LONG WAY HOME
Karting's Pat Long, Living the Dream
Photos: Porsche AG, Rick Dole & Go Racing
Go: Your family is well known for their St. Patrick’s Day festivities, how was this year’s party?
Pat: A lot tamer then last year and we’ll just leave it at that.
Go: Every time you win a race is it Saint Patrick’s Day?
Pat: They try that, but everybody is pretty respectable of the venue and knows what is acceptable. The social scene is still pretty tight with uncle Pat, Everett Giebler, my dad, and all the rest of the karters. Long Beach has really turned into a home race for me for the last three years. It’s a big one for my dad and I get to see everyone. This year I saw Phil and Everett and all sorts of old karting faces, it was cool.
Go: Would you say that it is “Pat Long Beach”?
Pat: I tried to do that with my antics on track, but we need to get on the top step of the podium before we can call it that.
Go: It ruined a perfectly good headline for me; I was really cheering you on for my own selfish headline reasons.
Pat: It’s like they tell us in racing sports psychology. You judge your own performance and not the outcome of the race, because there are so many unknown factors that are out of your control. It seems like the stars have aligned ever since I drove the track in 06. I’ve been there the last three years in different cars and ever since I hit the track it has been a special event for me. I get extra charged up with it being a home event. I think man; I’m racing at the Long Beach Grand Prix. The place I grew up idolizing my past CART heroes of the day and being up to no good with my karting buddies sneaking into the pits and all the rest. It is special to have everybody there friends and family wise and to see so many familiar faces. It is the first place that I have ever really felt the home court advantage with my own game. It gives me a little extra fire and I think that is where my good start stemmed from and that momentum carried on through the first half of the race.
Go: It was a great start to the race, but it has to be hard for you living in so many different places around the world to have the advantage somewhere has got to be pretty cool.
Pat: It is hard to draw off of one place, but I still feel like a So-Cal boy even though I haven’t been there for a while, it is definitely home because of the people. I’m finding it better on the East Coast right now. In saying that I’ve only been here about a year and a half. I loved England for the first two years but by the end of the 3rd I wanted to get the heck back to California. Maybe that will be the same here, but so far so good. It is a good avenue for training and I find myself being acclimated to the heat and humidity and a lot less travel. 04, 05, 06 I commuted from So Cal to the east coast, as many karters do as well. As you know you sit on the plane all day Wednesday then have to be at the track at 6am Thursday, which is 3am at home. I felt like I was just going on a bad trip, for lack of a better expression. Being on the east I can make it most places with 2 hours of flight time and be home Sunday night instead of spending all day Wednesday and all day Monday trying to get to where I need to be. Plus, there are a lot of teams based down here now with Charlotte being second to Indy in popularity. It makes early season testing a lot easier and extends my week at home. There’s a good circle of drivers here and in the St. Pete area as well as Miami. I’ve heard of some wild karting nights down at Moroso, but I haven’t been able to do much of that because of time. I still have full support from SSC and SSC East so for them to give me a kart where ever I’m living is pretty cool. I need to get more active in karting and I hear there is a track out where I live, I think Batos built it or the Cape brothers, you know anything abut that?
Go: No I don’t, I don’t make it to Florida too much. There is so much karting going on in that region that it wouldn’t surprise me if either or both of those parties had a track and I just hadn’t heard about it.
Pat: I heard it was a place to test their Formula Fords out of garages and that it was a good kart track too, with garages. That’s what I need, a garage. The tough part is trailer’ing stuff in and out and having the right tools.
Go: Really, you cant fit a kart in the back of your 914 or Carrera GT?
Pat: They have roof racks in Europe. Have you seen those guys? The have a Fiat 500 and a roof rack with a 125 actually sitting on top of their car. It is pretty sweet, but I haven’t found one to fit my Cyanne yet.
Go: So your not driving an Audi diesel?
Pat: No, no diesel in the Porsche family yet, well not directly. I’m driving a naturally aspirated family wagon, but it is pretty stout. It is the new GTS. I was doing this test drive show with Tommy Kendall and we had the thing at Laguna and just pounded it all day driving it literally at braking markers that would put you on the front row for a Koni Challenge race, and the thing is 5000lbs. It was awesome, it is pretty set up and I’m humbled to have one in my driveway.
