ALMS

Series Long Beach spotlight - Kaffer, Pagenaud

KAFFER LOOKING ONLINE FOR LONG BEACH HINTS Yes, technology does make life a little easier. Just ask Pierre Kaffer and Simon Pagenaud. Having never been to the Long Beach circuit, Risi Competizione's Kaffer is turning to the Web to get a good ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:50 PM

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KAFFER LOOKING ONLINE FOR LONG BEACH HINTS

Yes, technology does make life a little easier. Just ask Pierre Kaffer and Simon Pagenaud.

Having never been to the Long Beach circuit, Risi Competizione's Kaffer is turning to the Web to get a good look at North America's most famous street course in advance of the Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. Kaffer will team with Jaime Melo in Risi's Ferrari F430 GT in the highly competitive GT2 class.

Melo was a winner at Long Beach two years ago, and Kaffer is doing his homework early so as to give the team its best shot for two victories there in three seasons.

"I will be downloading a lap of Long Beach on the Internet so I will be concentrating on that now," Kaffer said. "It's quite difficult to have such a short time in the car before the race, so you have to concentrate very hard. But I love street tracks so I'm really looking forward to it."

He can take comfort in the recent action by de Ferran Motorsports' Pagenaud. Acura's young star claimed the overall pole position for last weekend's Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg despite never having been on the track until earlier in the day.

"I didn't have much time to get ready for St. Petersburg and drive the simulator at Wirth Research," Pagenaud said shortly after qualifying. "So I downloaded the circuit from the Internet. I went around it a little this morning and practice was a matter of learning the track. It was very accurate but I couldn't find the Acura! Because the car was so good, it was easy for me."

The Tequila Patron American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is set for 4:15 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 18 from the famed Long Beach street circuit in southern California. The race will be televised from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 19 on ABC. Qualifying is scheduled for 4 p.m. PT on Friday, April 17. American Le Mans Radio and Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com. The race also will be aired on XM Channel 242 and Sirius Channel 126 from 7 to 9 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The race also will mark the next round for the MICHELIN? Green X? Challenge. For tickets, visit americanlemans.com or gplb.com.

-credit: alms

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