ALMS

Long Beach: Series spotlight - Ryan Hunter-Reay

BUSY WEEKEND COMING UP FOR HUNTER-REAY Floridian will 'do the double' in LMPC and IndyCar at Long Beach No driver in the Long Beach paddock will have as much track time this weekend than Ryan Hunter-Reay. And that's just fine with him. The ...

Published: Apr 14, 2010, 4:16 AM

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BUSY WEEKEND COMING UP FOR HUNTER-REAY
Floridian will 'do the double' in LMPC and IndyCar at Long Beach

No driver in the Long Beach paddock will have as much track time this weekend than Ryan Hunter-Reay. And that's just fine with him. The 29-year- old native Texan will saddle up in one of Level 5 Motorsports' two LMP Challenge entries alongside team owner Scott Tucker for Saturday's Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach.

It will be the second start in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón for Hunter-Reay, who also will drive for Andretti Autosport in Sunday's IndyCar race along with Level 5's No. 95 ORECA FLM09 prototype. He is the first driver to run both series on the same weekend since Ryan Briscoe did the double for Penske Racing at Belle Isle in 2008.

"This year I've been driving with Level 5 quite a bit. It's a great team and the opportunity really presented itself where I could do both races," said Hunter-Reay, who posted the fastest LMPC race lap at Sebring. "Both teams are pretty cooperative letting me drive in both series. It shows that they have a lot of faith in my abilities. I've been used to jumping in and out of race cars pretty quick. So I think I can adjust to things pretty well."

His career at Long Beach dates back to 2002 in Formula Atlantic (he was 18th but started second and had the fastest lap of the race). Hunter-Reay has raced there in both Champ Car and IndyCar so there's definitely some familiarity there. How those will compare to racing the Level 5 prototype will be a bit of a mystery until Friday morning's first practice.

"The lines will be the same. The braking and shifting points will be different though," Hunter-Reay said. "How you can apply the power will be different as well. The LMPC car has a different style than even the P2 cars do. It's a smaller car but does have quite a bit of downforce so you have drive it with a different approach using the aero package. In an Indy car, you have to strangle the car a little bit more."

There is no set plan for how many LMPC events Hunter-Reay will see this year; it's more of a matter of how the schedules fall. He is hopefully though that his prototype exploits will lead to another pretty big race that features racing on public roads as well...

"I really would like to race Le Mans," he said without pause. "That's really one of the things I want. It's a fantastic race and something I definitely hope to do at some point in my career."

The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. The race, set at the historic Long Beach street circuit, is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 17 with coverage on SPEED set for 8 to 10 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche - a production of Radio Show Limited - as well as Sirius and XM. Visit the Series' schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.

-source: alms

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