The Long Beach Grand Prix holds a special place on the calendar for IndyCar and IMSA as the Southern Californian street race brings the biggest crowds for both series outside of their crown jewels at Indianapolis and Sebring. The 49 th installment …
The Long Beach Grand Prix holds a special place on the calendar for IndyCar and IMSA as the Southern Californian street race brings the biggest crowds for both series outside of their crown jewels at Indianapolis and Sebring.
The 49th installment of the event lived up to expectations as the venue was overflowing with fans from Friday through Sunday, and according to its promoter, the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, “the preliminary report indicates that the weekend resulted in an attendance figure of about 194,000 which would be a record for the modern era (since the 2008 IndyCar – Champ Car series merger). And concession and merchandise numbers reflect a similar increase in sales as well. For the second consecutive year, reserved seats at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach were sold out.”
Along with the usual array of support series, the field of retro Indy cars organized the Historic Motor Sports Association that ran throughout the weekend only added to the reverie.
“The weekend turned out to be a very successful one, with great weather, competitive races and a variety of off-track activity which is what resulted in our record attendance,” said GPALB CEO Jim Michaelian. “After reviewing the operations of this year’s event, we will then turn our attention to the planning of the special activities associated with our 50th anniversary celebration next April 11-13, 2025.”
It was a clean sweep of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for Chip Ganassi Racing. Saturday’s 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race offered the factory Cadillac Racing hybrid GTP team run by Ganassi a chance to redeem itself after …
It was a clean sweep of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Saturday’s 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race offered the factory Cadillac Racing hybrid GTP team run by Ganassi a chance to redeem itself after a rough debut in 2023, when Sebastien Bourdais arrived at Turn 1 on the first lap with the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R sliding sideways against the outer wall. One year later, it was a masterful performance by Bourdais and teammate Renger van der Zande, and an equally impressive strategy call by the Cadillac Racing crew to skip changing tires, which saved time in the pits and promoted the No. 01 to the lead.
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A brutal start to the season for Ganassi’s IMSA squad, which will farewell the Cadillac program at the end of the year, made the Long Beach victory especially sweet, and with Scott Dixon repeating the feat on Sunday with the execution of a perfect strategy that delivered the IndyCar win with his No. 9 Honda, he reflected on the wonderful results for both of CGR’s camps.
“I’m probably more happy for the 01 guys to be honest,” Dixon said after claiming his 57th IndyCar victory. “They’ve had a bad run. It’s been frustrating with that side of the team. The fact that it’s a great group of people, I just don’t think they deserved the results they’ve had. Daytona was a bummer. I think it was ours to lose, and we did, through no fault of ours. Sebring, you couldn’t imagine anything worse. Leading a majority of the race; losing with four minutes to go. Having been a part of that team for quite some time and just seeing the ups and downs, the sadness that was there, that was huge. It was cool to see the strategy worked out.”
Just as Dixon used extreme fuel conservation to triumph over the field on Sunday, the choice to run the same set of Michelin tires for the entirety of the IMSA race was just as bold of a call.
“It was a little aggressive, but they got it done,” Dixon said. “Hopefully that gets a roll on for them, because they greatly deserve it. Chip, obviously he’s the team owner, but the people that work on that team have put in a lot of effort. It’s great to see them celebrating.”
Three seconds. Racing is always a game of seconds, but sometimes where those seconds happen makes the difference between winning and losing. In this case, those three seconds were on the respective out laps of the top two GTP finishers following pit …
Three seconds. Racing is always a game of seconds, but sometimes where those seconds happen makes the difference between winning and losing.
In this case, those three seconds were on the respective out laps of the top two GTP finishers following pit stops in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Sebastien Bourdais almost didn’t make it out in qualifying due to an issue with the hybrid system on his No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. With only five minutes and encountering traffic, the best he could do was third. Meanwhile Pipo Derani put the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R on pole. Bourdais pushed the car into second at the start, but he and Renger van der Zande would need to make something happen to win.
That something was to pit a lap after Derani handed the 31 over to Jack Aitken and took left-side tires. Not only that, but the 01 left the pits on the same — hot — tires it came in on. That gave the Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared 01 Cadillac track position thanks to an out-lap that was 3s quicker.
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With a softer tire for this year’s race, most teams felt that completing the race on a single set of Michelin tires was not in the cards. That was the trick Porsche Penske Motorsport used to win the race last year. But the CGR team saw something in the degradation and the data that they liked, and with Saturday morning dawning a bit cooler than expected, and the clouds hanging around a bit longer keeping track temperatures down, the play became more possible.
