ALMS Rounds 2 & 3 - St. Petes  and Long Beach

Following the disappointment of Sebring the whole team were looking to the streets of St Petes for a solid finish and a trouble free run. In the sunshine of Florida that’s what they managed to achieve. With track time reduced to only 2 hours prior to qualifying it was a big ask for the team and the drivers to get a perfect set-up on the car, especially as this was the first opportunity to run since Sebring. Fortunately the team had done a great job on preparing the car and Ben,s times improved with each session. Ben had the job of qualifying and starting, and the emphasis was always going to be on staying out of trouble and avoiding other peoples problems on the tight concrete lined streets. With several other drivers falling foul of the bumps and walls Ben made a good start and moved up several places in the first few laps. Ben had a good solid run and taking advantage of one of the numerous full course yellows handed over the car to Gerrado in 7th place overall. Gerrado enjoying his first race in the B-K MAZDASPEED LOLA drove the car to the chequered flag and gave the team a seventh place finish and into the points. This was a great result and gave the team the reward they deserved after the efforts of everyone involved.

While at St. Petes Ben had his birthday which was celebrated in traditional fashion at Marions hospitality, were he was “caked” by Marion, to the delight of his teamates and friends.

After the race Ben flew to California to drive the Mazda Furai prototype around the streets of Long Beach to help promote the Long Beach Grand Prix. Driving the futuristic road/race car between the concrete walls at speeds up to 140 mph , Ben delighted a few  motoring journalists who were lucky enough to sit alongside him. It gave them a small insight into the difficulties and thrills of street racing and the very small margins for error.

The race at Long Beach allowed for a further 40mins of track time prior to qualifying over the 2hours at St Petes, so whilst still not a great deal of time to,  learn the track and work on set-up it was a little more and the same for everyone. Ben had raced there before so Gerrado was given the chance to familiarise himself with the track in the first practice session. As practice progressed the times improved in each session with Ben qualifying with the fastest time of the week. However, he felt there was more time in the car, but for a red flag near the end of the session he would have been in the 1.13 ‘s.   His qualifying time was still some way off the front of the grid , so good fortune would be required for them to progress through the field during the race.  Gerrado  started this race and again the strategy would be to keep out of trouble and avoid any other incidents. The hope was they could take advantage of a full course yellow for the driver change, however apart from one after about 3mins there was’nt another for during Gerrados stint.  After about 55 mins and with the  number 8 running a lap down they decided on a driver change and Ben took over.  Unfortunately the pit stop led to them going a further lap down, and a short time into Bens stint the yellows came out and the rest of the grid were able to stop under full course caution, so they made no gain on the rest of the field. For the remainder of the race Ben held position and brought the car across the line for another successful result and a top ten finish. The Mazda ZR-R engine performed perfectly all week and never missed a beat with Ben reporting how strong it felt. The Advan tires continue to be improved and Yokohama are doing a great job with advances being made at every race. The next round is at Salt Lake City, Utah where the team ran a successful test just before Long Beach, so on the back of 2 race finishes the guys are eager to show their full potential and start challenging for podium places.