The 2015 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It was held at Long Beach Street Circuit in Long Beach, California on 18 April 2015. The race was the third round of the 2015 Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

Background The event was run as a support race to the Grand Prix of Long Beach, the annual IndyCar Series race held at the circuit. The Pirelli World Challenge and Stadium Super Trucks also ran during the weekend. The race was also the joint-shortest of the season, at just 100 minutes, identical to the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic.

Entries

A total of 17 cars took part in the event; 9 in the Prototype (P) class and 8 in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class. The Prototype Challenge (PC) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes would not be participating in the event. After only competing on permanent circuits since its competition debut in 2012, The DeltaWing would make its first appearance at a street course. Due to scheduling conflicts for full-season drivers Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, who were preparing for their LMP1 debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship, drivers Frédéric Makowiecki and Richard Lietz would replace them for the Long Beach event.

Practice There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, both on Friday. The first session lasted two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 35 minutes.

Practice 1 The first practice session at 7:45 am PT on Friday and ended with Dane Cameron topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:16.063. ClassTeamDriverTime1P31Action Express RacingDane Cameron1:16.063_2P90VisitFlorida.com RacingRichard Westbrook1:16.141 +0.0783P5Action Express RacingJoão Barbosa1:16.159 +0.096Source:

Final Practice The second and final practice session took place at 4:45 pm PT on Friday and ended with Ricky Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:15.879. ClassTeamDriverTime1P10Wayne Taylor RacingRicky Taylor1:15.879_2P01Chip Ganassi RacingScott Pruett1:16.165 +0.2863P90VisitFlorida.com RacingEric Curran1:16.447 +0.568Source:

Qualifying Qualifying was broken into two sessions. The first session of qualifying was for the GTLM class. Bill Auberlen qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 25 BMW Team RLL entry.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the No. 10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing.

Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . ClassTeamDriverTime1P10 Wayne Taylor Racing Ricky Taylor1:14.790_12P01 Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Pruett1:15.048 +0.25823P5 Action Express Racing Christian Fittipaldi1:15.274 +0.48434P90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Michael Valiante1:15.553 +0.76345P31 Action Express Racing Eric Curran1:15.915 +1.12556GTLM25 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen1:17.268 +2.47867P0 DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone Memo Rojas1:17.405 +2.61578P60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian John Pew1:17.427 +2.63789GTLM24 BMW Team RLL John Edwards1:17.516 +2.726910GTLM62 Risi Competizione Giancarlo Fisichella1:17.709 +2.9191011GTLM3 Corvette Racing Jan Magnussen1:17.739 +2.9491112GTLM4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin1:17.756 +2.9661213GTLM912 Porsche North America Richard Lietz1:17.932 +3.1421614GTLM911 Porsche North America Patrick Pilet1:18.185 +3.3951715GTLM17 Team Falken Tire Bryan Sellers1:18.728 +3.9381316P70 SpeedSourcedid not participate1417P07 SpeedSourcedid not participate15Source:

Results Class winners are denoted in bold and . +Final race classificationClassTeamDriversChassisTireTime/RetiredEngine1P10 Wayne Taylor Racing Jordan Taylor Ricky TaylorCorvette Daytona Prototype781:40:59.571Chevrolet 5.5 L V82P01 Chip Ganassi Racing Joey Hand Scott PruettFord EcoBoost Riley DP78 +3.300Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L V6 Turbo3P90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Richard Westbrook Michael ValianteCorvette Daytona Prototype78 +18.242Chevrolet 5.5 L V84P31 Action Express Racing Eric Curran Dane CameronCorvette Daytona Prototype78 +21.864Chevrolet 5.5 L V85P5 Action Express Racing João Barbosa Christian FittipaldiCorvette Daytona Prototype78 +50.468Chevrolet 5.5 L V86P60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian John Pew Oswaldo Negri Jr.Ligier JS P276 +2 lapsHonda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo7GTLM25 BMW Team RLL Bill Auberlen Dirk WernerBMW Z4 GTE76 +2 Laps BMW 4.4 L V88GTLM62 Risi Competizione Pierre Kaffer Giancarlo FisichellaFerrari 458 Italia GT276 +2 LapsFerrari 4.5 L V89GTLM3 Corvette Racing Antonio García Jan MagnussenChevrolet Corvette C7.R75 +3 LapsChevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V810GTLM911 Porsche North America Frédéric Makowiecki Patrick PiletPorsche 911 RSR75 +3 LapsPorsche 4.0 L Flat-611GTLM24 BMW Team RLL John Edwards Lucas LuhrBMW Z4 GTE75 +3 lapsBMW 4.4 L V812GTLM17 Team Falken Tire Bryan Sellers Wolf HenzlerPorsche 911 RSR75 +3 LapsPorsche 4.0 L Flat-613P07 SpeedSource Tom Long Joel MillerMazda Prototype75 +3 LapsMazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)14GTLM4 Corvette Racing Oliver Gavin Tommy MilnerChevrolet Corvette C7.R74 +4 LapsChevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V815P70 SpeedSource Jonathan Bomarito Tristan NunezMazda Prototype74 +4 LapsMazda Skyactiv-D 2.2 L Turbo I4 (Diesel)16GTLM912 Porsche North America Jörg Bergmeister Richard LietzPorsche 911 RSR60 +18 LapsPorsche 4.0 L Flat-617P0 DeltaWing Racing Cars with Claro/TracFone Memo Rojas Katherine LeggeDeltaWing DWC139Did not finishÉlan (Mazda) 1.9 L I4 TurboSource:+ Tyre manufacturers Key Symbol Tyre manufacturer Continental Michelin Falken Tire

References