The race broadcast of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with commentary from IMSA Radio. John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw lead the play-by-play in the booth with Shea Adam reporting from the pit lane.
https://www.imsa.com/video/2021-acura-grand-prix-of-long-beach-race-broadcast/
As we have wrapped up racing at Long Beach, the next focus will be on the Sprint Cup finale for IMSA and the all GT event coming up at Virginia International Raceway in Danville, Virginia, in a couple of weeks.
More post-race headlines after an action-packed race weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Post-race news after the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
For the second time in as many weeks, the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship races in California. This time, southern California, and the legendary yet tough streets of the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit, a venue that hosted the west coast version of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix during the 1970s and since then has been home to both IndyCar and the IMSA WeatherTech Championship over the past number of years. It is a return to these legendary streets after the 2020 event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Three classes will be in competition today, with Daytona
Prototype International as the headliner, along with GT Le Mans for the factory
hot rods from Corvette and Porsche, and GT Daytona for the missile like GT3
machines from Porsche, Lamborghini, BMW, Audi and Acura, a class that will
double in size next year. We have a
large grid of GT3 machines today because some teams are testing the waters for
a full on effort in 2022 as the GT Le Mans cars from the factory teams, they
will be retired and GT Daytona with the GT3 formula will see two classes. GTD Pro (for professional rated drivers and
probable factory teams) and then, just GTD.
Factory teams is a bit of a misnomer, though, because GT3
has always been intended for customer teams to purchase cars from a
manufacturer on a customer basis and go racing.
Still, the GT3 cars, nevertheless, one of them is a very expensive
proposition. But, then again, all motor
racing is expensive. Today’s race will
be an all-out street fight for an hour and 40 minutes, one hour less than the
typical IWSC sprint event. Riding a wave
of recent success, going for a championship, is Action Express Racing. They are on pole today with the #31 Whelen
Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R in the hands of their dynamic duo, Felipe Nasr and
Pipo Derani.
As part of today’s field, there are extra entries in the GT
Daytona class as we said. Notable
additions include a return of the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan
GT3 to be shared by Misha Goikhberg of Canada (with a Russian racing license I
believe), and Frenchman Franck Perera, along with several more. O’Gara Motorsport have entered a Mercedes AMG
GT3 for the American duo of Steven Aghakani and Jacob Eidson. Ian James and Alex Riberas return at the
wheel of the second Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3, the #27
car. They join the sister #23 entry for
that team to be driven by Canadian Roman De Angelis and Englishman Ross Gunn.
GMG Racing, a stalwart of sports car racing in the past, are
here with their American duo of Bronze rated drivers, including team owner
James Sofronas, teaming up with Kyle Washington. Scuderia Corsa make a return to the IMSA grid
this weekend with their Ferrari 488 GT3, being shared by Colin Braun and Daniel
Mancinelli. Till Bechtolsheimer from
England and American Marc Miller are back again in the Gradient Racing Acura
NSX GT3. All the other regular GTD
competitors are there. For Gradient,
GMG, O’Gara, the second Heart of Racing Aston, these teams are doing a test
run, dipping their toes in the water, for possible programs as we see GT
Daytona expanded with a professional category, to replace GT Le Mans, next
year, in 2022.
The shores of southern Califonria, we are ready for the
race. Rai Bejamin, Olympic gold and
silver medalist gives the command. Two
races to go for the prototypes. Three
for the GT cars. A gorgeous day. 75 degrees ambient temperature. Six DPi, three GTLM, and 17 GTD cars in the
field. No LMP2 or LMP3 cars here. The cars roll off onto the grid. 26 starters.
Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have an 89 point lead on the #31 of
Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr. Action
Express and Whelen Engineerring know they must win today and at Petit Le Mans
if they are going to get the championship.
Strategy ahoy in a sprint event.
Felipe Nasr qualified the car and he did the same at Road America where
Action Express won.
Minimum drive time of 35 minutes in GT Daytona. The championship is wide open with 82 points
between first and fourth. Robby Foley
and Bill Auberlen lead the points. Paul
Miller Racing and Lamborghini, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers, they are in it
to win it as well. How do you race these
streets? Ride the fine line between
going for it and hitting the wall. The
traffic will be huge. We might see more
yellows today with the GTD cars on the grid.
There are many drivers here who have never been in a street race before.
#31 and the Mazda #55, they have to be on maximum
attack. Cadillac start 1-2-3 on the
grid. The suspension, the robust nature
of these cars, the setups, they are going for their fourth win at Long Beach
with the big, normally aspirated V8 engines.
The field bunches up as we look for a green flag! We’re underway! Felipe Nasr leads Kevin Magnussen. Filipe Albuquerque, three-wide inside
Magnussen and he is pushing him. There’s
bodywork flying. Down Shoreline Drive
for the first time. Downhill to turn
eight, look out for the inside wall.
Dane Cameron chasing the #5 JDC-Miller Cadillac, Cameron at
the wheel of the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura.
Corvette 1-2 in GT Le Mans with Jordan Taylor in #3 ahead of Tommy
Milner in #4. In replay, we see Filipe
Albuquerque lunge towards Kevin Magnussen and he was jolly lucky to stay out of
the concrete barriers. Loic Duval sees
all this argy bargy unfold right in front of him. Wow!
That was intense stuff! No
worries. These cars are very
robust. When you are on the back foot,
roll the dice on strategy.
