Davis Duo Both Finish in Top 5 at Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif. (Apr. 19, 2009) - Mike Davis achieved a personal best finish of fourth place at the World Challenge ACS Grand Prix of Long Beach presented by Lala Motorsports this weekend. Brandon Davis finished third.
Starting from the pole after the coin toss inverted the top five, Mike Davis and his No. 11 Applied Computer Solutions/Sun Mircosystems Ford Mustang Cobra couldn’t keep off the race winner James Sofronas in the No. 14 Global Motorsports Group Porsche 911 GT3.
Teammate and son Brandon Davis was able to catch up to Sofronas for a number two position, but a missed shift would give Eric Curran a chance to pass in his No. 30 Whelen Engineered Chevrolet Corvette sending the younger Davis to third.
Brandon Davis, the defending race winner, experienced high engine temperatures after following Sofronas for so long, but held on for his second third-place finish of the season.
“It seemed like, in the beginning of the race, I had a little something for James, but it was in all the wrong places,” Davis said. “I had to push really hard to keep with him, but then the spots that I would catch him I couldn’t get by, so I think I burned the car up a little too much.
“The Mustang was really good on brakes. Our car is sprung really soft and we have a good package for the bumps here. It seemed like in the brake zones we’d catch up to James. But coming out of the slow speed corners, we couldn’t get on the power as good as James. When I tried to stay with him, the back end would step out and it started wearing on the tires more and more. By the end of the race I had nothing left in the car and Eric was able to run me down.”
After two of 10 Rounds, Curran took over the Drivers’ Championship point lead, with 222 points, followed by Sofronas (212), Brandon Davis (199) and Rivera (196). With two wins on the season, Porsche leads the Manufacturers’ Championship Presented by RACER Magazine, with 19 points, followed by Ford (10), Volvo (two) and Dodge (two).