Go: They are not wrong when they say, “there is no substitute”.
Pat: It’s cool and a great perk for sure.
Go: Much better then racing for Specialized bikes and having to ride everywhere.
Pat: Definitely, but riding a bike for a living wouldn’t be a bad job either. It could be worse if I race for like…KIA. As it is I get plenty of funny looks at the fuel station when my current car is a 911. People stare and look and comment on how I have daddy’s toy out for the night. I just play along telling them how nice it is to be rich and spoiled, how could you ask for anything more.
Go: To just touch back on Long Beach real quick. It was a pretty historic weekend. Not in your series directly, but since you did race against Danica in karts. What do you think about her finally getting her first win?
Pat: It’s good for her and the sport. Anything you can do in North American racing, other then NASCAR to be on the real sporting radar is a task in itself. Racing is as much about strategy and conserving as it is about just driving flat out like you would on a road course like Long Beach. She is deserving and it is good for the sport. We both know from the karting days that she has as much talent as anyone out there.
Go: She might have been elevated to the position she’s in quicker than that of male counterparts, but she’s been IRL racing now for long enough to have the experience. Plus a win is a win, end of story. It’s crap that guys are whining about her only winning because of fuel mileage, but last time I checked that was all part of racing.
Pat: It is racing, and motorsports is 9/10ths about opportunity. Once you get to that point it becomes about performing, especially when you are high profile like she is. This sport is difficult to excel in, partly because it is so expensive. There aren’t enough seats for all the people who have the talent, and that is an unfortunate part about all business. She is doing her job, but what I saw post race is the kind of stuff I like to see. She was candid and honest, she admitted that it was a long time coming, and it was a huge relief. That’s the kind of stuff that I like to see, drivers should open up and be honest, not just spout off answers off a tape recorder. Her winning was a good thing.
Go: Certainly a good thing for all motorsports. Prototype and Sportscar has been growing over the last few years and I’m sure the Danica fever even has a trickle down effect even in your series.
Pat: For sure. It’s all good. The more momentum there is behind it the better, especially with the IndyCar series coming together and becoming more of a road race series again. All that is just great for the competitive road-racing scene.
Go: What does your series have that sets it apart from other series?
Pat: Manufacturer involvement. You have such a diverse group of manufacturers that have different things they are working on to develop into their road car technology. It gives them a way to promote all their latest stuff. You have alternate fuels and cleaner burning fuel technology. Green is cool right now and that’s something that’s good to give back, but also to use a venue like motorsport that is almost contradictory to the environment to excel the technology to the thing we do most of the time, sit in traffic on the freeways in our daily drives. If you look back to the best days of CART, they had manufacturers behind it. Mercedes, Honda, Ford, Toyota, everybody was there and that’s what we need more of in some of the other circles. That’s the trick in sportscar racing and that’s where you get paid drivers.
Go: You mean people actually get paid to race? Who knew? Racing on other people’s money is certainly the best way to do it, especially when that person is “the captain” Roger Penske. Dude, Penske, how cool are you racing for Penske?
Pat: More like how cool is he? That’s the part that is trick. The guy has been around forever and we’ve all seen his greatness. Waking up early on Memorial Day weekend and tuning into the 500. To have him on the radio with me, calling the strategy in what sometimes is a war zone of racing on a street course with four classes running is humbling, it’s honoring but it’s also just fun. The guy is fired up and wants to win. He’s a hands on guy, he knows the name of everyone on the team and knows where all three of his organizations are racing and usually is at all three events somehow. He sits on all these boards of huge companies and also has three highly successful race teams. He is a sportscar guy, he raced at Lemans himself, so he’s into it and it pumps everybody up when he rolls in. It’s cool working with him.
Go: How many series are you running right now?
Pat: I’m only full time in the AMLS, I’ve been to the first three of the Grand Am series and I will do the 24 Hours of Spa and the Lemans 24 Hours as stand alone events.