“It came from yesterday’s data,” explained Bourdais of the idea that eschewing fresh tires could work. “Obviously we really dreaded a lot of tire deg because it’s the softest of all the tires that there is in the Michelin panel. And yeah, it’s kind of weird, but the degradation was actually very little and the wear was almost nothing.
“When we saw that, combined with the fact that the sun kind of came through the clouds around noon-ish, track temperature was quite low compared to what we’re expecting. It was one of those where you’re like, ‘Well, you know, on the out-lap, if we change tires, it isn’t going to be so zoomy.’ Being second meant we had to try something to beat those guys. So overcutting them was the goal and doing no tires was the best way to maximize the speed on the out-lap, and that was about it.
“They only took two tires but it was the difference. It was definitely the right way to go and Renger made it stick. You obviously feel a lot smarter afterwards, and we were not entirely sure it was going to work. But that was the only way we were going to try and win this race.”
“Being second meant we had to try something to beat those guys. So overcutting them was the goal and doing no tires was the best way to maximize the speed on the out-lap,” Bourdais explained. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
The CGR team had also noticed that the Whelen squad had carried tires from FP1 into FP2. The Whelen squad had some information that the tire degradation was lower than expected, but it’s not a risk that the leading car would take in most circumstances.
“We had some good information from testing, especially FP2,” said Derani. “I think when you are out ahead, you tend to try and play a little bit safer because you have track position, and so that’s where you have your hands a bit tied compared to guys at the back who can just risk for something else to try to get ahead.
“For us it would have been a much greater risk for us to just try and do that. So I guess that’s where this race can flip upside down and in a blink of an eye, because it is so short. Obviously we knew more or less how long the tires lasted in practice, but it’s never fully representative of 100-percent, green flag laps … which again, you can’t predict in a race because this race had a lot of yellows, which meant that Renger had his tires better than they potentially could have been.
“In the end of the day, the position we were in did not allow us to make a risky move on on the tires and eventually, by not taking the risk, we end up finishing second, unfortunately.”
The No. 31 obviously had an edge in the grip department. But it wasn’t big enough for Aitken to exploit it.
“The way the softer tire seems to work here, it overheats fairly quickly and seems to live in that zone where it’s sliding and having a hard life, but never hits a cliff. Or at least we didn’t get enough green laps to get to that point where Renger was really without grip completely,” Aitken said.” For sure I had a grip advantage, but it wasn’t as much as I expected.”
Arguably, van der Zande had the tougher job of the two drivers in the No. 01, having to keep those tires under him for an hour, although two yellows during his stint certainly helped. So did being in front. But managing the tires was critical.
“Tires make a big difference — if you have fresher tires, you can really pull a gap, and if you don’t, and the guys behind you do, they stay close,” noted van der Zande. “Some of it was management because on a street circuit like this, it’s hard to overtake.
“So if you know where he could overtake you, that’s where you want to have a bit of a breather, but on the other corners you kind of keep him close and make sure you can keep your tires alive. How much was tire management and how much was controlling the race? I think it was really both of them.”
Hot tires led to a three-second better lap where it was most critical. And those three seconds produced victory.
Drivers and teams seemed to be in universal agreement that it couldn’t be done – that nobody could go the full race on a single set of tires as Porsche Penske Motorsports did last year to win in Long Beach. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing crew was of a …
Drivers and teams seemed to be in universal agreement that it couldn’t be done – that nobody could go the full race on a single set of tires as Porsche Penske Motorsports did last year to win in Long Beach. The No. 01 Cadillac Racing crew was of a different mind.
Aided by three full-course cautions in the 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, the No. 01 crew only added fuel when Sebastien Bourdais handed the Cadillac V-Series.R over to Renger van der Zande with an hour left in the race. Through a pair of restarts and a pileup in the hairpin, van der Zande held off Jack Aitken in the Whelen Cadillac Racing No. 31 V-Series.R to win the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It was the 66th IMSA victory for Chip Ganassi Racing, the 20th for van der Zande and 12th for Bourdais.
The No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus led the entire race from pole to claim the GT Daytona victory.
Polesitter Pipo Derani got the holeshot at the start as Bourdais slotted into second from his inside-second-row starting spot. Derani controlled the race at the front for the first half, and through the first full-course caution brought out when Brendan Iribe put the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 into the wall exiting Turn 5 and rebounded into the path of Adam Adelson’s Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, taking both cars out of the race.
Most of the GTP runners pitted around 30m into the race, giving them sufficient energy to make it to the end. Bourdais was the last of the bunch, after all the other cars had taken either four tires or left-side tires. Electing not to take tires as Bourdais exited and van der Zande entered moved the No. 01 out in front of the No. 31, a track position they would never relinquish.
