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

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

Further information: 2015 United SportsCar Championship § Entries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
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