The last two races have shown that Highcroft Racing and Acura are a force in the American Le Mans Series, as two fourth places in class and an overall pole highlights the progress we have made as a team since the start of the programme.
Long Beach was a bit of a struggle for us as we had never been there before and only had 45 minutes to learn the track and get the car working. Stefan qualified the car fourth in class, and fifth overall, which was really good considering. We made some changes between the sessions and it seemed that we were making some progress.
At the start, we struggled to get the tyres up to temperature and seemed to fall behind the other cars in the opening laps. Then, a yellow came out at 24 minutes, but we could only change drivers after 30, so it was quite funny as we got Stefan to hold up the pack as we waited for the 30 minutes to come. He had to stop the car right on the entry to the pits, and had all the car behind him trying to get in!
As he pitted, I jumped in to do the rest of the race, coming out of the pits to catch up to the pack only to find that they went green before I could get there. I started pushing, but had a big spin. Luckily, I didn't hit anything, but I did lose a place to Andy Wallace in the process.
Like Stefan, I found that the car wasn't easy on cold tyres and it took some time to get going. When I did, the car was running as fast as the leaders, although I was still learning the track, searching for the grip levels. I was asked to save fuel with about 15 laps to go, as it was going to be touch-and-go whether we would make it, and it seems that my years of experience came good as, on the last two laps, AGR and Fernandez both had to pit for fuel. Fernandez didn't even make it, so I jumped up to fourth at the finish, which was better than we thought we would get.
I felt sorry for AGR, as they had a really fast car, with Dario on the pole and speed in the race good for an overall race win. They didn't pit under the only yellow we had and lost a lap under green.
Still, for Highcroft, it was another solid result as we headed to Houston for the second of back-to-back race weekends.
I came to Texas felling pretty confident that we could do well, as the track was going to suit us a bit more. I went out first and was quickest straight away, so that was good. We stayed in the top four in all sessions, so I was feeling pretty good about qualifying. I went out and put some times down, and was third overall, second in class. I then came back to the pit as I need the front of the car to work a little better, and the team made a couple of changes. When I went back out, it was better, and all I needed to do was put a good lap together.
![Highcroft Racing team owner, Duncan Dayton congratulates David Brabham on the team's overall pole win at the Lone Star Grand Prix in Houston [Pic credit: Highcroft Racing]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/312790.jpg)
