The Long Beach Grand Prix is a home race for Pat Long but the Californian has an extra important role this weekend – he is the only one of four Porsche North America drivers with Long Beach experience and he is also playing host for two of his teammates.

The Porsche squad has taken the opening two wins of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and in preparation for this weekend’s third round, Michael Christensen and Richard Leitz have enlisted Long as their Californian tour guide.

It has been a busy week for Long, yesterday appearing at the annual Long Beach Grand Prix media conference in preparation for this weekend’s action.

“My three teammates haven’t raced here but the simulators these days are so good that I had to go and get one this week to make sure I was brushed up and ready for the race because those guys have been putting in plenty of miles,” Long said.

“Michael (Christensen) and Richard (Leitz) asked me what I could advise them on and I just said it is such a tricky timetable. We go out first thing on Friday morning and the track changes quickly and then we basically see the track a day later and it is completely different.

“The guys have been in town this week and they are typical car guys – they have wanted to see cars from every different walk of life – Hollywood wasn’t on the agenda. The one time we did trek downtown we saw the Lakers game on Tuesday night.

“We also got some good paddle boarding  as well.”