(July 11, 2010) — Luke Hines (Essex, England), Bryce Miller (Summit, N.J.) and Orbit had mixed fortunes during the American Le Mans Series race at Miller Motorsport Park in Tooele, Utah, on Sunday. Their No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup set a GTC class record and Hines led the class twice. But a fuel pickup problem kept the team from a podium finish.
Hines started from second on the GTC grid and moved quickly to the class lead on the first lap. He held the lead until he pitted for fuel during the second caution period. He returned to the track sixth, lost a position serving a penalty for a pit infraction, but regained the GTC lead at the one-hour mark. Miller took the wheel at 1h11 and returned to the track eighth in class. He struggled with a fuel pickup problem, but set the fastest GTC lap time (1:54.434) and regained three positions to finish fifth.
Hines: “I had a good stint. We had a bit of a race burst, then we got a penalty for an extra person fueling. I caught them all up and passed them again for first, then we had a few other problems with the car, so we had to come in a few more times. But Bryce had a really good stint – he got the outright fastest lap and I got the fastest lap in the first half of the race. So we covered the fastest car and we drove really hard. It’s still a new team, so there are always things we’ve got to work on.”
Miller: “I’m very proud of the team because the car scored the fastest lap and we deserve something for all of the hard work that we did this week. We came out Tuesday and worked through the promoter test days and it really paid off. That shows on the [lap] time – the performance of the car is there. But we still have a few growing pains as a team. Most of the hard part is done, so now we just need to clean up some nuances here and there, and I think we’ll be looking at a win very soon.”
race report
time driver action
start Hines
02m Hines GTC leader
17m Hines pit – fuel
26m Hines stop/go penalty – pit infraction
1h Hines GTC leader
1h11 change pit – Miller in, four tires, fuel
1h59 Miller pit – four tires, fuel
partners
Bryce Miller and Luke Hines compete with the support of four international sponsors. Marquis Jet is the recognized leader in private jet cards because it’s the only program that offers exclusive access to NetJets – the gold standard in private aviation – 25 hours at a time. Grand Prix Racewear is a respected supplier of motorsport protective clothing and driver accessories, based at Silverstone Circuit in England. The company offers worldwide delivery of 15,000 product lines. IPC Information Systems is a leading provider of mission-critical communications solutions to financial services firms. TOTAL Lubricants is the world’s fourth-largest publicly traded integrated international oil and gas company.
– www.orbitracing.com, www.brycemiller.net, www.lukehinesracing.com –