“When we woke up this morning, it was quite cold,” explained van der Zande. “And the sun came out at one point and it started to warm up, so we really left it until the last minute to decide. I think that’s the best you can do in racing. If you plan a start or where to go at the start, it never turns out the same way. So in this case, as well, and with tires it’s something to make the decision right at the spot. They made the right choice for sure.”
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Of course, that meant that at the end of the race, van der Zande had much older tires under him than Aitken did since the No. 31 took left-side tires. Aitken said he could see van der Zande struggling, but Long Beach is a tough place to pass under any circumstances, and the difference in grip wasn’t great enough.
“It was a handful – especially easy to look up the fronts, which at a street track I think is the end of the race most of the time. So taking it easy. When I got in the car I knew I had to keep the tires alive. So keeping control of the race and just don’t over push it, don’t over drive those tires so I have some some rubber left at the end of the race, was the key for me to how I managed the tires and it worked out that way. And traffic got really hairy at one point because the Lamborghini and the Aston Martin were fighting into … I think it was Turn 8, and we almost wrecked right there. I think those yellows always help for tire degradation, so that was nice,” van der Zande added.
BMW M Team RLL had high hopes for a good finish after Nick Yelloly qualified the No. 25 M Hybrid V8 in second, only 0.009s off Derani’s pole. But it was one misfortune after another for Yelloly and De Phillippi, starting with getting passed by Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 10 minutes into the race for third position. It went downhill from there. The No. 25 hadn’t pitted as the second caution came out when Lous Deletraz put the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura into the wall in Turn 1, and ended up losing another position in the pit stop.
Chasing Nasr, De Phillippi tagged him in the back heading into Turn 9. The No. 25 suffered further damage to the nose in a pileup at the hairpin, started by Loris Spinelli in the No. 78 Forte Racing by USRT Lamborghini Huracan making contact with Mathieu Jaminet’s No. 6 PPM 963 and spinning the Porsche. After a nose change, De Phillippi buried the car into the tires at at Turn 6, bringing out the race’s third and final full-course caution with 16 minutes to go.
The No. 25 BMW’s troubles, along with the assisted spin for Jaminet, elevated the No. 7 PPM 963, giving third to Nasr and Dane Cameron. As a result, Cameron and Nasr took sole position of the points lead they had shared with the No. 40 WTRAndretti squad with 1082 points. Bourdais and van der Zande moved into second at 974, and Aitken and Derani are third, ahead of Jordan Taylor and Delétraz, with 955 points.
Jaminet and Tandy’s No. 6 Porsche was fourth, followed the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller and Gianmaria Bruni.
Vasser Sullivan Lexus came to Long Beach with another ace up their sleeve — a second GTD entry. Jake Galstad/Lumen
With GTD PRO sitting this one out in favor of Detroit next month, Vasser Sullivan Racing took the opportunity to do as it has in the past and run a second car in GTD. Splitting the two regular drivers in the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3, Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson, and pairing them with the GTD PRO drivers, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, respectively, the team doubled its chances. They locked out the front row, Thompson claiming his second pole of the season.
The No. 12 of Montecalvo and Hawksworth had a miserable race, with Montecalvo receiving a drive-through penalty for changing lanes at the start. Later, Hawksworth had contact with the wall, breaking the suspension and retiring the car. For the No. 89, though, it was smooth sailing, and Thompson took his second victory in the WeatherTech Championship (the first came as the endurance addition in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen in 2023), and Barnicoat a second consecutive Long Beach win after he and Hawksworth won GTD PRO last year.
“It’s tough when you know execution is the only thing between you and winning the race,” said Thompson. “There was a lot of pros that qualified, so I was up against a pretty tough field at the start but controlled the race from the start, got a good jump, got into Turn 1, handled a couple of restarts and just saved our Lexus RC F to make sure that Mr. Platinum himself beside me can bring it home. So it was good. It’s really cool that 89 … the message behind that is 1989 was the first time that Lexus came stateside to the U.S., so it’s awesome to honor them, get the win for them. Back to back at Long Beach is fantastic.”
Several of the would-be frontrunners in GTD struck trouble, such as Spencer Pumpelly in his Heart of Racing debut getting tagged and spun out of fourth place by Anders Fjordbach in Turn 6. The No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage Evo Pumpelly shared with Roman De Angelis had been having a good run to that point.
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The No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 had been having a solid race as well in the hands of Albert Costa Balboa, which continued with Manny Franco, but both drivers had minor incidents of contact that left the car struggling at the end. And winner of the first two races, Winward Racing, lost any hope at victory when they were issued a drive through for too many crew members over the wall.
At the end, it was a three-way battle between cars that had started well back in the field for second. The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 emerged in good position after the round of pit stops, and Robby Foley kept the car started by Patrick Gallagher in second.
