Long Beach, CA --- Tomy Drissi was released from St. Mary’s Medical Center after a two night observation and recuperative stay, and a diagnosis of a broken vertebra, but his spirits were lifted the night before when his co-driver and Autocon team owner Michael Lewis delivered a 3rd place P1 trophy to his bedside.

“Tomy and I have a long history together at Long Beach, and we were really looking forward to doing well this weekend. I wish Tomy could have shared with me the celebration on the podium. Instead we popped the bubbly in the hospital,” joked Lewis, who has co-driven with Drissi and raced with him dating back to the 1990s.

Drissi’s trip to the hospital was precipitated by a stuck throttle in turn two in his “What Happens in Vegas” movie World Speed Challenge entry. The car impacted the concrete barrier hard enough to split it, and push the barrier into two corner workers who needed medical attention as well. Observers called it a very big hit. Drissi will need a back brace for 4-6 weeks, and doctors say he should be in good shape from there.

Autocon regular Chris McMurry flew in late Friday evening from Phoenix to sub for Drissi. “I was eating hot dogs at about 6:45 p.m. with my kids at their school event when Mike called. He asked if I wanted to drive, and my answer only took a millisecond to determine. Of course I want to drive! And fortunately it is only an hour’s flight, so I was able to get into Long Beach around midnight.”

Because of the driver change, or more specifically that McMurry would start the race having not scored any official practice laps for the race weekend, the rules required that Autocon’s #12 had to start from the back of the grid, even though Lewis had qualified the JeanRichard-sponsored Creation/Judd 14th out of 28 cars.

“Mike had a great opening stint. I thought it was one of his best drives since we started racing together in 2006,” said McMurry of his co-driver who passed the timing and scoring line regularly recording lap times better than his qualifying time. Lewis moved Autocon from 28th to 13th during his stint, and the team finished 16th overall after ts one pitstop was complicated by clutch problems. In the final analysis, Autocon was the big mover for the race at +12 positions.

“We really appreciated Chris dropping everything to come over. He knows the car, and has raced in Long Beach, so we knew he would do a fine job without any pre-race seat time, and he did,” said Lewis. And fine job they did, finishing 3rd in the P1 class behind the two manufacturer’s Audi entries that finished 1st and 2nd overall.

“I was bummed that I didn’t get to join Mike on the podium, but I had to run back to the airport because I had prior commitments in Phoneix that I needed to attend. As it turns out, it was sort of poetic that Mike was on the podium by himself … the other slot belonging to Tomy,” added McMurry.

Autocon now turns its attention to further preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in mid June. Bryan Willman will join Lewis and McMurry at the classic. For Lewis it will be his first go at the Circuit de la Sarthe, while Willman and McMurry drove there in 2003 with Team Bucknum Racing. The team plans to return to the American Le Mans Series schedule at the earliest with round six at the Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio.