Long Beach: Autohaus race report

Archer and Mopar Viper Finish Eighth at Long Beach
Pearson 18th, Robbins 26th

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 15, 2007 -- Tommy Archer drove the ailing Autohaus Mopar Viper to an eighth place finish this afternoon in the second round of the SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Series at Long Beach. Brett Pearson came home in 18th and Jeffrey Robbins had a late race incident ending his day early.

Archer went away from the standing start from the fifth row. The Duluth, Minnesota resident took over the eighth position on lap one and held station up to the first caution. On the restart Archer was hit from behind by a Corvette which resulted in the toe being knocked out on the left rear wheel. This caused the Mopar Viper to be a handful the remaining 24 of 29 laps.

"I had a pretty good start, I was careful not to get caught up in any action in turn-one," Archer said. "I was running good in the early laps and settling in, and then the caution came. On the restart I was hit by the Corvette in the left rear and that knocked the car out of alignment. From then on it was a real challenge to keep the car off of the wall and try to maintain a decent position for the finish."

Brett Pearson was able to move-up from his 23rd qualifying position to place his No. 7 Autohaus Pearson Motorsports Ventex Viper in 18th. Pearson had to navigate the annual Long Beach turn-one drama at the start.

"It was tough out there today," Pearson explained. "On the start I was right in the thick of it, then came up on turn-one and had to come to a complete stop. Once we got going I had a brush with the car in front of me in the fountain turn. I was able to get with the pace and run fast and consistent lap times. Toward the end of the race my brake pedal started to go soft, so that didn't help me to make up positions on the last restart."

Jeffrey Robbins lost braking on his No. 6 Autohaus RSIG Security Viper and ended his day nose first into the turn-one wall on lap 21.

"I was pumping the brakes on the car for most of the race," Robbins said. "At the start everything looked good until we arrived at turn-one and it was a parking lot. I was able to get through and even made up a position or two. A couple of laps later I got hit in turn 10 and spun around. Toward the end the pedal was real soft and I lost braking going into turn-one and ended up in the wall, a tough end to the day."

-credit: am