Nasr leads Magnussen by a second and a half. Pit stop time for the #12 Vasser Sullivan
Lexus. Flat left front tire for Frankie
Montecalvo sharing with Zach Veach. They
need a yellow to catch up. Madison Snow
is leading in the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini. The tight confines of this circuit are really
going to shake things up, and as Calvin Fish on NBC Sports alluded to, we have
not raced with the sports cars here at Long Beach in the fall before. This race is typically run in April, in the
springtime. Such are the circumstances
of the cursed pandemic situation we are living through right now.
Meanwhile, LoIc Duval is closing in on Filipe
Albuquerque. This is the battle for
third spot. The GTD battle is hot and
heavy as well. Lamborghini, BMW, Audi,
and more. Whoa! Almost some contact there front to rear
between the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi and the Turner Motorsports
BMW. Jordan Taylor leads Tommy
Milner. This is the Corvette C8.R duo in
GTLM. Taylor has won Long Beach three
times. Have the street smarts for the
drivers, and the engineers. Avoid rookie
mistakes. Many rookie drivers in the
race today. Musical chairs, we will see
a really short tire stints. Who will
execute the tire changes? When the music
stops, who will be left standing?
Snow, Foley, Heistand, and Zach Robichon, the top four in GT
Daytona. Zacharie Robichon says that
confidence and momentum is what they want at Pfaff Motorsports. Robichon, it is his first race here at Long
Beach teaming up with Laurens Vanthoor.
Kevin Magnussen now leads Felipe Nasr.
The GTD field will be all over all day.
Here comes Nasr back out of the hairpin.
No dice. Rob Ferriol gets mugged
by these prototypes! The #44 Magnus
Racing Acura got in Felipe Nasr’s way.
Magnussen and van der Zande won at Belle Isle in Detroit.
Nasr was not happy with this move. The #01 is not in championship contention so
they can take chances. Nasr and
Magnussen used to race each other in F1.
Nasr moves past Magnussen who hits the fence! Magnussen’s car is damaged! Debris on the road from Cadillac #01. 12 and a half minutes on the board. Pits are closed, but the yellow could indeed
extend into the pit window. What a crazy
start here at Long Beach! Will we see
the return of the Wacky Races today?
We’ll have to wait and find out. Right
rear damage for the #01 Cadillac.
The DPi cars are gaining a fuel advantage. Not a lot of offline grip on a street
course. Steven Aghakani in the #26
Mercedes AMG GT3 on his IMSA debut, aboard the O’Gara Racing entry, he sees now
how the big boys play. Green flag! Hammer down!
It is time to resume the race. Nasr
leads, Magnussen second around the iconic fountain. Nasr says, “not so fast, sunshine” and it
forced Magnussen into a real pickle. Does
Magnussen have damage that will stymie his pace? The track here at Long Beach all about
mechanical grip.
The rear wing is also busted and so it the toe in on the
tire alignment. The steering is bent a
wee bit. Chip Ganassi Racing is also in
title contention for the IndyCar championship.
Renger van der Zande is in the game as well. Kevin Magnussen is on form. But Renger van der Zande will indeed be a
part of the LMDh Cadillac effort with CGR and we wonder too, how Action Express
and their driver lineup for LMDh will shake out in 2023. Corvette Racing could run GT3 in the
future. They are very competitive right
now. Antonio Garcia said that he’s led
at the hairpin two years in a row and not won.
Garcia wants a victory here at Long Beach. This is the second ever street course event
for the Corvette C8.R. No street courses
in IMSA last year in 2020. Cursed
pandemic. Nasr leads Magnussen now by
1.6 seconds. Turner Motorsport, and
Robby Foley in the wall at turn eight!
Wow! The #96 BMW M6 GT3 has
wrecked! You don’t see Foley crash. Minor damage to the car. Maybe he was jolly lucky to get away with
that one. Richard Heistand in the #39
Audi forces the issue. He is not in the
championship fight.
Turner Motorsports have now lost the GT Daytona lead and the
#5 Cadillac caught a banner under the wheel and then deposited it in the middle
of the road on the front straight.
Sheesh. Loic Duval said he hit
the debris and carried it and the car is fine.
But will the stewards throw a yellow?
Maybe we could see wholesale driver changes if there is a yellow. With the class split, the driver change
decision is not so drastic. Loic Duval
is monstering Filipe Albuquerque, a former global World Sports Car
Champion. He is a former champion with
Audi and will drive in the Peugeot Le Mans Hypercar program next year.
Watch out for a shallow angle in these corners. Loic Duval wants by Filipe Albuquerque for
third place. No dice yet. He is pushing hard and so is Duval. The banner we saw earlier has blown away off
the track. The #55 Mazda is right behind
these two blokes, just down the road.
That is the car of Harry Tincknell and Oliver Jarvis, which stuffed it
into the tire barrier during qualifying yesterday and stopped the session
early. We are seeing, it looks like
Tincknell, he is right on Albuquerque’s six at this point. Lapped traffic ahead for Felipe Nasr in the
lead of the motor race.
Nasr leads Magnussen now by two seconds. Loic Duval and scraping and digging his way
through GT Daytona traffic in third after moving past Filipe Albuquerque who
washed out wide. Albuquerque
understeering in the Acura. What a tight
corner that hairpin is! Yikes! Traction off the corner is a big deal as
these Cadillac’s thunder around Long Beach.
Poor old Robby Foley is on the back foot but is still running. #31 still leads. No team orders at GM but team orders for
Acura. This is a Cadillac race track, it
is suitable to this place. The normally
aspirated V8 has the power under acceleration and the Dallara chassis with the
mechanical grip. The Oreca works on high
speed corners and you just don’t have those where. Derani and Nasr are just 19 points behind
Taylor and Albuquerque. Tommy Milner is
now applying the blowtorch to Jordan Taylor.
