Brandon Davis Takes 1st SCCA Speed GT Win

SCCA

Apr 21, 2008

Long Beach, Calif. – In front of ecstatic friends and family, Huntington Beach driver Brandon Davis took his first SCCA SPEED GT win at his home race, the SCCA Pro Racing Long Beach SPEED GT Presented by Applied Computer Solutions. Point leader Randy Pobst, of Gainesville, Ga., and Andy Pilgrim, of Boca Raton, Fla., finished second and third, respectively.
Starting from pole, Davis’ No. 10 ACS/Sun Microsystems Ford Mustang was beat off the standing start by Pobst who took the lead heading into Turn One. Pobst would run wide, however, handing the lead back to Davis, while his No. 1 K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 fell to sixth.
“On the start, I made a mistake and didn’t short-shift to second quickly enough,” Davis said. “I didn’t think I’d made that big of a mistake, but I saw Randy go on by me, so I just tucked in behind.”

“I got a really good start,” Pobst said. “With the rear engine, if you get it right, the thing will just launch. I felt like I was doing a wheelie. I managed to beat Brandon to Turn One and I went down to the inside. It was really dirty down there and I just looked in the mirror a little too long and when it was time to turn, I couldn’t. I just did touch the Toyota banners there and cars just kept going by me. My crew said ‘that was a rookie move’ and I said ‘yes it was!’
The race then went full-course yellow for the No. 17 LTI Contracting/Foster Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette of Rob Foster who was stalled on the grid. When the race restarted on lap five, Pobst immediately began to pick off the cars ahead of him with ease and was back into second place behind Davis on the same lap.
Davis was able to hold off Pobst through two more restarts from full-course yellows, before the fourth and final full-course yellow on lap 26, meant the 28-lap, 62.529-mile race would end under yellow. It was Davis’ second career-win, his first coming in SCCA SPEED Touring Car in 2006 at the Denver Grand Prix.
“I was not that great on restarts,” Davis said. “I always had someone, whether it was Andy or Randy, right on my bumper in one, so I stayed to the inside and was able to protect it. One thing I’ve learned from my dad’s experience here is that there is really an accordion effect in Turn One and into the fountain turn, so if you stay to the inside at one, it’s really hard for anyone to go by you, because even if you get through one faster, you can’t pass anyone going into the fountain turn because it’s one lane. That’s what I did on all the restarts too—stay to the inside.”
“It really feels amazing to win here. Before my dad even got into racing, when he was just a guy who liked cars, we would come out and watch Long Beach every year. Then, he started to run Trans-Am and started working with Boris [Said], we actually got the first win for the team here in Trans-Am. I was there for all of that and to be able to be the guy that gives the team a win at Long Beach is very special.”

Davis reset the Long Beach SPEED GT lap record en route to the win, lapping the 1.968-mile street circuit in 1:26.205 (82.185 mph).
Pobst took looks at Davis on three of the restarts, but was unable to make any real challenges on Davis.
“The first restart was purely dumb luck,” Pobst said. “I was behind the Viper and some other guys. Coming out of the hairpin it looked like everybody just went flat out coming out of the turn. It’s a pretty long way from the last turn to where the starter and the green acceleration cone are. So I’m on it. I’m running through the gears to catch up and meanwhile everyone up in front of the pack slows down. I’m up to about fourth or fifth gear and I hear on my radio ‘green’ and I’m like ‘yea, baby!’ I just pulled out and don’t think anybody was expecting it because nobody tried to block me. It was one, two, three, four going by. My teammate Mike Galati gave me some help in one and let me in.

“Andy was a little vulnerable on the restarts and the Porsche was just ready to go. On the long run, I think Andy had the strongest car. Brandon was doing everything right. He has a strong car, it’s a good package. I was just hoping it would break! On a long green, it would have probably come down to Andy harassing me and making it easier for Brandon. It didn’t work out that way.