A Le Mans-style P2 car has won in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship for the first time with Johannes van Overbeek and Ed Brown swapping tequila for champagne today at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

After scoring the pole yesterday with van Overbeek at the wheel, Brown was entrusted with the start and and settled into third as Michael Valiante’s Spirit of Daytona DP and Gustavo Yacaman fought a spirited battle at the front.

Brown pitted to hand over to van Overbeek after 30 minutes who began a dramatic charge through the field. After making the second of the team’s two scheduled stops, he hunted down Joao Barbosa and Jordan Taylor – beginning the chase with 44 minutes remaining.

The ESM star pulled off the race winning pass with 19 minutes remaining to post his and Brown’s first ever overall victory.

“It’ll probably soak in in a week or so. We’ve worked really hard and my team mates have worked really hard,” Brown said.

“For me its really about having the confidence, I felt really good coming out of qualifying yesterday knowing that I had the fastest guy on the track racing with me. I knew if I just settled in I’d be ok.

“We really over-analyzed the start and finally I just said listen I’m just gonna hit the throttle as hard as I can and whatever happens in turn two happens. The instincts will take over and I’ll go.

“Once that sinks in I’ll try to keep the guys behind me. I’m really thrilled to be here. I’ve said from the standpoint from day one, that we feel like we have one of the best teams in the paddock and we put a lot of hard things on them. From changing from the GT class to the LMP2 car in the last minute and changing the tire compounds, the team has really just done everything. And they asked if maybe we keep the open tops for a bit as a backup while we have the coupe, just for a bit. I said no.”

Jordan and Ricky Taylor took second at the checkered flag with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in third.