Pit stop time imminent for Corvette and for driver changes
for both cars. We saw the contact
between #96 and #39. Team boss Will
Turner says the bonnet of the car is bowed upwards and they have trouble with
their antilock braking system. Misha
Goikhberg has a broken left rear corner after whacking the wall in the #19 GRT
Grasser Racing Lamborghini. Here’s the
open pit window for GTD. CDriver changes
and just 20 seconds of petrol. Who will
execute? The #1 Lamborghini in the lane
and Bryan Sellers will take over from Madison Snow.
Ditto for the #39 Audi.
Richard Heistand gives the car to Jeff Westphal. The #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Dane
Cameron pitted on lap 20. Eight laps
since their pit stop. Bill Auberlen in
the lane, and he is taking over from poor old Robby Foley who will be
gutted. Turner Motorsports fixing the
bonnet. Filipe Albuquerque is bluing on
the radio about understeer while he fends off Oliver Jarvis’ challenge. They had a brake lockup in practice and
whacked the wall in qualifying. This is
the penultimate race for Mazda before they round out their career in the
WeatherTech Championship after Petit Le Mans.
Nasr leads Magnussen by 5.8 seconds. Patrick Long in the lane in the #16 Wright
Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R as Trent Hindman hands over the car. They must make up ground this weekend in the
championship for GT Daytona. Tommy
Milner in the #4 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, he is right on top of the sister car
of Jordan Taylor as Felipe Nasr leads the motor race. He has been fighting with Kevin Magnussen but
is now clear in the lead of the motor race.
Porsche #79 in the lane, the WeatherTech Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Cooper
MacNeil sharing with Frenchman Matthieu Jaminet this weekend.
So, “Jam Jam” will take the next stint in that car as Felipe
Nasr continues to lead this motor race and is catching up to lap the #60 Meyer
Shank Racing Acura that was really dominant last time out at Laguna Seca. Now we see one of the Vasser Sullivan Lexus
cars in the lane. This looks like the
#14. Down and away and back into the
motor race. There could have been a
driver change there from Jack Hawksworth over to Aaron Telitz or vice
versa. Long vs. Vanthoor and there’s
Jeff Westphal crunching into the Long-driven Porsche while Colin Braun is
pushing as well in the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 in their home race.
At the hairpin in replay, Westphal dives and tags Patrick
Long while thankfully keeping it clean.
That’s a tight squeeze! That
could have been a pig’s breakfast there.
Vanthoor won this race in 2019 with the factory Porsche team. Jack Hawksworth, he has replaced Aaron
Telitz, and Hawksworth is now second in class in GT Daytona, but still over
eight and a half seconds away from Bryan Sellers in the Lamborghini, the #1
Paul Miller Racing automobile. Lexus
will have two cars next year, with one in the Pro class and also in GTD.
There are many drivers who could be candidates to race for
Lexus next year. This is the silly
season time right now. We also have LMDh
looming. Kyle Washington has moved up,
and it is their 15th anniversary since their first race here in 2007
in World Challenge. Cadillac needs more
yellow. Felipe Nasr is out front but
they need to stretch fuel for three laps before the driver change to make it
for one pit stop. Kevin Magnussen in the
lane for fuel and a driver change.
Renger van der Zande into the car.
They need yellows to make it on fuel.
Checking the damage, but no changes on the car for the #01
team. Nasr now leads Loic Duval by 11
seconds. The #31 still needs to
pit. This is a very long pit stop. Renger van der Zande will hold off Felipe
Nasr. He is going to have to let Nasr
by. #01 goes a lap down. Nasr on hot but used Michelin tires. Corvette vs. Corvette still in GTLM. Porsche have not gotten a look in with the
#79 car. Acura #10 in the pit lane for
service and the same is true for the #55 Mazda.
Driver changes at both camps. #31
is now in the lane too from the lead.
Great stint for Nasr.
Pipo Derani will get into the car.
The #5 Cadillac is also in the lane.
Loic Duval hands the car to Tristan Vautier. Dane Cameron moving past Ppo Derani and
stopping out of sequence has them in third.
Drive through penalty for the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. You cannot work underneath the car on pit
stops. Again, with the BMW, the #96,
they have had an ABS failure. The brake
pedal is rock hard. Dane Cmaeron has now
taken over the lead by four seconds over Pipo Derani. Fuel will be tight according to Felipe Nasr.
Nasr says he is doing his job and wants to win this
race. He cannot believe how Kevin
Magnussen really got in the way, but he has raced with Magnussen for many years
and knows the man has an aggressive driving style. Pipo Derani now must reel in Dane
Cameron. The fight continues. Meyer Shank Racing hits the pit lane with the
#60 car. So this could put the #31
Cadillac back to the race lead. Pit stop
time too for the #4 Corvette C8.R. Fuel,
tires, and a driver change. Nick Tandy
into the car and he is down and away. Tristan
Vautier now third.
Jack Hawksworth is being monstered, look, by Patrick Long
and poor old Jeff Westphal gets snookered by the #34 Porsche, the GMG Racing
Porsche of James Sofronas. Colin Braun,
he is being pushed by Ross Gunn. Braun
has run prototypes in IMSA and a lot of GT3 in SRO competition with a Mercedes
Benz. He does coaching in Ferrari
Challenge. Scuderia Corsa are a
championship caliber team. Daniel
Mancinelli has won here in SRO GT World Challenge. So, Tommy Milner moved around Jordan Taylor
and now, Tandy leads Antonio Garcia and Matthieu Jaminet.