Korthoff/Preston Motorsports had a rough start to their weekend, Mikael Grenier plastering the No. 32 Mercedes AMG into the wall in the first practice session and thus missing the second. With little practice, Grenier qualified the car in sixth and kept the car clean before handing over to Mike Skeen in fourth. Skeen benefitted from Pumpelly’s problems to get to third and proceeded to hound Foley, but could never get by.
The drive of the race, though, would likely go to the drivers that finished fourth. The No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 skipped qualifying to change an engine and started at the back. Sheena Monk moved up a few positions to 11th. After pit stops, Stevan McAleer, in his first stint as full-time partner to Monk, moved the car from 12th to fourth, and was on Skeen’s tail at the checker.
The No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 of Giammarco Levorato and Corey Lewis finished fifth, followed by Orey Fidany and Matthew Bell in the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Russell Ward and Philip Ellis retain the GTD points lead for Winward despite a seventh-place finish with 987 points. Gallagher and Foley moved into second with 802 and Thompson is third in the points at 792 as the series heads next to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 10-12.
Vasser Sullivan Racing locked out the front row of the GTDs with its two Lexus RC F GT3s and, perhaps obviously, polesitter Parker Thompson, sharing the No. 89 with Ben Barnicoat, thinks that’s a good thing. “It’s probably a big advantage,” he said. …
Vasser Sullivan Racing locked out the front row of the GTDs with its two Lexus RC F GT3s and, perhaps obviously, polesitter Parker Thompson, sharing the No. 89 with Ben Barnicoat, thinks that’s a good thing.
“It’s probably a big advantage,” he said. “Historically here at Long Beach, it’s not a split start – we start with the prototypes. And generally speaking, just because you’re on pole doesn’t mean you actually get the preferred run out of Turn 11 and down the front straightaway. We saw last year Jack Hawksworth, who was actually [starting] P2, he led into Turn 1 because he got a better jump with his prototype line. I think everybody wants the No. 12 to have a have a good race. That is the priority. They’re in the full-time championship and that’s my full-time home, so I need to ensure that they have a good race too. I’m sure we’ll play nice tomorrow and make sure both cars get through Turn 1 safely and end up 1-2 in the race.”
Tire allocation
GTP teams have a maximum of three sets of Michelin soft tires to use between qualifying and race, a total of four sets for the event. The soft compound tire for GTP, which should provide quicker warm-up times as well as increased grip, will make its first Long Beach appearance after an introduction during the overnight hours at Daytona. GTP teams had the option of carrying over a used set from Daytona for use in the first 30 minutes of practice. GTD’s allocation is four sets for the event as a whole.
Softer tire will change strategy, Yelloly says
Nick Yelloly nearly snagged the pole in qualifying, but will have to settle for a front-row start thanks to the 0.009s gap to Pipo Derani. It could come down to getting a great start, or the race may turn on strategy. But after the teams have had a chance to analyze tire degradation of the soft Michelins through two test sessions, Yelloly thinks a no-tire pit stop strategy like Porsche Penske Motorsport executed in last year’s Long Beach race is an unlikely scenario.
“It’s definitely going to make sure no one can do what Porsche did last year, because the pace deficit will be, I would say, relatively big, and the car becomes pretty tricky to drive toward the end of the stint,” he said. “Lap time not so much different just due to the fact that the fuel [is] obviously going away. Strategy wise …yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what people do but I feel like most people would change unless you’re really going for an alternate strategy and just trying to risk it and defend for 30 minutes or so.”
Had the race gone green to the end last year, Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi could have been the victors – the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8’s pace at the end was significantly better than Mathieu Jaminet’s PPM 963. This year, Yelloly thinks pitting early or going long for the GTP teams could turn into fighting traffic.
“It’s very difficult to say because it also depends where you’re around GT traffic,” he said. “And if you can get a couple of clear laps potentially when they’re struggling on an out lap or something, you go for the undercut. Or the other way around, you try and go long, and then you get screwed in traffic and they just get a massive gap. So it’s gonna be a lot down to the clever guys and girls that sit in that truck telling me when I need to pit or not, and then over to Connor.”
Race prep, not qualifying prep
The Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s, the No. 10 – which Filipe Albuquerque qualified on pole last year – and the No. 40, struggled with pace in the practice sessions, and Jordan Taylor put in the best qualifying performance for the team to start sixth. Taylor says the team was being conservative given the limited tire allocation.
“We had limited running in practice today, due to the tire allotment for this weekend,” Jordan explained. “So most of our running in practice was for race prep, rather than qualifying prep. We saw some guys use a second set of tires in practice and maybe that was a benefit for qualifying, but our goal was to play the long game and go for a good race package. I think we have a very good race car, so hopefully this [strategy] will pay off for us.”
