Level 5 Motorsports Continues History-Making Quest at Long Beach

After a history-making win the American Le Mans Series season-opening event, Level 5 Motorsports' quest for a championship in the inaugural LMP Challenge continues this weekend in Long Beach, California. The team will field two Microsoft Office 2010-sponsored LMPC entries in one of North America's premier street races.

Level 5 Motorsports -- which will field cars for Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Ryan Hunter-Reay -- is carrying the momentum from their dominating performance last month in the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring. That event saw its No. 55 ORECA FLM09 prototype -- with Tucker, Bouchut and Mark Wilkins behind the wheel -- cruise to a 16-lap victory.

Tucker and Bouchut will drive the No. 55 ORECA FLM09 again this weekend, with Tucker performing double-duty in the second entry with Hunter-Reay. Given the quality of the driver line-up and the proven success of the cars, both should be considered favorites this weekend.

"We had such an outstanding run at Sebring, and we were so proud of their effort the entire team gave there," Tucker said. "The drivers, the team; everybody was on top of their game. We don't expect things to change at Long Beach. We've got a great driver lineup, and we know we'll have very well-prepared cars for this race. This race holds a lot of prestige, and we would certainly like to win our second straight to open the season."

Tucker has enjoyed a great deal of success behind the wheel in recent weeks. In addition to being part of the winning team at Sebring, he also drove to victory in the Ferrari Challenge Series last weekend at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah.

"Winning is contagious," Tucker said. "We're hoping it stays contagious this weekend in Long Beach." Hunter-Reay will have a busy weekend in Long Beach. After driving the No. 95 ORECA FLM09 for Level 5 Motorsports on Saturday, he will get behind the wheel of his Dallara for Andretti Autosport for Sunday's IZOD IndyCar Series race. He will be the first driver to run both series on the same weekend since Ryan Briscoe pulled double duty for Penske Racing at Belle Isle in 2008.

"This year, I've been driving with Level 5 quite a bit. It's a great team, and the opportunity really presented itself where I could do both of these races," Hunter-Reay said. "Both teams have been pretty cooperative in letting me drive both cars. It shows how much faith they have in my abilities."

A 20-minute qualifying SESSION for the LMPC cars is set for Friday at 6:10 p.m. PT. The green flag will wave on the 1 hour, 40-minute race Saturday beginning at 4:40 p.m. PT. National broadcast television coverage will be featured on SPEED channel, which will carry the race on a tape-delayed basis beginning at 5 p.m. PT Saturday.

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