Turner Motorsports just have not had the race today they
wanted. They had a strong qualifying
effort and Auberlen drove a BMW M6 GT in GTLM here years ago and did very
well. So, Jack Hawksworth has moved
ahead of Patrick Long and he gets monstered and passed by a DPi Cadillac, that
is the Mustang Sampling JDC Miller #5. Aaron
Telitz says he caught traffic on his in lap but Jack Hawksworth has really
pushed since their pit stops. They need
a yellow to keep up.
Patrick Long is really applying the blowtorch to Jack
Hawksworth. Wow! Porsche on Porsche now in GT Daytona. This is Patrick Long all ove the back of
Laurens Vanthoor! It is game on in
GTD. They squirm their way around the
fountain turn. Meantime, in the DPi
ranks, the Mazda and Acura are still going at it. They have not been able to be at the sharp
end as the Cadillac’s have really been in a league of their own around this
circuit. It’s horses for courses once
again. Felipe Nasr was really upset
about Kevin Magnussen. They raced
against each other a decade ago in open wheel racing, in British Formula 3.
Nick Tandy still leads Antonio Garcia in GT Le Mans with
less than a half hour to go. Milner says
he and his teammate were very close.
Traffic is a mega deal around this place. Tommy Milner wants his fourth win here at
Long Beach to match his car number. GM
and Cadillac run 1-2-3 here at Long Beach.
Lapped traffic in the way for the leaders and that is the #26 O’Gara
Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3 which is having a good showing here at Long Beach,
the Jacob Eidson and Steven Aghakani automobile. Pipo Derani is making his way methodically
through GT traffic.
There is a track to street connection for Michelin tires and
this is a deal where having a street course as a race track, Michelin can rely
on for performance, ride, handling, braking, noise, and fuel economy. The technology of the tire industry is
amazing. We are seeing tires made of
recycled material like plastics and orange peel. Traffic ahead of Pipo Derani, and AXR are 19
points behind the #10 Acura, watching the #55 Mazda of Harry Tincknell, who is
running quicker than the Acura. If
Tincknell passes, the #31 takes the championship lead headed for Petit Le Mans
in November.
These teams are at an amazingly high level. Ricky Taylor is saving fuel right now. Acura wins at the tracks they are supposed to
or expected to. Cadillac wins at the
tracks they are supposed to or expected to.
Derani under zero pressure. He
can cruise and save fuel. 20 minutes to
go. Point and squirt here at Long
Beach. Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers
lead by 13 seconds in GT Daytona. Bryan
Sellers has not won here at Long Beach before.
They are second in points just twelve points behind the
Robichon/Vanthoor Porsche. Less than 20
minutes remain. Chopping and changing
through the GT field as this race draws to a close. 16 minutes left on the board as Pipo Derani
is in control, six seconds ahead of Renger van der Zande while the #01 pitted
two laps earlier and they say at Ganassi they are OK on fuel, but others say
they are short on gas. This is going to
be squeaky, squeaky for the #01 to make it on petrol. Katherine Legge at the wheel of the #88 Team
Hardpoint Porsche, she first raced here at Long Beach 16 years ago winning in
the Toyota Atlantic series and then the very next year she got a top ten in
Champ Car which is now IndyCar. Katherine
Legge knows this circuit very, very well.
She is in the top ten in GTD. The #26 O’Gara Motorsports Mercedes has been
running well. Agakhani and Eidson are Lamborghini
Super Trofeo veterans. Laurens Vanthoor
has passed Jack Hawksworth for second in class in GTD. The #14 Lexus is short on petrol. Ricky Taylor and WTR have handling woes although
their fuel is fine. Their gap back to
the #55 Mazda is stable. Olivier Pla
spins and slams the wall right in the middle of traffic in the braking zone for
turn one!
Holy cow! MSR had a
car wreck in the IndyCar qualifying, and had another car that came second, and
now, the sports car has wrecked. Antonio
Garcia had no room outside of Colin Braun to let the Acura DPi by. Wow!
That was hairy! This is not what
the #31 wants to see. Hopefully this
race stays green. Pipo Derani continues
in the lead as the #60 Acura is being cleared away. Pipo Derani with seven minutes to go, he is
pushing. We have seen this track since
1975 and hosted sports cars since 2006 and the Formula 1 United States Grand
Prix between 1975 and 1983.
46 years ago, the first race took place here. Derani leads by nearly six seconds. The #10 team will have a 19-point lead going
into Petit Le Mans. The Action Express
team will be in it for the title. Bryan
Sellers and Madison Snow are clearly in the lead in GTD but now, Patrick Long
has gone around Jack Hawksworth who is in fuel save mode. They were banking on a yellow but won’t get
one. Pipo Derani leads by 6.2
seconds. Hawksworth rolls out of the
power down Seaside Way to save fuel before his braking points.
160 miles an hour for GTLM and 150 miles an hour for GTD. A ten mile an hour delta. The #76 Compass Racing Acura are running well with Matt McMurry and Mario Farnbacher. The GTD stakes are high. The shadows grow long here at Long Beach as we are close the end as there’s lots of rubber down from the drifting cars that raced last night in their exhibition event. We assumed this would be a crash fest among the rookies, but they’ve kept their noses clean all day long. Amazing. No repeat of the five yellow flags that happened in 2019.
White flag. One lap
to go for Pipo Derani and Action Express will score their third win in four
races. They were behind the eight ball
at the start of the year but the back end of the year has really been a success
for Action Express. Final lap. Oh dear.
James Sonfronas has spun in corner number six. Will he get back in the race? Ah yes.