Whelen Cadillac is last year’s car
The chassis that Whelen Cadillac Racing is competing with at Long Beach is not the one that ended up on its roof during the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. That chassis, No. 0011, went back to Dallara for inspection after the incident, which started when Derani had contact with a GT car he was passing. The car the team is using this weekend is chassis No. 005, which raced at Long Beach and other events last season.
Drive time
The minimum drive time in GTP for the 100-minute race is five minutes. For GTD, the minimum time is 35 minutes.
How to watch
The race will be live on USA Network beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET. The Peacock stream begins at the same time. John Hindaugh, Jeremy Shaw and Shea Adam will call the race live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage can be found at Sirius 211, XM 206, Web/App 996.
Two drivers that have already proven their mettle in qualifying this season will be sitting on pole for Saturday’s 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pipo Derani scored his third consecutive pole of 2024 to head GTP, while Parker …
Two drivers that have already proven their mettle in qualifying this season will be sitting on pole for Saturday’s 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pipo Derani scored his third consecutive pole of 2024 to head GTP, while Parker Thompson claimed his second GTD pole following his qualifying performance for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Derani ended qualifying for the third round of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with a slightly rearranged nose on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R after setting his 1m11.388s (99.24mph) time early in the session before the crew slapped on a new set of tires. But while going for another flyer, he nosed it into the Turn 9 tire wall. Fortunately he was able to reverse quickly – something he and his engineers had discussed during the track walk – and avoided causing a red flag that would also cost him his fast lap.
Nick Yelloly and Sebastien Bourdais were on different qualifying strategies, both waiting until late in the session to emerge from the pits and attempt to put in a lap. Yelloly fell a mere 0.009s short of grabbing the pole for the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, which will start on the outside of the second row.
The late-session strategy nearly bit Bourdais, who had a fast lap balked by Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, which has struggled for pace all day. He started his next lap with only seconds left in the session, and posted a 1m11.411s time in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, 0.023s off pole, to start on the inside of the second row.
“It’s it’s a street track and it’s a very difficult one to pass on, so I’m happy with the lap,” said Derani. “I did it early in the session, and some guys left it to try towards the end, but the lap seemed to be enough – just enough – for pole, which was good. But yeah, on a street track like this in 100 minute race it’s always important to start off on pole.”
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Nick Tandy, the defending Long Beach winner with Mathieu Jaminet in the No, 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, will start outside the second row.
Tandy’s teammate Dane Cameron put the No. 7 PPM 963 on the inside of the third row, and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti finally found enough pace for Jordan Taylor to qualify the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 in sixth. The GTP field, minus the No. 5 Porsche, was separated by only 0.611s.
Despite good conditions that led to a new track record in GTD, as well as a softer Michelin tire, Derani’s time was nearly 1.5s off Filipe Albuquerque’s pole time from last year, which Derani put down to track conditions.
“I don’t know … We had the same at Sebring,” Derani said. “We were slower than last year, but I believe it’s mostly down to track conditions, and at Sebring we had a short qualifying session due to the red flags. But here it could be down to just the rubber that’s been laid down by the Indy cars and the other categories as well. I quite honestly didn’t feel like the track evolved as much as it did last year.”
Perry Nelson/Lumen
Vasser Sullivan Racing and Lexus’s plan to split its drivers and run a second GTD car paid off as it was a Lexus 1-2 in qualifying. Parker Thompson got the better of his usual co-driver Frankie Montecalvo, putting the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3 on pole with a 1m17.357s (91.59mph) lap, a new GTD record. It was Thompson’s second pole of the season, and Lexus’s first at Long Beach.
“There was a lot of pressure today,” declared Thompson. “Practice two, we did a qualifying sim and I thought that we were going to have to work really hard for that pole. We still had to work hard for it, but to be 1-2, really proud. That just shows how good our Lexus is around Long Beach. Awesome to get Frankie up there too. He’s obviously my full-time teammate, so it’s a little bittersweet because I love to take a pole but he’s been working really hard this year with me, and now with Jack Hawksworth, to make sure that he’s up at the front. Great to sweep the front row, but it’s only half the job.”
Montecalvo was 0.262s off Thompson’s best in the all-Lexus front row in the No. 12. The two drivers are teamed with last year’s long Beach winners in GTD PRO, Ben Barnicoat in the No. 12 and Jack Hawksworth in the No. 89.
Albert Costa Balboa had a 1m17.679s in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to claim the inside of the second row, and Roman De Angelis will start the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to his right. Row three as the GTDs roll to the green will be the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (Danny Formal) and the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG (Mikael Grenier), freshly repaired from its shunt in the first practice. The team reports that most of the left side of the car was replaced, as well as some major parts like the splitter.
