Long Beach: Highcroft Racing qualifying report

PATRON HIGHCROFT RACING IN TOP THREE AFTER QUALIFYING SESSION AT THE TEQUILA PATRON ALMS AT LONG BEACH

David Brabham, behind the wheel of the #9 Acura ARX-01b, brought the team to the third spot on the starting grid for tomorrow's 1 hour, 40 minute challenge on the streets of Long Beach. With a best lap of 1 minute, 11.448 seconds, Patron Highcroft Racing will start on the inside of the second row in Saturday's challenge.

Brabham, who was running flat out during the 25-minute session Friday afternoon, was running close near the head of the pack in third place when he slid into the tire barrier at Turn 9. Brabham said of the session, "The Acura was very fast - the great thing we saw today is that the #9 car can really hustle out there. The car was very forgiving and had great grip.We're light years from where we were yesterday, when we were struggling in a lot of areas. I've got to say that the team really did a fantastic job at getting us back up to the front of the pack today. The real shame of it is that I could see I was four-tenths of a second up when I hit the wall and we were only off pole by a tenth of second, so if I had completed that lap, who knows? But that's racing. I just pushed and ran out of luck there at the end."

Scott Sharp, who drove the ARX-01b in this morning's practice, said, "It was a great job by the entire Patron Highcroft Racing team. We had a few new things to try this week and more to learn about our Acura chassis. After the first day, the engineers did a great job to make some strong improvements to our car and catch us up with the leaders. David did a great job in qualifying to put us in the third spot and I'm really excited for the race tomorrow."

-credit: hr