Action Express wins at Long Beach for the third straight time! The #4 Corvette C8.R will win GT Le Mans with
Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner! In GT
Daytona, it is a 12 second victory for the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini
for Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow!
Overall/DPi: #31 Nasr/Derani Cadillac DPi-V.R.
GT Le
Mans: #4 Milner/Tandy Chevrolet
Corvette C8.R
GT
Daytona: #1 Sellers/Snow Lamborghini
Huracan GT3
That’s a wrap from here on the streets of Long Beach,
California. Two races left in the
championship. One left for DPi, LMP2,
and LMP3, at Petit Le Mans in November.
The next time we will speak to you from Virginia International Raceway
in Danville, Virginia, in early October for the second and final all GT race of
the 2021 season as GTLM and GTD cars race on that fabled course. For now, so long from southern
California. Take care, everybody.
Engel, Stolz, Gounon to share Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo at Indy 8H...
https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/craft-bamboo-commits-to-indy-8h-with-amg-factory-drivers/
Laguna Seca Raceway, and the scenic Monterey Peninsula, beckon for the teams and drivers of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, who (to quote the song by the Mamas and The Papas), will be “California Dreamin’ “, for the next two races. Famous for racing since the 1950s, the track here at Laguna Seca has three things. Icon status, sand in the runoff areas, and a famous turn simply known as The Corkscrew. A handful of races remain. Take all the championship points you can in this 2 hour and 40-minute motor race with a 26-car field. Racing conditions are perfect. Sunny with an ambient temperature of 68 degrees and a west, northwest wind blowing at 12 miles an hour. In Daytona Prototype International, Action Express Racing have been on a charge, winning the last two races in succession.
They are the only team in 2021 to go back-to-back. The #31 team is keeping the heat on the #10
Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Acura team, which is one of their big rivals
for the championship along with the #01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R. In GT Le Mans, it is a similar scenario as
Cooper MacNeil and the #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19, are proving
they can step up to the plate and beat the factory Chevrolet Corvette C8.R’s on
a regular basis. MacNeil and his team
won the most recent event at Road America in GT Le Mans. Meanwhile, in GT Daytona, the points battle
is hot and heavy with four cars within 124 points of each other.
Four races to go of course.
BMW, Aston Martin, Porsche, or Lamborghini could be possible champions
at the end of the year. In the LMP2
class, Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen are probable champions. If the #11 Win Autosport team of Steven
Thomas and Tristan Nunez want to do anything about the PR1/Mathiasen
steamroller, they will have to push the go button, now, before it is perhaps
too little too late. They are 58 markers
behind the #52 automobile. Action
Express and the #31 car has the momentum.
They are peaking at the right time.
They are in their rhythm now.
However, the twists and turns of this circuit at Laguna Seca
has not suited the big, heavy, powerful Cadillac DPi. They have yet to win a race here at Monterey
since the start of the Daytona Prototype International era in 2017. Action Express starts fourth. Acura in the meantime, sweep the front row of
the grid and have won races here in 2019 and 2020. Wayne Taylor Racing with Ricky Taylor and
Filipe Albuquerque are searching for their third or fourth win of the year,
while the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura for Dane Cameron and Olivier Pla,
they’ve gone winless the whole year in 2021 and want to turn that around.
Three-time IMSA champion Dane Cameron hasn’t won in two
years. In the GT Daytona class, Bill
Auberlen is the championship leader aboard the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6
GT3. But the #23 Aston Martin Vantage
GT3 from The Heart of Racing, has been in the fight as well. Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis want a slice
of that victory cake, and are doing all they can to get it, going up against
the team of Bill Auberlen and his co-driver, Robby Foley. The points lead is only 18 in GT
Daytona. The Am driver sets the grid
spot while the pro drivers have their own session.
You are not allowed to get out of the car until the session is completed. Ross Gunn stepped out of that automobile before the session ended. Therefore, Gunn and company had their qualifying time disallowed and will start shotgun on the field in GTD. They were 18 points behind coming in, gained five points to be 13 behind. But after the penalty, the math works out so they are now 32 points in-arrears and they will have to push, push, push to get the ground back. Small margins, yes. But every point counts as we get closer to the end of a frantic 2021 season in the WeatherTech Championship.
The command is given.
Drivers, start your engines! The
cars sit echelon style in the pit lane and are ready now to roll off on their
formation laps. Here they come. 26 cars start today’s race across the four
classes with half a dozen DPi cars, four LMP2 cars, three GTLM cars, and the
largest subscribed class is GTD with a baker’s dozen, 13 cars, entered. Two Acura’s may be on the front row. But two Cadillac’s lock out row two with the
#01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac in the hands of Kevin Magnuseen, and right alongside
him, the #31 Whelen Engineering Action Express Racing Cadillac in the hands of
Pipo Derani.
Derani must push and be aggressive but be cautious as well
before the next event also in California on the streets of Long Beach. Mazda also want a slice of the pie with the
#55 entry for Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell. That car qualified fourth but will start
sixth after being outside of the rules insofar as negative camber on the tires. Too much camber on the right rear tire after
going off the road in qualifying. The
#31 and the #10 are the heavy hitters.
But there are other hungry wolves within the pack as well. This is going to be a fair fight to the
finish at Laguna Seca today, ladies and gentlemen.
The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche are third in points in GT
Daytona with their plaid-colored racer.
They are fifth in points and need a good finish to improve. The #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini changed
and adjusted their Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
But that car, is no longer in the championship hunt. So, they want to go for a win. That is the objective for Madison Snow and
Bryan Sellers, today. It should be
noted, we talked earlier about The Heart of Racing. They have a second car in today’s race as a
team car to the #23 De Angelis/Gunn Aston Martin. That is Aston Martin #27 being shared by Ian
James, the team owner, and Alex Riberas.
