LeMans: GT2 pole and lap record for Patrick Long

Patrick Long

American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long snagged the GT2 Class pole for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans today, blistering the 8.48-mile (13.65km) Circuit de la Sarthe to set a new class lap record with a time of 3:58.152. Long, driving for defending champions IMSA Performance MATMUT in a 2008-spec Porsche 911 GT3RSR, will co-drive Saturday's race with fellow Porsche factory driver Richard Lietz and Raymond Narac.

Long, a two-time class winner at Le Mans (2004 and 2007), is seeking another victory in the world's most prestigious sportscar race. He said, "Wednesday, in the first qualifying sessions, we ended up just behind the Flying Lizard Porsche of my friend J̦rg Bergmeister in 2nd place on the timesheets. Today our main objective was to see what the weather did Рwe needed to use all the time today before dinner to continue to develop our race setup, and the weather cooperated. At dinner we made a collective decision to put on a new set of tires and try for a quick lap time. We were on-schedule with the racecar setup, and all three of us drivers were happy with where we were at. I was expecting my lap to end up a 3:59, so I was surprised to see a 3:58.152 when I got into the pits. It's definitely pretty sweet to set pole here, in this atmosphere. To set a track record is icing on the cake."