Backstretch Motorsports

Friday has turned out to be quite a day for Patrón Highcroft Racing. David Brabham captured the overall pole position for the Detroit Sports Car Challenge presented by Bosch, only hours after Acura announced that Patrón Highcroft would be one of its two LMP1 entries for the 2009 American Le Mans Series season.

Brabham put in a quick lap of 1:13.483 in the Patrón Highcroft Acura ARX-01b. He and Scott Sharp will start first overall for the first time since Lime Rock Park, where the duo captured the first overall victory for Acura. The pairing have won three of the last four rounds in LMP2 including the last two races at Road America and a week ago at Mosport.

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Fulfilling plans set two years ago when it entered the American Le Mans Series, Acura Motorsports announced that it will move to LMP1 in the 2009 American Le Mans Series. De Ferran Motorsports and Patrón Highcroft Racing each will field prototypes in the Series’ highest classification starting with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

The two teams will each field an Acura ARX-02a prototype sports cars, developed by Honda Performance Development (HPD), in the most advanced and technically challenging class of the American Le Mans Series.

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Audi scored its second straight 1-2 finish in the American Le Mans Series with Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr scoring a 2.463-second victory in their diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI over the sister car of Marcel Fässler and Emanuele Pirro. Werner passed race leader David Brabham on Road America’s long frontstretch for the lead with 20 minutes left to win the Generac 500 presented by Time Warner Cable at Road America.

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Although most of Scott Sharp’s big news in the past 10 years has been centered on his great results in open-wheel racing, his professional career began in sports cars in the 1980s. He achieved great success in his first SCCA season in 1986, bringing home the GT2 Championship and Rookie of the Year honors. Proving that was no fluke, he went on to claim back-to back SCCA GT1 championships in 1987 and 1988.

Moving to the Trans-Am Series in 1989, Sharp quickly proved he also had what it took to excel when he became the youngest champion in an SCCA professional series in 1991. He secured his place in the pantheon of sports-car racing champions when he brought home another Trans-Am Championship in 1993.

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In the landscape of American motorsports, it doesn’t get much more glamorous than the Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. After a sensational debut in 2007, the American Le Mans Series returns again this weekend for the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach, Round 3 of the 2008 season. In addition to title sponsorship of Saturday’s race, Patrón also is the primary sponsor of the Patrón Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01b, which David Brabham and Scott Sharp will pilot in search of the team’s first LMP2 victory. In preparation for the race, they discussed the challenges of the weekend.

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