In GTLM, the #3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R has pole. This is the fourth consecutive pole position
for Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia. In
the morning warmup, the Porsche was quickest.
In LMP2, it is a four way battle for the title. Ben Keating leads the championship and Steven
Thomas, and company can still fight. We
are readying for a start on the final pace lap through the last sector of track
here at Laguna Seca. How aggressive will
Dane Cameron be aboard the #60 Meyer Shank Acura? This is going to be hot. Two Acura’s on the front row.
Hammer down, and it is go time here at Laguna Seca! Filipe Albuquerque takes the lead of the motr
race and here comes Pipo Derani moving on Kevin Magnussen already and both are
going to be monstered immediately by the #55 Mazda, and Harry Tincknell! Three wide already! We watch the start for GTLM/GTD. Out of the Andretti hairpin for the first
time. Through the infield and up the
hill on the Rahal straightaway heading for The Corkscrew and we have a car off
in the dust already, look. That is the
#76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 in the hands of Jacob Abel, making his debut
in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship.
Abel is back on track in the car he shares with Mario Farnbacher.
Now, one of the Aston Martin’s also has spun and that is the
#27 entry. That is the Riberas/James
entry we spoke of earlier. Ian James at
the wheel of it. He is stranded in the
middle of the road. Abel has broken rear
suspension on the right rear of that Acura.
Not a good thing for his IMSA debut.
In replay, we can see James slithered off the road and into the sand. As he came back on track, trying to correct
it, he crunches into the side of Jacob Abel who had no place to go. Acura have won two of the last three GTD
races here at Laguna Seca including last year with Mario Farnbacher. No Full Course Yellow has been announced. Filipe Albuquerque leads over Dane Cameron as
the Acura’s scamper away from the rest of the DPi field. Maybe Ian James put the Aston in a place of
safety. Filipe Albuquerque, who leads
the championship, he scored his first ever IMSA pole in qualifying yesterday.
Ah yes. We do indeed
have a Full Course Yellow on the circuit.
Ian James is slightly out fo the way and we can see the Acura got
absolutely socked on the right rear! We
can see that Abel got loose and the Aston just had no place to go. Meanwhile, that car is still being attended
to by the safety personnel from the AMR safety team. The #76 Acura is in the pit lane being
surveilled for how much damage there is.
The driver is out of the #27 Aston Martin and it is game over. Likewise, it could be game over for the #76
as well, look. The crew is pushing that
car to the garage or so it seems.
It is indeed on the dollies and will have to be
serviced. Watch out in the dry lake
segment of Laguna Seca. Dane Cameron
takes us for a lap around Laguna Seca at his home track. Cresting the hill to the Andretti
hairpin. Brake hard with lots of
understeer. Through turn three, a
difficult turn. Under the bridge, past
turn four into the kink. Then, go into
the compression of turn five without running out of road. A blind entry into turn six and up the Rahal
straightaway we go. Then, into The
Corkscrew, slowing down through a blind entry.
Drop off the edge of the earth as the road falls away like a
rollercoaster.
Flow out into turn ten and big compression again and into
the last turn in 11, with very low grip.
Watch out for the paint in the final turn. Everyone knows The Corkscrew, but it is
indeed the most unbelievable corner 180 feet down. When you are in traffic, you just cannot see
your marks. It’s unbelievable. The keys to victory in this motor race have
to do with tire management as the cars are sliding around. Watch for brake lockup. An extra stop for fuel could be advantageous
today because you are off the throttle more than on it, and this way, you could
save fuel.
Good fuel mileage, so the tires are the critical
marker. Match the pace to a shorter
stint especially in GTLM. Be bold on the
brakes and be totally commitment. We
have seen banzai passes here including Renger van der Zande over Dane Cameron
in the 2017 WeatherTech Championship race, and, also, the famous IndyCar race
(known as Champ Car back then), by Alex Zanardi on Bryan Herta, in 1996. Compass Racing, and the #76 Acura, was
thought to have cosmetic damage. It is
game over for the team and car. The
suspension was torn apart, and the rear end locked up and became useless.
They will try hard to fix it. But it will be difficult for them to get back
on track today. Ian James is a man who
wear several hats. He is team owner and
driver for The Heart of Racing, doing the endurance races and this race, with
them. He also manages other drivers
including Mario Farnbacher who drives the #76 car! Oh dear.
Poor old Jacob Abel was just a passenger in that instance. Ian had one of the Lexus cars on his flank as
well. We have run five laps in this race
so far. So, fuel consumption dictates a
three-stop race for DPi and LMP2, as well as a two stop race for GTLM and
GTD.
The minimum drive time is 45 minutes. Filipe Albuquerque will lead the field back to green and hopefully we can get some green flag racing for the better portion of this motor race. Filipe Albuquerque takes off from a cannon, again. Dane Cameron is second followed by Kevin Magnussen, Pipo Derani, and Harry Tincknell. Meyer Shank Racing must execute. He has won here before. Olivier Pla, Cameron’s co-driver, he has only raced here at Laguna Seca, once, back in 2017. MSR have been trying hard to find a setup window on the dampers in the suspension.
The #10 car has been able to find the right thing with the
dampers. It is warmer today at Laguna
Seca than it has been previously this weekend.
Robby Foley now leads GT Daytona by six tenths of a second over Trent
Hindman and Madison Snow is closing too.
