American Le Mans Series

Second place in class for Patrón Highcroft Acura at Mid-Ohio

© American Le Mans Series

Riding high on last week’s history-making first-place win at Lime Rock Park, Patrón Highcroft Racing again went to battle against the Penske Porsches, providing high-wire tension and excitement in the last several minutes of the Acura Sports Car Challenge. Scott Sharp, who started the race from the second place on the grid, drove a brilliant stint, maintaining his position and handing off a strong car to his co-driver, David Brabham, about an hour into the race. Brabham, who finished the race, engaged in a fierce on-track contest for LMP2 class leadership, and made a clean pass of Patrick Long in the #6 Penske Porsche with just 14 minutes remaining . He then fought until the last second to overtake the #7 Penske Porsche, but the class victory was ultimately not meant to be for this young team from Connecticut.

“It was a strong day for the entire team” said Sharp, as he stood with David alongside the #9 Acura ARX-01b after the race. “Both David and I pushed really hard. We both drove the wheels off the car! The Michelin tires really performed consistently all week. It was an incredible competition with five or six cars in the same class going at it nose-to-tail in the late stages of the race. I call that pretty awesome racing. David got stuck in traffic and fell back but did really well to get back up and challenge for the lead. We’re really happy with our result. Now we’ve got to keep our momentum going in the rest of the season by continuing to finish on the podium.”

“It was a thriller to the end” said Brabs, as he climbed out of the cockpit of the Acura. “We seem to be making a habit of doing that. In the end, we just ran out of time. Although the #7 (Penske) Porsche was very fast, I think we were a little bit quicker. It’s very difficult around here, you lose too much of the aerodynamics being behind the car in front. And you really do need a break in the traffic: sometimes I got it, sometimes I didn’t. I was right behind him (the #7 Penske Porsche) right at the end but it wasn’t meant to be. When I passed Patrick Long (in the #6 Penske Porsche) - I knew I was quicker. I saw a slow car coming up in front of us and I just backed off on the main straight to get a good run. Luckily, the slower car went toward the middle, Long went left and I went right. It was a question of who was going to brake latest. I managed to get past him and then it was just a matter of catching the leader. This is a great result for Patrón Highcroft Racing. From our win last week, Acura’s and the team first overall first-place finish, to second place this week, the team is on a definite roll.”

“Week in and week out, we’re providing a lot of excitement for everybody, that’s for sure” said team owner, Duncan Dayton. “Hats off to the Penske Racing team. We’ve been fighting hammer and tong with the Penske Porsches pretty much all season long. The traffic breaks just didn’t happen for us this time, but it was a great hunt and a stupendous race — really terrific driving by both Scott and David and great work by the entire team.”