16.04.2009 PROMISING OPENING DAY IN LONG BEACH FOR T-Mobile® VICI Racing™
 

Long Beach, California - It was a promising start to the start to the week’s action this afternoon on the streets of Long Beach as the #18 T-Mobile® VICI Racing™ Porsche 911 GT3 RSR posted an excellent fourth fastest time just as the new partnership gears up for its first race.

The American Le Mans Series’ (ALMS) third visit to the famous 1.968 mile Long Beach temporary road course revved right into gear today, after two days of set up work in the paddock, kicking off with two promoter organised test sessions that added up to 1 hour and 35 minutes of track time (3:00 to 3:50 PM followed by 5:00 to 5:45 AM PT). Both our drivers, who are making their race debuts with the team here, after taking part in our close season test programme, haven’t visited the South California track before and the sessions would provide them both with invaluable learning time, especially as the event schedule sees limited running time tomorrow and on Saturday prior to the race, enforced as the ALMS shares billing here with the Indycar series. With the opening session today being the first time the track had gone live this week the all teams would face a very dirty surface and quickly changing conditions.

For the opening session Johannes Stuck would be the first into the cockpit of the #18 car. With overcast and chilly weather seen so far this week in Long Beach having lifted today to be replaced by a blue sky and warmer temperatures, the Austria youngster, son of one of motor racing’s greatest star names, Hans-Joachim Stuck, blasted out of the pits in the car’s eye-catching new T-Mobile USA livery. The second half of the session saw Johannes handing the #18 over to Richard Westbrook, and the experienced Englishman turned in consistent laps as he too learnt the track, until the checkered flag waved after 50 minutes. Richard posted the car’s quickest time in 1:23.870 (84.474 mph) on the penultimate lap of the 24 laps that the car covered.

Following an hour’s break the second, slightly shorter, session kicked off with Richard behind the wheel. He ran the first half of the session before handing over to Johannes.
 

By the time the checkered flag fell to signify the end of the day’s track action the #18 car had turned in another 26 laps with Richard posting the quickest time in 1:22.410 (85.970 mph) on his sixteenth tour of the concrete barrier lined track. This was the fourth fastest GT2 class time and a very satisfying way to start the on-track programme here.

VICI Racing™ is a long time established German/US racing team which is setting out this week on its second year in the prestigious series. T-Mobile USA is a leading innovator and provider of mobile communications. At the end of 2008, T-Mobile USA served more than 32.8 million customers. T-Mobile USA is the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AG’s Mobile Communications Business, and a wholly owned subsidiary of T-Mobile International, one of the world’s leading companies in mobile communications. T-Mobile is a federally registered trademark of Deutsche Telekom AG. T-Mobile® VICI Racing™ is based in Miami, Florida.

Roland Wall, Technical Director VICI Racing: “I’m quite pleased with how things have gone today. This is our first race of the year, our first time here on Michelin tires and the drivers haven’t been here before, so we started with an estimated setup. The sessions went well, the drivers both did well and were clean and smooth, and now we have to work towards a setup for tomorrow when we will have less track time.”

Tomorrow’s (Friday April 17) action starts with an hour’s free practice (9:00 to 9:45 AM PT) before the 25 minute afternoon qualifying session (4:00 to 4:24 PM PT) decides the grid. Race day (Saturday April 18) kicks off early with a short warm-up session (7:30 to 7:45 AM PT) before the American Le Mans Series at Long Beach Race, round 3 of the 2009 series, goes to green flag at 4:15 PM PT. The checkered flag is scheduled to be waved on the 1 hour and 30 minute race at 5:45 PM PT.

The Long Beach race will be televised from 12:30 to 2:30 PM ET on Sunday, April 19 on ABC. American Le Mans Radio and Live Timing and Scoring will be available at americanlemans.com. The race also will be aired on XM Channel 242 and Sirius Channel 126 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET on Saturday. The race also will mark the next round for the MICHELIN® Green X® Challenge.