Adding to the pain for the #60 team, the schedule in 2021 is compressed
due to what has been going on with the pandemic. Get the setup spot on right when you roll off
the truck. RobbY Foley is just 6/10ths
of a second ahead of Trent Hindman.
Turner Motorsports are realizing this west coast swing is helping
them. We have Long Beach coming up in a
couple weeks. Then, it is an all GT race
at Virginia International Raceway, before the finale at Petit Le Mans at Road
Atlanta in November.
The race is now beginning to settle down as Filipe
Albuquerque leads. We continue watching
GTD action and zero in on the #14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. This is the car being shared by Aaron Telitz
and Jack Hawksworth. I believe Telitz is
at the wheel of it, and he was tipped into a spin by a rival there, look. He did not hit anything but backed up into
the sand in turn two. Now the two Lexus
cars look to be running together although it is hard to tell. Yes indeed they are. Jack Hawksworth is following the sister car,
the #12 shared by Frankie Montecalvo and Zach Veach. Nothing going on at the sharp end. Filipe Albuquerque carries on his merry way
in the lead.
A gorgeous afternoon here in central California. Trouble once again for the Heart of Racing
Aston Martin, the #23 of Roman De Angelis, slow. Wow!
He got clouted by the #66 Acura in the hands of Till
Bechtolsheimer! That is the Gradient
Racing entry the Briton shares with American driver Marc Miller. Boatloads of argy bargy early in the motor
race today here at Laguna Seca.
Yikes! When you get down to the
nitty gritty portion of the season, with two or three races left, you hope for
a modicum of respect among drivers. A
penalty for Richard Heistand aboard the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi
R8 LMS GT3.
This penalty is being served for jumping the restart. Heistand is of course sharing this automobile
with Jeff Westphal. When the green flag
waves, you race. Ah. It was Heistand who sent Telitz spinning. The irony is that Heistand formerly drove for
the Vasser Sullivan Lexus organization but is now in the Audi camp. Heistand drove for Lexus two years ago in
2019. This is their home track and they
won Michelin Pilot Challenge here last year.
Steve Dinan, a longtime BMW tuner, is the team manager for this team,
racing with Audi. Poor old Heistand is
being called to the lane for an incident responsibility penalty. He will be feral on the radio, bluing to the
team, “why on earth do we have an (expletive) penalty?!”
The minimum drive time in GT Daytona in this event is 45
minutes. Heistand still must drive for
the rest of his stint. This is a drive
through penalty at 60 kilometers an hour which costs 25 seconds on pit lane
delta. Ben Keating is on a high after
finishing second in GTE Am competition at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Keating still wants a Le Mans win. He scored his seventh pole yesterday in
qualifying. Keating said that the car is
always squirming around and giving up grip.
Keating has an ability to swap back and forth between different cars,
even though he is not a pro racing driver.
He is a Texas car salesman who has a franchise of dealers.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is a locally based team out of
Fresno, California, so they’re right in their own backyard here at Laguna Seca
more or less. They are going for the hat
trick here at Laguna Seca. Jordan Taylor,
meanwhile, leads in GT Le Mans with the sister Corvette C8.R, the #4 entry,
right on his six at the moment in the hands of Tommy Milner. He thought he had a shot at pole, but the #3
team has had four straight poles this year.
Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia have the speed and the chemistry.
Little things pick at you if you can’t get things down. For Tandy and Milner, they won at Detroit
with no points on the line, but they want a points win, and need to sweep the
tables on their teammate. BMW will be
back for the finale at Petit Le Mans in November. Ben Keating, whoa! That was a late turn in into the first
corner, and… crunch! Keating whacks the
side of Till Bechtolsheimer at the wheel of the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX
GT3. Bechtolsheimer sharing that
automobile with Marc Miller in today’s race.
Keating went for a gap that didn’t exist.
He could very easily have drawn a penalty on that deal. These cars are tough, made of strong
stuff. We are closing in on the two-hour
mark left in the race, having run for almost 40 minutes by now. Acura #10 still leads. Once again, you’ve not missed anything. Keating is now inbetween a couple GT Daytona
cars. In replay, we can see that he
biffed the #12 Lexus RC F GT3 off the road and into the dust. That’s the Frankie Montecalvo and Zach Veach
driven automobile, the Vasser Sullivan entry.
Meanwhile, Ben Keating is on his merry way, and he is catching up to
more GT Daytona traffic.
In his sights now, the #23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin
Vantage shared by Roman de Angelis and Ross Gunn. Before we get back to the current race, we
must talk about LMDh and what is to come in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship
with the new breed of sports cars. We
saw on NBC Sports a featurette about Cadillac as they have just debuted their
new LMDh race car, and their contender looks stunning. Yours truly described it as “a fighter jet on
wheels”. Cadillac is one of five
confirmed brands in LMDh set to enter the 2023 season.
Cadillac will be there along with Acura, and three of the
heavy hitting brands from Germany in Porsche, Audi, and BMW. These cars will be hybrid and we have the Le
Mans Hypercars in World Endurance Championship competition. The chassis for each of these contenders, we
will see BMW and Cadillac both using an Italian Dallara built chassis. Acura will remain with Oreca from France, and
Porsche and Audi will run with Multimatic.
There is talk of these new cars being tested later this year into early
2022. We could see companies we already see
in World Endurance Championship competition like Toyota, Glickenhaus, and
Alpine, join the ranks.
However, that is hard to say. If everything really gets off the ground with
this convergence with LMDh and LMH, we could see no fewer than ten brands out
there racing together. But it remains to
be seen if companies like Peugeot, Glickenhaus, Ferrari, and Toyota might come
to the table and say “yes, we want to compete with the other
manufacturers.”
