(April 17, 2010) — New Jersey drivers Bryce Miller (Summit) and John McMullen (Spring Lake) paced Orbit to a fifth-place GTC finish in the American Le Mans Series race on the streets of Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday. The race was the first GTC entry for the team and the first time the drivers have raced on the tough 1.968-mile street circuit.
Miller qualified the No. 48 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car seventh on the 10-car GTC grid, but the team moved up one position when the class pole-sitter’s qualifying time was disallowed. McMullen started the race, dropping back a few positions early in his stint, then regaining two places to seventh in class. Miller took the wheel after 57 minutes of the 100-minute race, set the second-fastest GTC lap of the race and picked up two more positions to finish fifth.
“I’m really pumped for the team,” Miller said. “We have a points deficit because we weren’t able to make Sebring [the first race of the season], so to come here, have a good solid top-five finish and collect the points is excellent. John did a great job in our first-ever GTC rollout and so did the team. I think we’re all looking to go from strength to strength here. This is the just the beginning – get the ball rolling and start looking forward to the next events and the championship.
“It was really fun! It reminds me of when I was a kid, street-racing,” McMullen said. “I made a couple of small mistakes and tried to make up for them, and we moved up a couple of spots. The car is in one piece and Bryce did a great job, so I’m happy. I think we’re moving in the right direction, definitely heading forward. It was a lot of fun.”
The next ALMS race will be a six-hour endurance event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif., on May 22.
partners
Bryce Miller competes with the support of three 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. 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.
John McMullen is supported by Bergen County Auto Group, auto wholesalers and purveyors of fine classic and muscle cars, and by Macha Racing precision parts and products.
– www.orbitracing.com, www.brycemiller.net –