With the exception of Costa, De Angelis, and Grenier, it was the Am drivers qualifying in GTD, creating the greatest range in lap times of any session so far.
Stevan McAleer set the quickest GTD lap in the second practice, but it was all the car had – Sheena Monk didn’t get to qualify the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 because the Gradient Racing crew was changing the engine. With no warmup prior to the race, the first time that new engine will run is on the recon lap prior to Saturday’s green flag.
Next: The 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, with green scheduled for 1:35 p.m. local time, 4:35 p.m. ET.
The Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) times both dropped and tightened up considerably during the second practice session for tomorrow’s IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Sebastien Bourdais went to the top of the time sheet just as time ran out …
The Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) times both dropped and tightened up considerably during the second practice session for tomorrow’s IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Sebastien Bourdais went to the top of the time sheet just as time ran out in the final 90-minute practice session before qualifying.
With the track more rubbered in and temperatures having risen a bit with the sun breaking through the morning cloud cover, Bourdais turned a 1m11.637s lap (98.9mph) in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to steal the glory from the previous quick runner,Nick Yelloly in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. Yelloly’s best was 0.484s off Bourdais. The first practice’s fast performer, Pipo Derani, was third with a 1m12.218s lap in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
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Philipp Eng kept both BMWs in the top five with a 1m12.454s lap in the No. 24, followed by Nick Tandy in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963. Until Bourdais’ blistering lap at the end of the session, the top nine cars had been within a second, but Tandy ended up being the last within a second of the best time.
Both Acuras continued to struggle, with the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti ARX-06s toward the bottom of the chart; only the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 was slower.
As in GTP, the best time in GTD was turned at the very end of the session, courtesy of Stevan McAleer. Sheena Monk’s new full-season partner in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 flew to the top with a 1m18.259s time, good for a 90.53mph average around the a.968-mile, 11-turn temporary circuit. Danny Formal was second, 0.102s behind in the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, with Albert Costa Balboa third in the No. 32 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at 1m18.382s.
Newly-installed Gradient Racing full-timer McAleer set the pace in GTD. Image via Lumen
Matthew Bell, who topped the first session in the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and Loris Spinelli (No. 78 Forte Racing by USRT Lamborghini) rounded out the top five as 15 of the 16 cars that participated in the session were within a second.
The No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG that had heavy contact with the wall in the morning at the hands of Mikael Grenier did not turn any laps during the session. The other car that had contact in the first practice, the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S, had to undergo a gearbox change after Brendan Iribe toasted the McLaren’s clutch as he tried to back out of the tires in Turn 1. It was an all-hands moment as the team had only a couple of hours to get the swap done.
The second practice session ran uninterrupted by any red flags, although several cars visited the various runoff areas around the track.
Up Next: Qualifying at 5 p.m. local time, 8 p.m. ET.
Roman De Angelis is making his third start with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo this weekend in the IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, partnered with Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 27. Aston Martin made some major updates to its GT3 racer, …
Roman De Angelis is making his third start with the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo this weekend in the IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, partnered with Spencer Pumpelly in the No. 27. Aston Martin made some major updates to its GT3 racer, coinciding with the introduction of an updated road-going Vantage, that made its competition debut in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. With a fourth-place finish in GTD for the No. 27 at Sebring, the team is making progress in its understanding of the new car.
“We did have four years of experience with a past-generation car, so we kind of knew the window of where we wanted it to be, what worked and whatnot — lots of time to experiment with different things,” said De Angelis. “There’s still things that we need to learn as a team where the car operates in the right window and things like that. But I think every weekend, we’ll just keep progressing in that aspect. Hopefully in the next few weekends, we’ll have a car that can win races — hopefully we can do that this weekend.”
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The previous-generation Vantage certainly had its successes, including a GTD victory for Heart of Racing in last year’s Rolex 24, double GTD-GTD PRO wins at Lime Rock Park (2023) and the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen (2022), and the 2022 GTD championship for De Angelis. But some drivers found the car to be a challenge. According to Aston Martin Racing’s head of performance, Gustavo Betelli, a primary goal for the Evo version was to solve that issue and broaden the performance window, and the car features revised aerodynamics and suspension.
“These new generation GT3 cars are more dependent than ever on aerodynamic downforce, so we wanted to make the car more stable under braking,” said Betelli at the car’s official introduction in February. “The old car would dive a lot under braking, so we had to try and control the pitch with the rear suspension setup. But this meant it was stiff, which made it quite snappy and also over-worked the tires. Working heavily on damper tuning, we have found a much better balance with the new car so we can generate the downforce without compromising the suspension setup. The result is much-improved progression and greater stability in all conditions. It also works its tires much more evenly, so teams have more options on strategy.”
