![\"\"](\"images\/archive\/sports\/image1271302939-22353.jpg\")
Two of the world\u2019s most famous automotive names will lead a very diverse field of high-powered sports cars into the American Le Mans Series race in Long Beach this Saturday, as teams racing Porsches and Corvettes aim for a podium finish.<\/p>\nTwo of the world\u2019s most famous automotive names will lead a very diverse field of high-powered sports cars into the American Le Mans Series race in Long Beach this Saturday, as teams racing Porsches and Corvettes aim for a podium finish.<\/p>\n
The 100-minute race is a departure from the marathon endurance races that teams in ALMS usually run, coming off last weekend\u2019s six-hour race at the famed Sebring track. <\/p>\n
The ALMS is basically an autosports lover\u2019s dream come true; a jumble of the world\u2019s most sophisticated sports cars thrown onto the track at the same time. Making the series more interesting is the fact that stripped-down prototype cars race alongside the stylish cars you may see on the street such as Porsche 911s, Jaguar XKRs and Ferrari F430s. A record 35 cars have entered Saturday\u2019s field, and you can expect to see some of racing\u2019s marquee names leading the way.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/s_image1271303280-59475.jpg\")
The Cytosports Racing team will field a Porsche RS Spyder in the prototype P2 class, and coming off of a class win in Sebring last week, the team is eager to find new success in Long Beach and perhaps even challenge higher-powered P1 cars like the Peugeot 908 HDI for an overall victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me it\u2019s certainly the best sports car I\u2019ve ever driven, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d says Cytosports driver Klaus Graf of the Porsche RS Spyder that he will co-drive this Saturday on one of his favorite tracks. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere being right on the water and the front straightaway goes alongside the coastline, that\u2019s special to me,\u201d Graf says. \u201cThis is the Monte Carlo of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porsche RS Spyders ran the ALMS race in Long Beach in 2007 and 2008, earning a stunning overall win the first time and scoring the top two qualifying positions in the second go-round. But no team has fielded an RS Spyder at Long Beach since then, so Grad and Cytosport have a unique opportunity to capture victory with a proven winner on this track. Manager Geoff Carter said his team will certainly push for the checkered flag.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/s_image1271303621-71681.jpg\")
\u201cThe mindset for the team is we\u2019re going to be much more aggressive than we were for Sebring,\u201d says Carter, who said that drivers can afford to relax slightly during a six-hour race but will not have that luxury in Saturday\u2019s sprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single position on the track, you have to argue with everybody [for position] every time,\u201d Carter says. \u201cIt\u2019s a classic sprint race and it\u2019s so different to what these cars are made to do, but it\u2019s such a great event and we\u2019re so happy to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid the thirty-something other cars on the track during Saturday\u2019s ALMS race, keep an eye out for the screaming V8 of the Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder as it searches for victory after a two-year hiatus in Long Beach.<\/p>\n
If the race and its several different classes gets confusing, here\u2019s a tip: take a look at the side of the car, where three lights will be lined up vertically. If the top bulb is lit, that car is leading its class. If the top two lights are on, the car is in second place in its class and so on.<\/p>\n
One car you won\u2019t need a lighting system to recognize will be the two Corvette C6.R cars of Corvette Racing. After several years of dominating the ALMS GT1 class \u2013 to the point that other teams refused to enter the class and the \u2018Vettes raced against themselves \u2013 Corvette Racing decided to restrict the car\u2019s capabilities and enter it into the heavily diverse GT2 field against the aforementioned Porsche 911, Ferrari F430 and BMW M3 GTR.<\/p>\n
The Flying Lizard team Porsche and Risi Competizione team Ferrari have each had great success in Long Beach in the GT2 class, while the Rahal Letterman team BMW cars have made great strides since debuting last year and they even scored a 1-2 class win last week in Sebring. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"images\/archive\/sports\/image1271303827-17168.jpg\")
That doesn\u2019t leave much room for the Corvettes, who shot themselves in the foot last week when the cars crashed into each other in the pits as their crews looked on in horror. That embarrassing crash left the door open for the BMW cars and ruined Corvette Racing\u2019s long anticipated entry into the GT2 class. In Long Beach, the \u2018Vette C6.R is out for revenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody on the team is going to be very motivated after what turned out to be a very disappointing Sebring race for us,” said Johnny O\u2019Connell, driver of the #3 Corvette C6.R. A very familiar face here, O\u2019Connell first raced in Long Beach in 1986 and knows the course extremely well.<\/p>\n
“On a street course like Long Beach, a driver has to be smart but also a little aggressive to get a good result,” O’Connell said in a Corvette Racing press release. “The short stints are going to put the emphasis on sharp pit stop strategy and quick driver changes. You can’t afford to lose time behind a slower car, but you also have to remember that any mistake on a street circuit is usually highly detrimental to success.”<\/p>\n
The menacing yellow\/black Corvettes may look the same as the ones driven to domination in years past, but take a close look. This year\u2019s GT2 C6.R gets a slight reduction in horsepower, from 590 to 485, losing last year\u2019s massive 7.0-liter engine for a still-fearsome 5.5-liter V8 called the LS5.5R. <\/p>\n
The car needed to undergo such transformations to make the switch to the more competitive GT2 class and O\u2019Connell and company will look to prove that their car can be successful at any level.<\/p>\n
Neither the Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder nor the Corvette Racing C6.R will have it easy come Saturday, but two of the most fan-friendly names in motorsports will be front and center to provide a direct-injection of racing spirit to the always thrilling American Le Mans Series race at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two of the world\u2019s most famous automotive names will lead a very diverse field of high-powered sports cars into the American Le Mans Series race in Long Beach this Saturday, as teams racing Porsches and Corvettes aim for a podium finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}