Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach - Live reporting from the VICI Racing pits

4:50 PM For the first time this week we're finished early. Tomorrow will be the big day, and we're in a good position. Everyone is pleased. Race day will dawn with a very early 15 minute warm up session (7:15 – 7:30 AM) for all classes before the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach goes to green flag at 4:10 PM local time. The 100 minutes duration race, round three of the 2008 ALMS series, is scheduled to conclude at 5:50 PM. However for now it's back to the hotel.

4:30 PM “The car felt very good out on the track, the set up and the Kumho tires are dealing with the many bumps here very well, so I’m sure we can achieve a good race pace. The track is very slippery which means we will need to be careful tomorrow but the RSR seems very well suited to Long Beach. The guys have done an incredible job to get the car here and get it ready for the race, their hard work and professionalism is never in doubt, it’s a pleasure to race with them. Hopefully now we can turn in a good result tomorrow; everyone really deserves it.”

9:50 AM The team is pretty pleased with the session. We have a lot of catching up to do after missing out on yesterday's track sessions, but this track time points out that we are going in the right direction. Tim is his usual smooth and unflustered self, whichever side of the pit wall he is on, he's calmly in charge. And he's quite satisfied with how the practice went.

9:40 AM The session ends for minutes early after a red flag is waved. Craig is in good form. He set a 1:26.805 after leaving the pits before his next lap, a 1:24.918, moved him into the 1:24 bracket. More consistent driving and he reduced that to 1:24.451, after 28 minutes of the session. He followed that up with a 1:24.980, radioing in to the pit to say “the car feels great”. He then dropped under the 1:24 barrier, with a 1:23.679, following that with a 1:24.025, and after 34 minutes, posting a 1:23.879. With just four minutes of the session remaining a spinning Viper brought out the red flag and a premature end to the session. 

9:35 AM Ruben is discussing the track with Nathan. “I really enjoyed it out on track this morning," says the Brazilian. "The car felt very good. The track is much wider than at St. Petersburg and it is quite a bit faster too. It was very slippery out there, though Roland told me a lot of this was from rubber laid down during a drifting display. The team asked me to take it very easy out there today and take no risks while I was learning the track, so I didn’t push the car hard at any point. I’m getting more settled into the car with each lap and the team has been very helpful so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

9:20 AM Craig prepares to take over the #5 car from Ruben. The ‘local boy’, who has a reputation as being the fittest driver in the paddock has, in true style, been turning up this week on his mountain bike. After missing out on any driving at St. Petersburg he's looking forward to getting behind the wheel, and also has a lot of friends and sponsors here this week.

9:10 AM Ruben took the wheel for the opening laps of the 40 minute morning session (9:05 - 9:45 AM), as he looked to gain more experience of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR following his brief few laps in St. Petersburg. The Brazilian former karting world champion turned in a couple of installation laps as the session went green before returning to the pits for a quick check over of the car.

7:30 AM VICI Racing has a new Team Manager in charge this year, Tim Bumps. Tim has come in from IRL and he epitomises the VICI Racing philosophy: he's highly professional, totally focused, and has the new team working smoothly, despite our growing pains. Tim's workload cannot be underestimated, he has a myriad of details that always require his attention, but he handles everything thrown at him a calm and efficient manner. He's happy with the way things are progressing this morning.

7:05 AM The crew had a late night, they didn't finish up until 3AM this morning. It's been hectic since St. Petersburg a fortnight ago, but now we're ready for action. The #5 car is all set to go now, the new engine is running, the final details are being completed with the opening practice session of the day now just 2 hours away.

6:50 AM The team is staying in the Westin, just five minutes walk from the track. Walking in in the morning one can walk down a section of the closed off course to reach the ALMS paddock. In the early morning light the track looks slippery, the concrete barriers tough and foreboding, and the grandstands up close, offering race fans a real close up look at their heroes in action. Today will be a very important day for VICI Racing...