Launching a new car at the enduros presented its own challenges, but De Angelis feels Heart of Racing is learning more about its new Vantage each time it runs. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
De Angelis says that Aston Martin hit its mark: “I thought the previous generation car was really difficult to drive. That was kind of the consensus between most of the drivers — it was just a lot more difficult to get that lap out of it, because the difficulty of the car. The rear was quite unstable. So this car kind of went in that direction to try to fix that, make it a bit more easy to drive, and I think it’s definitely done that. The raceability around other cars is also something I feel is a strong suit now.”
Like when he won the championship in 2022, De Angelis doesn’t have a full-season co-driver. Because he was moved to a gold FIA driver rating, he couldn’t continue with Marco Sorensen, his co-driver in 2023. The team recruited Pumpelly from fellow Aston Martin team Magnus Racing, which is concentrating on the endurance races, for Long Beach.
“I think he was a great choice, from the Heart of Racing side, of who to have in the car for this weekend,” De Angelis says of Pumpelly. “Obviously somebody with tons of experience, has driven the new Aston and has driven this event quite a bit as well. So I think we have a strong lineup and I think it was it was the best choice.”
Heart of Racing is competing in three different races this weekend — two at Long Beach plus the World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Imola in Italy. In addition to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Heart of Racing is represented at Long Beach by Gray Newell in the SRO America GT America races in a Vantage GT4. Newell and De Angelis scored a podium finish in Pirelli GT4 America Pro-Am competition at Sonoma Raceway two weeks ago, joined by a victory and a third-place finish for Hannah Grisham and Hannah Greenemeier in the Am class.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach holds a special spot in North American motorsports lore. Being a street circuit race, it’s unforgiving of error. A short race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – it’s one of two, 100-minute street …
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach holds a special spot in North American motorsports lore. Being a street circuit race, it’s unforgiving of error. A short race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – it’s one of two, 100-minute street circuit races on the calendar – there’s little time to recover from a mistake on the track or in the single pit stop. And it’s hard to pass on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary circuit, so qualifying can be extremely important compared to the first two endurance races of the season.
But it’s Long Beach. Not only is it a part of the championship, it’s a high-profile race with big crowds. And all these things means winning at America’s longest-running street race is a feat worthy of celebration.
“The legacy that builds year after year after year around events like this make them special and more valuable and more contested and envied to win it,” said Sebastien Bourdais, who won in IMSA competition for Cadillac Racing in 2022, adding to his three IndyCar victories at the circuit.
“So this one has really become a huge fixture of any of the series that race at this place. It’s also a very challenging and enjoyable place when you do put one lap together. I have to say putting the car on pole in ’22, the car felt amazing and it’s just one of the best feelings you’ll ever have in a race car. And once you complete the weekend and get it to the top step of the podium, you’ve had a good day and you know you won something that a lot of people would like to put their names on.”
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While Bourdais proved in that 2022 race that it is possible to recover from a mistake and still win at Long Beach, the following year he felt the other side of the coin, crashing at the start with a braking issue in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R. Toward the end of the race, Ricky Taylor crashed trying to take the lead back from the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 following a bad pit stop for Taylor’s No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06. Both drivers know how Long Beach can bite.
“It’s so unforgiving with the walls and the way the competition, the race, kind of plays out,” said Taylor, a three-time winner at Long Beach with brother Jordan. “It’s really intense. You come off of the first few races of the season really relaxed and sort of building into the race, where this one from first practice you already have to be on top of your game. Qualifying is the most important of the year and then starting the race … you can’t give anybody an inch. It’s a really difficult one. It means a lot to us, especially since being with Acura.”
The WTRAndretti team car, the No. 40 with Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, are in a tie for the GTP championship after the team’s victory in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with an assist from Colton Herta. The 24 Hours of Daytona winning team, the No. 7 PPM 963 with the full-season pairing of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr, join them in the points lead at 706 as both teams look to break the tie. With a tough Sebring race, the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing squad of Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken have a big gap to close from third in the points.
The other class running at Long Beach – paddock and pit space preclude including all four classes – is GT Daytona (GTD). Without GTD PRO mixed in, who a driver is racing with becomes much clearer and a bit simpler.
“It is nice to have a buffer like a GTD PRO car – we had it at Sebring early on,” said Frankie Montecalvo, driver of the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan racing Lexus RC F GT3. “But at the same time, everyone’s pushing so hard, they’re gonna force the issue, even if it’s not a class car, to get in front of you, so I feel like it simplifies it. Everyone in your mirrors is for position. Everyone in your mirror is for a podium, potentially.”
