the CytoSport car out of the final corner and collected debris that caused time-consuming gearbox problems. Not long afterwards, Dyson’s Andy Meyrick – who had just taken the lead in the pits – also rotated as he prepared to restart after a safety car, and collected Johnny Mowlem’s PR1 LMPC ORECA in the process.

Dyson effected rapid repairs, losing just one lap – which it then caught back up thanks to some wise strategy during safety cars.

That gave Guy Smith a chance to hunt down and pass Franchitti for the lead going into the final hour, although Highcroft’s decision not to change tyres at its last stop then put Franchitti ahead again. Before Smith had a chance to give chase, the Dyson Lola-Mazda expired and parked at the trackside, allowing Highcroft to cruise to the win and giving CytoSport second place after all.

Drayson Racing never featured in the lead battle – losing two laps from the outset when Paul Drayson spun into the gravel, and later retiring with gearbox issues.

The GT class saw an incredible battle that featured both Corvettes, both BMWs, the Risi Ferrari and the lead Flying Lizard Porsche and Extreme Speed Ferrari at various stages.

In the end it came down to a late shoot-out between Flying Lizard’s Patrick Long, Rahal Letterman BMW’s Joey Hand and Corvette’s Oliver Gavin, with the Porsche jumping the BMW at the last restart and resisting the pressure to win by just 0.365 seconds.

Front end damage sustained during various bits of minor contact meant Risi was ultimately two laps adrift in fourth.

Level 5′s Christophe Bouchut beat Genoa’s Tom Sutherland by 7s after a close race-long LMPC fight, whereas the Black Swan team had a relatively calm run to the GTC class win.