- 2008-07-13 Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park on Saturday (12 July)
- 2008-06-15 Le Mans 24 Hours Race Report (14-15 June)
- 2008-06-06 Le Mans 24 Hours Race Preview (14-15 June)
- 2008-05-19 Challenging weekend in Utah
- 2008-04-20 Tough weekend in Long Beach
- 2008-04-06 More points for the No.16 car in St Pete
- 2008-03-17 Dyson racing 2nd and 3rd at Sebring
- 2008-03-09 Getting ready to kick off the 2008 season
- 2008-02-11 Guy returns to Le Mans in 2008
Defending champion Smith joint leader of ALMS Championship
14 April 2012
Yorkshireman finishes second on streets of Long Beach, California
Guy Smith heads for the third round of the American Le Mans Series next month having claimed second place in the latest race on Saturday (14 April).
The former Le Mans 24 Hour race winner and co-driver Chris Dyson brought their Dyson Racing Lola B12/60 Mazda Coupé home 43.66secs behind ALMS title rivals Lucas Luhr/Klaus Graf in a two-hour race at Long Beach – a repeat of last year’s result – which ties the quartet for the series lead.
Smith claimed the Long Beach pole-position for a second consecutive year after organisers cancelled qualifying the previous day when heavy rain flooded the 1.968-mile temporary “street” circuit – Guy heading the 33-car grid courtesy of leading the championship after his opening round Sebring win.
Twenty-four hours later, the heavy rain had been replaced by sunshine and cloudless blue sky and it was Smith who led the opening 25mins of the race before a backmarker clipped the front of Guy’s Lola damaging aerodynamic aids.
This setback allowed the HPD of P1 rivals Luhr/Graf to snatch the lead with Smith pitting after 56mins from second place during the race’s only full course caution behind the Safety Car.
The Yorkshireman handed over the G-OIL/ModSpace Lola to co-driver Dyson who, having had new tyres fitted and fuel replenished, exited the pits ahead of Graf.
The race resumed with 54mins to run with Dyson 14.5secs ahead of Graf who pitted again for another splash of fuel.
Dyson was demoted to second place 36mins from the chequered flag when the American began to conserve fuel to make the finish without the need for a second, time consuming pit-stop.
Smith, who began the Long Beach race with a four-point series lead along with Dyson, are now tied on 40pts with Luhr/Graf after two races.
Guy said: "We went into the race basically ‘blind’. Practice on Friday morning had been rain-affected restricting us to just 10-laps while qualifying was a total wash-out with no running whatsoever forcing us to gamble on car set-up.
“The car was pretty good in the race and was certainly a step forward from Sebring so we’re getting a handle on it.
“We lacked straight line speed compared to the Luhr/Graf car and I was having to take huge risks in traffic to keep Lucas [Luhr] behind me.
“I had slight contact with one of the BMW's which allowed Lucas to get past. But a great pit stop by the Dyson Racing crew got us back into the lead.
"At the opening Sebring race, the Lola was brand new and we hadn’t had any time for development. We tested our new car just before this race and made progress. The new Lola is tremendous – we just need to clock some miles up in it. We've new front Dunlop tyres being produced but essentially we're just scratching the surface of the car’s real potential – it’s very early days.”
The third round of the ALMS is a six-hour race staged at the 2.238-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey in California.
