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.