Welcome back to a new season and to my first Driver's Diary for Mathiasen Motorsports.These have become something of a team tradition, and I'mhappy to continue bringing you impressions direct from the cockpit as we compete for the Atlantic championship. Long Beach just has this amazing vibe and excitement. As soon as you get to the track, the size and atmosphere of this temporary street course sucks you right in. There is so much history at this circuit and it is truly an overwhelming feeling to participate and add to the legacy of this event. For a course that is taken down and built back up every year, the organizers do an amazing job of putting all the walls back in exactly the same place. After our track walk on Thursday, the engineers and I felt very confident with the starting setup we had chosen for the Mathiasen Motorsports car. We knew that the American Le Mans cars getting a couple of hours of testing on Thursday afternoon would definitely have an effect on the car, and we designed our setup around that. The first qualifying session was great for us and it all went very smoothly. P1! Based upon the first morning's practice, we made quite a few small changes for qualifying and they were definitely big gains. I went straight to the top of the time sheets turning my best lap at 1:16.83 on lap 6, the only car under the 1:17 mark, and that held up for the remainder of the session. We actually went to our new tires pretty late and just as I was on a hot lap that felt even better than my pole time, the red flag came out while I was one turn away from crossing the timing line. This didn't change the Q1 results although it did end the session prematurely. Qualifying on the provisional pole in this series is so important for two reasons: first for the bonus point that's awarded, and also because it guarantees a front row start no matter what happens in the second qualifying session. Qualifying 2 proved to be the most difficult session for us over the entire weekend. The results were very close with over half the field now under the 1:17 mark, and we didn't secure the pole until very close to the end of the session. We did make a few changes in between practice and Q2 that in the end were not any better, so we were stuck to making the best of it but still managed to put up a best lap of 1:15.95 which put us on pole again. Alain Clarinval did an amazing job of compensating for the things we could not change in a short time and he was able to give me what I needed from the car in other ways. Having only tested with the team for two days before this race, we were definitely up against some tough competitors who have been developing their game over the whole winter. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment to give Mathiasen Motorsports their first Atlantic Championship pole, and my second since joining the series. For race day warm up, we restored some of the changes we'd made to the car from qualifying, and adding some additional very small tweeks to the setup made the session very inspiring for me. Even with a full fuel load, the car felt really balanced and very comfortable. We again turned the fastest lap of the session and I knew then that we had a car that could win. My strategy for the race starting from the pole was simple. Get a good start, develop a gap, and then save the tires if a full course yellow came out. Gridding the 23 cars for the race was a crazy scene with media everywhere on the grid taking pictures and doing interviews, and so many people stopping to wish me good luck and say Hi. From a driver's standpoint it's always very nice to get so much attention, but once you're belted in and ready to go racing that really is your last chance to meditate about the race and to gather your thoughts. They must have had been good thoughts as I got a decent start and maintained my line close to the inside wall as I led the field down to turn 1. I felt a very slight nudge from the rear and later learned Carl Skerlong starting from third had hit my left rear tire with the nose of his car, which fortunately didn't lead to a puncture. I came out of turn 1 in the lead and from there I just put my head down and consistently pulled away by a couple tenths a lap. By lap 23 I was exactly on race strategy as I had built a seven second gap on the rest of the field and was saving the tires just in case of a full course yellow. And that was the point where our race fell apart. I was heading down into the braking zone for turn 1 again, went to the brakes hard and tried to make my first downshift. Suddenly, I couldn't get anything and this was starting to get bad fast as I was fighting to get the car into gear. Still scrambling, I approached my turn in point for the corner but the car got loose which forced me to take the runoff lane and turn around instead of collecting the outside Turn 1 barriers. Eventually I was able to rejoin the field down in fifth and from there I had to adjust my driving to make sure I was braking early for the multiple downshift corners so that I could find the right gear in time. Not the fastest approach but I persevered for the balance of the race, eventually bringing the #26 car home in fifth place. Ultimately, I was very disappointed with the end result as we were clearly the car to beat all weekend and were dominating the race. Could it have been worse? Yes. We still came away with two bonus points for earning the pole positions, plus fifth place points to open our championship account. Overall, I am extremely pleased and impressed with the performance of the Mathiasen Motorsports team. Long Beach served notice that we are going to be major players in the Atlantic championship this year and that we will be competing for race wins. The car's balance and setup for this first race was so perfect that I could put it wherever I wanted to and as race cars go, it was actually almost easy to drive. My hat's off to the whole team and I want to thank them for their efforts. They're a real pleasure to work with. Leaving the streets of Long Beach, the team and I are more motivated than ever to be consistent finishers at the top of the charts. Having four weeks off until the next event will give us plenty of time to start working and preparing for round two at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and to get ready for another shot at accomplishing what we were so close to doing in our first race together. Winning. Photo: Augie Hermenegildo, Mathiasen Motorsports