Winward Racing’s Russell Ward and Philip Ellis will likely leave Long Beach with the championship lead, as they have a big buffer thanks to winning the first two races of the season. But they’ll certainly be looking for victory in the No. 57 Mercedes AMG. Chasing them in the points are Adam Adelson and Elliot Skeer (second in the points is the Michelin Endurance Cup-only Cetilar Racing team that will not race at Long Beach). The rookies from Wright Motorsports have been a surprise in the No. 120 Porsche 911 GT3 R and have a big gap to the effectively-third-place team in the championship, Andretti Motorsports with Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chavez, also in a Porsche. Winward has 725 points to 570 for Wright and 484 for Andretti. The maximum potential point swing with 20 entries is 264.
The IMSA WeatherTech Championship teams are often the first on track Friday morning, making that first of only two practice sessions rather difficult on a green track. This year’s schedule has another group ahead of them, which may make the track more similar to what they’ll face during the rest of the weekend. Two test sessions on Friday precede qualifying at 5 p.m. local time, 8 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be broadcast on IMSA.tv and on Peacock.
Saturday’s 1h40m race is scheduled for a 4:35 p.m ET green flag, with the live broadcast on USA Network and the Peacock stream beginning at 4:30. Commentary on all sessions can be found on IMSA radio, at IMSA.com and radiolemans.com.
After 24- and 12-hour races to open the season, the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, a two-driver, 100-minute sprint race at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, seems relatively straightforward. A single pit stop for fuel …
After 24- and 12-hour races to open the season, the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, a two-driver, 100-minute sprint race at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, seems relatively straightforward. A single pit stop for fuel and driver change, and perhaps tires. But with a fuel stint lasting about an hour under green-flag conditions, there is a 20-minute or so window in which to insert that stop if there are no cautions, so there is certainly room to play with strategy.
“The one negative about [Long Beach] is it’s a short distance; so if you make a mistake, it’s very difficult to recover,” explains Porsche Penske Motorsport’s managing director, Jonathan Diuguid.
“I think the positive about that is that fuel and energy window is quite large. So there are opportunities for people to stop and miss traffic and do different things like that, or for partial tire changes, and you’ll have some warm-up differences, because the one thing that’s always been at the top of the strategy list for Long Beach is track position. We used that to our advantage last year, at least our two-car team, to put both cars in one-two position to sort of control the race. So I think you’ll be seeing some drivers looking at all the opportunities they have in managing traffic and track position. I think that’s where the tire strategy is going to come.”
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Last year, PPM chose not to take tires during its pit stop to save itself the warm-up window where the pace is quite slow, giving the Porsche 963 its first win in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP). However, Michelin is bringing a softer tire to Long Beach this year, and drivers expect tire degradation to be higher. Running the full race on a single set seems an unlikely proposition – even last year, at the end of the 100 minutes, the Porsches were well off the pace, but track position and an unsuccessful lunge for the lead by Ricky Taylor left Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy with the victory.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more deg,” says Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06. “Out laps are going to be really strong. I’m not a strategist, but obviously the drivers are always throwing around ideas of, ‘Oh, we should undercut them,’ but everybody’s going to try undercut. So there’s going to be a lot of people defending and then, who goes long… I think there’s definitely going to be people trying different stuff. And it’s not a full two stints, so there’s quite a bit of room to play. And for one stop, it’s going to be pretty exciting, what people do.”
His brother and teammate in the No. 40 WTRAndretti Acura, Jordan Taylor, points to one example of how a team might use a different strategy to gain track position.
“Last year the 31 [Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R] pitted early, off sequence,” Jordan says. “If you have a bad qualifying and you’re at the back, it’s so hard to pass that there’s no point running that simple strategy. So we saw them do that early stop. When you’re at the back you get take those chances and sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t.
“Hopefully we have a good qualifying and it’s a simple strategy for us to keep it up front, but you never know. And like we saw with the 10 car last year, they had a little issue in their pit stop, so it’s still on execution – drivers, tires, fuel… everything can make or break in that race. So I think everyone’s been doing their homework ahead of time for this one.”
The other class in the race, GTD, faces a different situation regarding tires. Michelin’s GT tires this year have gone toward more durability, and that’s likely to give the GTD teams some options.
“We have a different tire, we have less sets,” explains Jack Hawksworth, normally partnered with Ben Barnicoat in GTD PRO, but for Long Beach pairing with Frankie Montecalvo in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 as the team rearranges its driver lineup to have two GTD cars.
“I think last year, we had five sets for the weekend. This year, we have four sets for the weekend. The tire is more durable. It’ll definitely be a one-stop race, but what we do with tires and whether we take four, whether we take two, whether we take none, is going to depend on the level of degradation we see in practice.”
For a one-stop race, there is still a range of strategies teams have at their disposal. Saturday will reveal just how wide that arc of options can be.