Go: You just get pimped out to other series, or wherever you can, or is there a strategy on where/who you will be racing with for the season?
Pat: It is a little of all those things. Basically we are factory drivers based out of Germany, roughly ten of us, maybe a few more this year. They give us our yearly main championship, or championships if it fits on the calendar. All the big endurance races also fit into that calendar. Outside of that if we have a free weekend and there is a team that wants you to race, you have that freedom to do so. With all the levels of racing that Porsche is involved with a driver in my position could literally race every weekend. Probably test, coach, run clinics, you could be in the car everyday of the week. That’s a real advantage for me, it gives me a lot of freedom where some of the other manufacturer drivers have exclusives and drive anything but that they are employed by and there might not be a GTO running every weekend. Right now some of my teammates run their 12-14 races a year and the rest of the time they are just enjoying life. I’m 26 and don’t have a family, and most of all I’m a racer, so most weekends I’m out driving something somewhere. Driving different types of cars keeps you sharp and keeps you diverse in your setups and strategies and how you might attack a race with different equipment. That’s what I’m doing right now, driving six or seven different types of Porsches with ten or so different teams. It’s wild but it is also a dream come true.
Go: Being a factory hired gun is a great position to be in. Not a bad gig at all, especially when you are teamed up with Penske on the full time championship hunt.
Pat: The Penske is real high profile and the ALMS is the pinnacle of sports car racing right now, and that’s the cool part. On a different level, and almost as cool is the Porsche enthusiasts that I meet from all over the world, especially here in the US. Porsche Club of America, and Porsche Owners Club all have huge, huge track days filled with fanatics. It’s a lot like karting; they all share that common passion and is the big social scene. Meeting all the people, and carrying the Porsche flag is cool, but I’m a realist and know that it won’t last forever. So, I’m going to strike while the iron is hot and go drive while I’m in demand. One day I will be begging to drive, so why not race while I have the chance.
Go: I think you might have a few good years left in you. You are one of the few karters who have made a successful transition from open wheel racing into the sports car ranks. You see guys out there still clinging on to the IRL/Champ Car dream and the few seats available. Is being one of the hottest young sports car racers in the paddock something that you had to do with no seats in open wheel, or was it something you planned all along?
Pat: More the first than the second, but I’ve always felt I needed to follow the manufacturer’s involvement. When all the manufacturers went to the IRL the drivers who went too made the right decision, I think. Look who came out ahead in the end? There are also a lot of people in sports car racing that do it for passion and not for a paycheck. They’ve been successful enough in their businesses that racing becomes their golf game. That is a big part of our economy and I realize that. I do a lot of coaching and teaming up with amateurs. That’s a cool element that helps strengthen our type of racing. When I was a Junior 2 driver hanging out in the Champ Car pits I listened and took advice from any driver or team owner that would give me five minutes of their time. I began to mold my goals around what they said and to align myself with the manufacturers. So when the potential came for me to test for a AAA Porsche team I had to take it seriously. Lemans was already in my mind since I’d been there and lived there with Phil Giebler while we were racing the Elf series. I knew how huge that race was and how big sports car racing really is around the world. All that was in the back of my mind and I was at a crossroad where I was trying to get to the Formula 3 or Atlantic level. I went to the test and did well. They sent me home to think about it, telling me that if I was ready to go down this road that they needed a full commitment to them. They didn’t want someone who was going to continue to chase the F1 open wheel dream. That was a lot to face at 21 seeing how everything had been aimed at single seaters and open wheel and the hype coming off the Red Bull challenge. I didn’t think I was willing to give up on that yet. I was all ready to go that way, but I called all those people who had given me the five minutes before. The fact that they were willing to put a factory name behind someone of my age that was unproven made it unanimous that I sign. It made my decision freer and easier. All the guys like Bobby, Danny Sullivan, and Bob Bondurant, all these guys that had helped me along the way reinforced that it was a great opportunity. Since I signed that first year I have never looked back and reconsidered what it would be like to do something else. I never think that I should have that guys ride because I beat him in Junior 2 at Jacksonville in 1994. Its never been like that. I’m racing, I get paid to race and I win races and that is the icing in the cake. It has been an awesome ride the last six years and one I started out not really being qualified for.
Go: So do you think guys like Auberlen, Fellows, Said, and O’Connell are just guys who are using racing as their golf game?
Pat: I think those guys are the ones proving that some of the best drivers in the world are in sports car racing and they have shown how to make a really good living and to make it last a long time. Those are the guys who have done it right in my opinion.
Go: You have any other guys in the paddock that you look up to or really want to beat?
Pat: Fellows is a guy that I really admire, he’s been successful in NASCAR, Trans Am and Sports Car. He has this humble way about him, is really personable and easy to approach and has been helpful to me. I look up to guys like him. Tom Kristensen is the modern day king of Sports Car racing, so I think that those two are guys I really admire. Pruett is another guy who is successful in anything he drives. These guys are doing it well into their 40’s. It’s not just work ethic and talent, but also fitness. They’re not 20 years old but they are physically fit. They make guys like myself train that much harder during the week and drive our asses off on the weekend to beat them.
Go: What do you do for training?
Pat: 80% cardio. The trainers we have in Germany to keep track of us expect us to be up to speed in running, figuratively and literally. So running is a big part of it, but I know my knees won’t last forever so since I’ve moved to Florida road bikes have become a big part of my training. We have some great trails here to keep us away from the cars.
Go: What kind of bike do you ride?
Pat: I have a Fuji right now, full carbon Dura-Ace set up, not the lightest or top of the line bike, but I’m working on some deals to get something else down the road.
Go: Are you a cycling fan too?
Pat: I’m getting into a little bit. I have a roommate here, Jan Heylen who was a karter in Belgium and ran Champ Car and he’s really into it, so I’ve been watching more and more, but I’m still a little green.
Go: Talk about team race strategy. There is certainly team orders in auto racing, but can you imagine that your only job is to go out and be Lance Armstrong’s bitch. That’s so hardcore, working for the one day that maybe; maybe, some guys will do the same for you.
Pat: Even on a simpler level, just take the ten guys who can win and figure their strategies of when to go and when to wait. It’s like the old night races at Perris, but ten times more difficult and strategic. The other thing I’ve come to understand more of since going on endurance rides is how much aerodynamics plays a part. If I had been a road bike guy back in my karting days I would have had the weirdest looking kart and the tightest suit you’ve ever seen. I think we all underestimated that and still do.
Go: I was reading up on a new dimpled water bottle for the bike. Compared to a traditional bottle mounted on the down tube and this dimpled one mounted on the seat tube it can shave 40 seconds off a 50k time trial when you average 30mph.
Pat: That’s nuts.
Go: I need to invent a dimpled nosepiece for the kart.
Pat: Dimple the whole kart and combo it with the leather suit from the Gary Hartman days.
Go: Speaking of Hartmundo, he was a great mentor to you in the karting day; do you have anyone like him that you use to lean on now? Or is it just a collection of people who you seek advice from?
Pat: There have been so many. Hartman is still a guy that I talk to on a regular basis. He isn’t on the karting scene anymore but he is still the biggest race fan. He always calls me with his latest wild idea. He is still a huge mentor to me, and has a lot to offer to my program and life in general.
Go: How’s Hartman doing?
Pat: Great, sober as a judge and spreading his love in taxi cabs all over Vegas. As you know Vegas has a diverse group of people who are willing to listen to ten minutes of his thought process. In that they get a huge value and he probably gets good tips for it.
Go: I always have to watch the Taxi Cab Confessions TV show to look for him. He would be perfect on it.
Pat: He would be perfect for it. That would blow their minds.
Go: One day a producer will get in his cab and it will launch a whole new show, Hartmundo’s Taxi Cab Confessions.
He will finally get his big break.
Go: What are some of your most favorable karting accomplishments? Some of these young punks might not know that you were a damn fine karter.
