ALMS
Ricardo Gonzalez race report
Long Beach
Edited: Apr 22, 2011, 5:12 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
RICARDO GONZALEZ SCORES FIRST CAREER ALMS WIN
#06 Core Autosport Oreca FLM09: Gunnar Jeannette, Ricardo Gonzalez
Photo by: Bob Heathcote
Mexico City, Mexico - Ricardo Gonzalez secured his first victory in the American Le Mans Series Presented by Tequila Patron at the Grand Prix of Long Beach after starting the race from pole position in the LMPC category. The Mexican driver and his co-driver, Gunnar Jeannette, had a phenomenal weekend taking home the hat trick of pole position, fastest lap and the race win at the historic street course. The victory was also the first for the rookie Core Autosport team.
Gonzalez took the green flag and immediately started pulling away from the rest of the pack while maintaining a quick pace and turning the fastest race lap during the first half of the race. After a long caution period he once again pulled away once the green flag dropped and handed the #06 prototype to his teammate in the lead. Jeannette rejoined the track in second place and immediately started chasing down the leader who had opted not to change tires during their pit stop. After only a few laps Jeannette recovered the lead by completing a daring pass in Turn 1 and never looked back. After their victory the Gonzalez/Jeanette duo have now positioned themselves as the leaders in the LMPC Championship.
The American Le Mans Series Presented By Tequila Patron will take a two month break to allow its teams to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and will return on July 9th for the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park, third round of the 2011 season.
I can't imagine a better place to take my first victory than Long Beach.
Ricardo Gonzalez
Ricardo Gonzalez No. 06 Excel / Composite Resources / Cooper Gay / Oreca FML09
"I can't imagine a better place to take my first victory than Long Beach, it is such a big and prestigious race. The weekend was simply perfect, we started on the pole, we got the fastest lap and we won the race. It was actually an easy day for us, we had a great car and we only needed to keep a good pace without making any mistakes, which is exactly what happened.
After the green flag I pulled away from the field until we had a very long yellow flag, which allowed the traffic to catch up. When we went back to green I managed to keep a comfortable rhythm and controlled the gap until it was time to make a pit stop. Gunnar did an excellent job as well, he came out of the pits in second place because the other car did not change tires during their pit stop but he quickly caught up to them and passed them. The rest of the race was simple, just taking care of the car and maintaining a good pace. It took us a race longer than we thought to lead the championship but now that we are on top we are going to keep pushing until we clinch it."
-source: ricardogonzalez.com.mx
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Kyle Marcelli race report
Next article Intersport Racing race report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ricardo Gonzalez
Mexican LMP2 win still sinking in for home-hero Gonzalez
WEC
WEC
Mexico City
Mexican LMP2 win still sinking in for home-hero Gonzalez
Senna rejoins WEC in new Morand LMP2 venture
WEC
WEC
Senna rejoins WEC in new Morand LMP2 venture
LM P2 Podium finish for G-Drive Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
LM P2 Podium finish for G-Drive Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Latest news
Lin Hodenius, James Roe partner for Lone Star Racing’s full-time IMSA GTD campaign for 2027
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 2 min
Lin Hodenius, James Roe partner for Lone Star Racing’s full-time IMSA GTD campaign for 2027
Matt Crafton to make surprise NASCAR Truck return this weekend at Homestead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
34 min
Matt Crafton to make surprise NASCAR Truck return this weekend at Homestead
Francesco Bagnaia counting down days until end of Ducati MotoGP tenure
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
47 min
Francesco Bagnaia counting down days until end of Ducati MotoGP tenure
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe