LONG BEACH, Calif., Saturday, April 20, 2013 – A short two months after transitioning into the purpose-built Honda Performance Development (HPD) ARX-03b racing machines, Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) earned its first P2 victory and first team 1-2 finish today.
Scott Sharp and Guy Cosmo, co-drivers of the No. 01 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b won Saturday’s Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek, co-drivers of the No. 02 Tequila Patrón HPD ARX-03b finished second.
The 1-2 result was the first in ESM history, Guy Cosmo earned his first ESM win while Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek scored their first ALMS P2 podium finish.
The quick two-hour sprint race was a challenging yet manageable task for the Florida-based sports car team. Guy Cosmo started the race for the No. 01 Tequila Patrón HPD from the second position. Within 15 minutes of the green flag, Cosmo had taken the lead in the P2 class. Shortly after the 40 minute mark and during the first caution period of the race, the No. 01 team radioed for Cosmo make a full pit stop including the driver change.
During a yellow flag pit stop, Scott Sharp climbed aboard the No. 01 machine and had an issue with the car re-starting. A slight delay in the pits, followed by some quick thinking and Sharp was able to re-fire the car and return to the race.
Sharp completed two laps before the caution flag was shown for the second time in the race. Based on the team’s fuel calculations, the No. 01 machine needed to save fuel or pit a second time in order to make it to the checkered flag. Sharp pitted for a splash of fuel, which was enough to ensure the HPD entry would reach the end of the race and claim victory.
Ed Brown had a strong opening stint in the No. 02 Tequila Patrón HPD. Brown started the race in fourth and gained a position before turning the car over to co-driver Johannes van Overbeek, just after the 40 minute mark in the race.
During his stint, van Overbeek worked his way from third to first and led the P2 class at one point, but when the checked flag flew, the No. 02 crossed the finish line in second place, just behind the No. 01.
Tune into to ABC on 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 21 to watch ESM battle for the P2 win during the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach.
Next on the schedule for the Extreme Speed Motorsports is the American Le Mans Monterey scheduled for May 9-11, 2013.
Scott Sharp
“It felt great taking the checkered flag today. Honestly, this win came a little quicker than I thought it was going to. But this is the race for us to win with Tequila Patrón sponsoring it and being Long Beach, it is probably one of the biggest and highest profile races of the year.
“This is huge. The team has done an amazing job with the transition to P2. The team has been flat out, so huge thanks and accolades to the team for their efforts.
“The No. 02 car made some really good moves. They were able to get their car working better overnight from qualifying.
“Guy did a great job during his stint and took the lead. He was strong. Leigh Pettipas (No. 01 engineer) had a great strategy call in that we were the only team to top off (fuel) under yellow and that ended up being a really good move. From there, we rode to the checkered flag.
“When I first climbed into the car, we had a little issue. The wheel wouldn’t quite get on, so we couldn’t start the car with the start button on the wheel. I then went to the back-up starter on chassis and it started with that. We couldn’t figure out what was going on, so there was a little bit of confusion.
“History shows with our team that we’re going to get better and better. We’ve got to get some solid testing under our belt which won’t happen until after Laguna. It is important for us to stay close to Level 5, bring both cars home in one piece, learn as much as we can and we accomplished all of that.
“Racing against Johannes was great. I knew we’d treat each other fairly on the track. He was cool and it was way early in the race. We were both conserving fuel. I knew I had stopped and he hadn’t, so he probably needed to be really conservative or needed to stop. It was fun because we haven’t gone wheel-to-wheel before in a race.”
Further information:
Susan Pollack
Extreme Speed Motorsports
Phone: +1 313 434 6912
Email: pollack.susan@gmail.com
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YouTube: www.youtube.com/esmracing