Patrick Long’s perfect start to the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season continued through Saturday, after converting pole-position into a win in Race 1 at Austin. It was by no means a straight forward affair though for the Porsche factory star, who had to reclaim the top spot in the closing stages of the race following a masterful start by Bryan Heitkotter in the #5 Always Evolving Nissan GT-R which saw him snatch the lead.
“There’s something about the emotion of a sprint race,” said an emotional Long after the race. “We got this car last week, the boys pulled all-nighters to get it ready, but it paid off, great job by them.
“The new GT3 R is a pretty hot car,” he continued. “Bryan had me over a lap, but once we started to get closer towards the end of the race I had a chance and I had to take it, I didn’t know if I’d get another.”
On the run up to Turn 1 at the start, Long covered the inside line in the #31 EFFORT Racing Porsche to fend off the scrambling Cadillac duo of Johnny O’Connell in the #3 and Michael Cooper in the #4 ATS V.R.s behind.
It looked like he’d retain his place at the head of the field through the left hander, but Heitkotter was able to slingshot his way round the outside of the Porsche after starting the race from sixth spot.
There were two notable movers during the frantic start to the race, the first being O’Connell, who slipped back to seventh spot from third after being swallowed by the chasing pack in the run through Turns 2 & 3.
Michael Lewis however, had a contrasting experience to O’Connell at the start and moved up to fifth spot from tenth in the sister EFFORT Porsche. From there he would continue to scrap with those around him, but eventually slip back to seventh by the end of the race. O’Connell meanwhile, recovered to fifth.
The race settled down quickly, after a Full-Course Yellow period was called on by the organisers after the #90 Porsche of Joseph Toussaint driving for Automatics Motorsports became stranded off the circuit following an incident.
James Sofronas (#14 Porsche) and Duncan Ende (#67 Aston Martin) also collided on Lap 1, and had to be cleared up.
When the race restarted Heitkotter still led from Long, with Jamie Davidson’s Always Evolving Nissan third after slipping by Cooper’s Cadillac who sat fourth.
The American Nissan GT Academy winner couldn’t create much breathing room out front as the race wore on, Long was able to keep within a second of the GT-R until he retook the lead.
It was the battle for fifth spot which was the most hotly contended in the remainder of the first half between Lewis, Alvaro Parente’s #9 K-PAX McLaren and O’Connell’s Cadillac. The reigning champion in the red ATS V.R. moved past Parente with relative ease, before making a gutsy move round the outside of Lewis on the run to Turn 3.
Parente would later battle with Lewis hard, snatching the spot with less than five minutes remaining to give the Flying Lizard-supported team a sixth-place finish.
Up front the battle for the lead began to heat up properly as the race began to draw to a close. Long was clearly biding his time through the middle portion, as in the space of two laps with around 10 minutes remaining, he went from trailing at a reasonable distance, to storming his way past the Nissan. Davidson in the sister GT-R was unable to aid Heitkotter by this point too; he’d slipped back into the clutches of Michael Cooper.
The pressure became too much for Keitkotter with just under 10 minutes to go, relinquishing the lead to Long at Turn 14. The pair rubbed doors and Long’s Porsche went completely off the track in the process, but he was able to make it stick before creating an eventual two-second margin between them before the end of the race.
Cooper ensured that the race remained exciting to the flag however, as he slipped past Davidson to take the final spot on the podium on the final lap of the race. What looked like a win and a third for the Always Evolving team, turned into a second and a fourth in the space of a few laps.
Martin Fuentes’ Scuderia Corse Ferrari dominated the GTA class, racing with the tail end of the GT field, not challenged at all by the rest of the Am runners for the duration of the 50-minute race.
Alec Udell in the #17 GMG Porsche won the hotly contested GT Cup class.
Race 2 at CotA starts tomorrow at 14:15 local time in Texas.
Stephen Kilbey
