LONG: The Racer In Me

Le Mans / ALMS

LONG: The Racer In Me

Fourth place at Road America could easily be looked at as a disappointment - the bar has been set pretty high this season by the whole Flying Lizard organization.

Patrick Long | http://www.patricklong.com | Posted August 21, 2009 Fort Lauderdale, FL

Balancing a career as a professional racing car driver with the joys and rejuvenation of regular activities is mandatory for a pilot like Pat Long. In this case, a simple bike ride does the trick. (Jonathon Ziegelman)

Road America

Fourth place at Road America could easily be looked at as a disappointment - the bar has been set pretty high this season by the whole Flying Lizard organization, but the way I choose to look at it, things went pretty well. It became pretty clear early in the week that the BMWs were going to have a pretty straight path to victory, because of their top end speed and the long straightaways at Road America. Instead of using my column and my team’s press releases to whinge about rules and politics, I’d rather use this space to focus on the competition and racing with diverse manufacturers and diverse cars. The bottom line is that a change of scenery on the podiums is going to keep selling tickets, and that’s a good thing.

At this point, the racer in me is only willing to accept a win, but I’d be lying to you if I told you there wasn’t any businessman in me after all these years. The battle between myself, the ‘Vettes, the 2nd BMW and the Ferrari in the second part of the race was some good, old-fashioned door banging - I don’t remember so much fierce rubbing and racing in my 6 seasons in the ALMS. We didn’t come out ahead in every scrap, but the one that counted - our place in the championship standings relative to the 62 Ferrari - we came out ahead on that one and extended our lead.

The deciding factor came from my strategy team. As we all dove onto pit lane with 20 or so minutes to go in the race, it reminded me of the final pit sequence at Darlington in NASCAR or something - some teams took two tires, some took four, some took fuel only. It was cool to head back out not knowing exactly what you had to work with. I think our guys did some savvy pit work, and if I’m not mistaken, our tire change put everyone to shame; it's not often that the Vette guys are made to look slow, but it's fair to say my crew hit all their marks Sunday! I only wish I could have held them off on track, but that's another one of those long-winded political rants that I'll leave to the politicians behind the scenes. The Risi guys went without new tires, so as we lined up for the last few laps, it was an interesting and relatively quiet moment where I thought to myself “Okay, what’s it going to take here?”

Long story short, I was able to get by the Ferrari of Pierre Kaffer going into turn 5, but a few laps later Johnny O’Connell was able to motor by me in the same spot after I tried my best to keep him behind with only a couple of laps to go. It's not often that I'll leave the door open, but that point he'd been literally pushing me around the track and I had to remember the goal was to beat the 62 Ferrari (who sat just behind us waiting in the wings). The temptation to fight back and throw a big block or an elbow or two in return as he left yellow paint on my car was burning inside me, but in the end it was going to get me nowhere in the direction of a championship. That said, we extended our championship lead and now it’s on to Mosport. There will be plenty of time in the future to throw down with the ‘Vettes and trade some more paint. Those guys are fun and race hard.

NASCAR Icons Hanging at Road America on an ALMS Weekend? Huh?

I was quite surprised to hear that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was at Road America on a Cup weekend - Saturday night, no less - to check out some road racing. I admire that kind of flavor, and it was pretty surprising. I guess the basis of it was that he was there to see one of the VW TDI Jetta Cup races, where there as a driver making his first-ever start in a racing car. The inside scoop from a close friend of mine who runs the driver development program for the Jetta Cup is that one of the drivers in that series had been picked to try his hand at racing a car after developing and showing huge promise in the iRacing simulator league. Dale Jr. is heavily involved with iRacing, and apparently was there to see how the guy did translating his skills from the simulator to the real world.

It’s a wild idea and it sparks thoughts of a funny memory back from my Skip Barber School Days - I remember a rainy Saturday afternoon when I had a solid battle with newcomer to the school league around the banks of Fontana. After he drove away from me in a monsoon toward the end of the sprint I was asking myself "who the hell is that!?” When we got back into the garages he took off his helmet to reveal a big bushy beard and that image of your stoner buddy in High School that just never grew up. I asked what his racing background was as I'd never heard of him - he just responded “Gran Turismo dude!”

Banging doors and battling hard for positions has its allure, but with a GT2 championship to consider, Patrick Long has to temper his competitive spirit with the needs of the team. (LAT)

It was a revelation to me that there’s a certain crossover between Playstation simulations and actual driving. Some elements definitely do cross over - in both you’ve got to hit your marks every lap and maintain focus and discipline, but what doesn’t cross over is the car control aspect. To me, that has very little to do with visual reference and everything to do with the feeling in the seat of your pants. On the other hand, the difference between the simulators ten years ago when I battled the 'Gran Turismo stoner' and today is just mind-blowing. I don’t own any gaming consoles and only rarely play games, but I’ve sampled the iRacing simulator and it’s pretty wild. To be camped out in your basement and be racing live against drivers from all over the world on one racetrack is a pretty surreal experience.

The guys in that community have really dialed the whole experience in (I have no reason to endorse iRacing), and it's taken the racing simulation to the next level. It’s very cool that a video game kid got a shot at the real thing last weekend. Having said all that, you won’t soon find me at the local arcade or in a simulator very often, because there are way too many of those kids out there who are crazy fast on simulators and my ego can’t handle it! See you at Mosport and if not there, at Petit Le Mans!

Pat

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Patrick Long is the only American factory driver racing for Porsche, having joined Porsche in 2003 as a Junior Driver. After starting his career with Porsche racing in the German and British Carrera Cups and Michelin Supercup, he made his professional racing debut in 2003 at Petit Le Mans.

Patrick is the youngest-ever American winner of the four "classics" of endurance racing - the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Rolex 24 At Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans. He has had ample early success in his career, including winning the 2005 ALMS GT2 Championship, 9 ALMS races in the GT2 and LMP2 classes, and holds the GT2 track record at Le Mans.

Patrick's laid-back Southern California attitude and European racing education make him unique in the sportscar racing world. Conversationally fluent in five languages, Patrick is as at home surfing the point breaks of Malibu as he is speaking in French at Le Mans. Currently residing in the Clearwater Beach, FL area, his childhood loves of motocross racing and car culture have flourished as a result of his job and partnerships with Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Wheel Enhancement and Shock Doctor.

Learn more about Pat at: http://www.PatrickLong.com and about Porsche at http://www.Porsche.com

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patrick Long

Patricklong.com

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