Maranello 16 April

One month after the American Le Mans Series kicked off at Sebring, the second round is taking place at the Long Beach street circuit in southern California. From a twelve hour race in Florida, now it is time for a two hour event with thirty one cars on the grid. Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander in the Houston-based Risi Competizione team’s Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 car did not not get the qualifying result they were hoping for because of an accident. With Melo at the wheel, the car crashed heavily into the barrier at turn 2, doing irreparable damage to the rear wing, so he had to stop in the pits to the end of the session. Unfortunately, they will now have to start from the back of the grid, with the two other 458 Italia GT2s entered by Extreme Speed Motorsports and crewed by Scott Sharp-Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown-Guy Cosmo will start from sixth (1.20.167) and seventh (1.20.176) respectively. Leading the category in the race that gets underway at 16.30 today is the BMW M3 of Dirk Mueller - Joey Hand (1.19.090), ahead of the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 of Oliver Gavin - Jan Magnussen (1.19.137) and the other BMW M3 of Bill Auberlen - Dirk Werner (1.19.447).