Pat: I don’t know, that’s a hard one to grab. I think the 1997-1998 Formula A days were the best. When Formula A was the class and I won the first 5 of 8 races in the WKA Constructors Cup. Only five counted and I had the championship locked up early. That was pretty hotly contested North American championship at the time and that is one I’m quite proud of. Winning over in Europe had to be my biggest accomplishment for the sheer fact that it was the thing we all talked about and dreamed of as kids, racing in Europe. When I crossed the finish line I was “ wow this is cool”. Winning the 1998 Winter Cup at Lonato, which had guys in the race that have now raced or are still racing in F1, makes it special still today. It was a great time to be with CRG, guys that I looked up to like Menetti, and Rossi were dominating, Region 7 when I raced it from 1990-1997 was probably the most competitive racing. IKF was the place to be and the best show in town. It was pretty cool running with some of those kids and seeing them still today. Some still karting and others like Buddy Rice at the top of the food chain. Those are the days that no one can take away. I still try to get out to the track when I can, especially in California. Certainly the best days of my karting career were in So Cal, and going to the Mid West for the nations were some of the best summers ever.
Go: Did you win any IKF Duffies?
Pat: I got my first Duffy in 1992 at Adams in Junior 1, then my second at the 1995 Portland race in Jr. Piston Port. I also won Formula A in Marshalltown at the crossover event. It wasn’t for a Duffy, but it was at the Grand Nationals in 97.
Go: Speaking of the five wins in Constructors Cup, that six race in Norway Illinois, although a loss for you was an epic event that I can still see clearly today.
Pat: That was fun. It was almost a relief to be beat. I felt that I had this scowl from everyone in the paddock, they were just over seeing me win. My kart was so hooked up and I was as confident as I’ve ever been. That combination was hard to beat, but with any kind of dominance in racing, you want to root for someone else. Funny story, later on we found out that the power jet had backed out and I didn’t understand at the time why I slowed down so much and was off pace. Still it came down to the last lap, and I just bonsai’d inside. I had nothing to lose and it was a lot of fun. It was also cool for Keith Freiber and the Margay bunch to get the first win to knock me off the step. Great that it was an American kart and hard-core karting guys were able to win as the underdog and beat the big euro team.
Go: Going to kart races all the time, I’m the first one to tell you that I get sick of seeing the same guys win all the time. Yeah Pat won again, wow Darren Elliott won again, thrill a minute. It was spectacular to see Margay, the underdog, win that race with a kid named Trophie driving. It’s hard to think of Margay as being underdogs since they are so popular here in America, but they were compared to the powerhouse that is CRG. That race coming down to the last lap and almost the last corner was epic.
Pat: All those days were great. Kids call me today and ask for advice or ask about how karting was and it’s difficult to explain how Formula A was then. Everyone has their own era of racing that they love but to be a part of with guys like Aaron Justus, Jeremy Drew and that one guy who drove with gardening gloves on at Adams, Steve something. He was sooo fast and I remember watching as a Junior driver thinking these guys are the best. Formula A started out in So-Cal because of guys like Lloyd Mack, Everett Giebler, Bruncati and my dad before it went really national. It was something we dreamed about racing so we could go over in the summer and race the Europeans. That might be missing in modern karting, although ICC and ICA are close. Formula A was a great training ground and I was so glad when I was finally old enough to race against the best guys in the states and to go to Europe. Over there I would just look around and see Orcini and Mennetti then they knock you off the track, but it’s still cool because you are racing with your heroes.
Go: The Steve guy you were thinking of. Would it be Steve Rousseau maybe?
Pat: He was awesome too, so smooth in the seat. The guy I was thinking of had dark hair and a mustache, super lean. Had a deal with Lansing wheels on a CRG I think, then maybe a PCR. I saw him out at Irwindale a few years ago.
Go: Billy Cleavelin.
Pat: That’s him.
Go: He’s racing Masters Tag now with Manning I think.
Pat: That’s who he used to race for. That guy is bad ass. Guys like the Johnson brothers and Jerry Henderson beating and banging on people. They were/are so rad. They raced because that’s what mattered to them and it wasn’t about anything else. That’s why I race, I get to do it in a cool venue, but we all are doing it for the same reason. I know when the well is dry I will be right back out there running Masters Tag with them.
Go: Joe Ramos gave me a kart to race a few months back out at a Gatorz race. I hadn’t ran a kart since 1998 and it worked me over. I was stuck in International, but wishing I was in Masters.
