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The ALMS Race in Salt Lake City
The third running of the American LeMans Series race in Salt Lake City was attended by ten of our club members. The weather was perfect for the race with the snow-capped mountains shining in the background. On Thursday, Dave Strong Porsche arranged to have the RS Spyder and two of Porsche’s best drivers (Sascha Massen and Patrick Long) visit the dealership for several hours. We were able to see the RS Spyder up close and have a personal conversation with the drivers who race for the team. With refreshments and the private time spent with the drivers, it turned out to be a wonderful evening. Everyone left with a sense of pride knowing that the drivers and customers are part of the large Porsche family.
Our members convened Saturday in front of the Flying Lizard Porsche garage for a tour of the team’s facilities. The team manager (Erik) gave our group a close up look at their cars, explained the operation of running a team and answered many questions from our members. They are the only team to run three cars in the series which makes them very proficient and competitive. After the tour, we were escorted around the paddock by a Porsche North America public relations representative (Andy Schupack). He showed us the Penske RS Spyder garage and shared numerous stories about running these cars along with their competitors in the series. We were also allowed to see the pit lane operation and how the teams monitor their cars during a race. It was an extraordinary view into two of the most professional teams in international sports car racing and a deeper look inside the Porsche racing world.
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Saturday evening, sixteen club members and friends met for dinner at Little America. After a great meal and a lot of interesting conversation, we prepared for the big race day on Sunday.
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Porsche cars competed in two of the four classes--the LMP2 and GT2 class. Porsche cars qualified first in both classes and then went on to dominate the race. Porsche finished in 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th places in the LMP2 class, and 1st and 2nd place in the GT2 class. In the quest for the overall victory, Porsche placed 1st, 2nd and 4th. It turned out that the teams we visited (The Flying Lizard and Penske Porsche’s) were the ones who finished 1st and 2nd in their respective classes.
It was a wonderful weekend at the track spending time with fellow club members, seeing their cars and watching Porsche race cars compete. Who could have asked for more.
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