Pat: SSC, there is a story. My dad, Ramos, Tininni and Ryan from KRC all sat down at Charlotte in 97 for dinner and talked about bringing SSC and CRG together. How the dealer network with Cycle Barn could help promote karting to new people. They provided me the opportunity to go over to Europe and live. Not just a summer, but live and race there as an American. They were all such a part of my development as a driver. SSC, CRG and Joe Ramos deserve a shout out for that. I feel that they helped bring karting up to another level, more mainstream level. Whether that’s good or bad they still deserve the blame or credit for bring karting to a more business level.
Go: They have been influential in shaping karting over the last ten years for sure.
Pat: They were really the first to introduce the turn key kart to the people but putting them in motorcycle shops. You didn’t need to know how to mount a wet clutch on a KT100 just get in it and go. Their dream I think is a lot of peoples dream, to make karting like quads, where every fifth house has one in their garage.
Go: They did elevate karting, or at least the perception of karting. At the time we really only had JM Racing and Tony Kart as a European influence and the addition of CRG as a player into our little So-Cal market was amazing. Most of us were still running Bug, or Emmicks.
Pat: I still wish there was that. A class where they can still run those chassis. What is your take on why the sport is what it is right now. All the abundance on money and lack of control?
Go: I think the amount of money it costs plays a big part in things. Since karting has become a pivotal role in driver development lately you see more people getting into the sport for advancement, and not just for the fun of it. I was guilty of plenty as a karter. I wasn’t happy just running at So Cal Sprinters. I wanted to race with Region 7 guys who were better then I was. Then it escalated to running Constructors so I could race against the best in the country. I couldn’t win at that level, but I was much happier getting beat by national caliber drivers then having casual fun at the club scene. Now, for every one Johnson brother that races for the love of the game there are 20 kids who think they are the next Tony Stewart. Their parents believe it too and it almost seems like it is part of their retirement planning. You can still race the clubs for a reasonable price on decent equipment, but even there you have these huge motor homes looming over your rented U-Haul trailer. With the economy taking a decline and gas prices so high I think we will continue to see a drop of participation at the upper ranks for the sport, but the clubs should still flourish. LAKC is pulling 120 something drivers, so the people are still here, just not all of them are running series like Stars. The mentality of being a club racer isn’t there as much, people have bigger dreams and expectations.
Pat: I like seeing the classes like Tag, where the racing is close with spec packages. I didn’t get the Shifter Kart thing just past my era where you had 10 grand into a Honda. It was out of control.
Go: It’s so weird to think of the Scott Speed/AJ Allmendinger era as being after you. You are so young. You look at the guys who came through in your time, the Gieblers, the Barrons, Danica, Rice, all these people. It’s peculiar to think of Scott having his prime karting days after you had already moved on, and your only 26.
Pat: I know it’s pretty wild. Somehow it all changed. You look at karters resumes now and last year they won 17 national championships. What the hell? How many nationals are there in one year? It used to be one Junior 1 class and one Junior 2 class and the guy who won the race the freaking man. He would have to go run speedway or enduro to get another Duffy that year. Now it seems like all the series just give out national championships. Kids today have four or five chances at winning a Duffy at each event. What is going on with that?
Go: I know. I hate to really compliment the euros on anything, but they really know what they are doing with a limited number of classes. They had something like 160 drivers enter KF1 at the Winter Cup this year. That’s the way to do it, one class with 60 instead of ten with only six. You only need three drivers entered to win a Duffy. It should be 30 or nothing.
Pat: Ridiculous for sure.
Go: Anything else you might want to add?
Pat: I’m stoked that you gave me the chance to tell a little bit about my story and talk about Region 7 and Constructors. I hope the new batch of kids get something from it. When my management called me about doing an interview I said to put you guys to the top of my list. Go Racing is where I came from, and I totally wanted to do something with you. I rely on Go Racing to keep track of the karting world and it’s super cool now that you have an online edition. It’s hard to keep track of all the new kids in karting and Formula 3. I need to so I know who it is that will be gunning for my job later on.