Breaking it all down, the grid at the Rolex 24 in 2023 could
see:
Cadillac
Audi
Porsche
BMW
Toyota
Ferrari
Peugeot
Glickenhaus
Alpine
Nonetheless, we will see what happens. So many shiny objects to see. IMSA and the ACO have a ten-year rules
formula agreement with the convergence and what have you. We see about eight manufacturers and there
could be more. IMSA and ACO will have
their rules package for the next decade with this convergence deal. S, in replay, we can see Ben Keating
crunching into the Lexus, but it appears Montecalvo did not see him.
Tow DPi cars have already pitted including both Tristan
Vautier in the #5 JDC-Miller Mustang Sampling Cadillac and the #31 Whelen
Engineering Action Express Cadillac with Pipo Derani at the wheel of it. Mazda, car #55 is also in the lane now. Mazda is one of the brands that said no to
LMDh and will instead retire from prototype competition at the end of this
season (after Petit Le Mans) and will focus instead on customer racing in their
MX5 Cup championship that serves as a support series for IMSA. Mazda are now in the lane and so is the #01
Ganassi Cadillac.
No one has yet put on fresh Michelin tires. Everyone has been using scrubbed sets. We’ve seen Cadillac and Mazda pit their cars
but no sign yet of the Acura’s from WTR and MSR hitting the lane. Acura’s seem to be stretching fuel, but by
staying out they risk a yellow and being in the danger zone. Filipe Albuquerque has the other DPi cars
down a lap, but they will be stacked up.
45 minutes on full fuel tanks.
You can still eke out a three-stop strategy. You are slicing the cake in different
ways. #55, the Mazda, started on fresh
tires, but it didn’t work.
#55 leapfrogged the #01.
But Kevin Magnussen made his way back around Harry Tincknell. Cadillac have not won at Laguna Seca
yet. Pipo Derani is the highest placed
Cadillac at this stage and with nearly 40 minutes gone, the #10 Acura and
Filipe Albuquerque, finally come to pit lane for service. Four Michelin tires and fuel. Wayne Taylor Racing have worked on the rear
of the Acura. They are looking to see if
the rear tires stay alive. So far so
good for those boys. The car stayed
planted in the lane for 22 seconds, but a full fuel load on a DPi car is 30
seconds.
They only used ¾ of a fuel load. So, Filipe Albuquerque is now 32 seconds behind
Dane Cameron while Pipo Derani is closing.
#60 are not in the championship game.
So they can essentially throw caution to the wind if they wish to. Cool temperatures this weekend and the track
is slick but fast. There’s lots of grip
as it is not extremely hot because then the track surface here at Laguna Seca
really, really gets greasy. Dane Cameron
has won here three times in GT Daytona and in the overall in DPi. DPi and GTLM as you can see from the graphics
box, have only a ten-minute minimum drive time, while it is 45 minutes for LMP2
and GTD. An hour and 55 minutes is the
maximum drive time in both LMP2 and GTD.
A driver will lift and coast to save fuel while leading. That is what Dane Cameron is doing. What will the strategy be for MSR? We are seeing strategy calls from other teams as well. Cameron coming up behind one of the LMP2 cars, the #11 Win Autosport entry of Steven Thomas and Tristan Nunez. Cameron runs a wee bit wide but stays on the course. Acura have dominated here at Laguna Seca over the last three years, in both DPi and GT Daytona.
The track at Laguna Seca suits the Acura’s it seems. The track is abrasive with high tire
degradation, although it is smooth.
Maybe the Acura has the aerodynamic advantage in DPi over Cadillac and
Mazda. Acura in GT Daytona also have had
an edge. Mario Farnbacher and Jacob
Abel, it is game over for those two blokes as we saw earlier on. MSR does not have to worry about tire
degradation. Action Express and Cadillac
are not worried about tires. They’ve
committed to four shorter stints and the team tells Pipo Derani, “keep pushing,
mate. Keep pushing.”
Pipo Derani won in class here at Laguna Seca in 2018, but
that was with a different team. He then
joined Action Express at the beginning of the 2019 season. Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr have been really
pressing hard. The #5 JDC Miller
Motorsports Cadillac also pitted. So,
speaking of pit stops, we have one in GT Daytona as the #96 Turner Motorsports
BMW M6 GT3 makes a stop from the race lead in class. Robby Foley out of the car, and Bill Auberlen
is into the seat. Auberlen had a tire
issue yesterday in Michelin Pilot Challenge.
Be extremely careful to keep the tires planted on the road.
The LMP2 leader is in the lane, too. Tires, fuel, and a driver change for the
PR1/Mathiasen car as Ben Keating hands over to the Dane, Mikkel Jensen. We have seen contact, and argy bargy between
the prototypes and the GT Daytona cars.
#52 appears to have a slight transmission issue between third and fourth
gear on the paddle shifters. But, there
are no complaints from the drivers about it.
A couple of GTD cars in the lane and so is the Win Autosport entry. We are past the minimum drive time for the
Pro-Am categories, so there are wholesale driver changes taking place.
Oh dear. Rob Ferriol
is off the road in the Team Hardpoint Porsche, the #88 GT Daytona entry. Ferriol is trundling to the lane likely with
a flat tire. He wll hand the car to
Katherine Legge, 2018 class winner with Alvaro Parente in an Acura NSX GT3 in
GT Daytona. Ferriol, into Rainey curve
and into turn ten, spins the car. Did he
cut a tire down the hill? It was a lazy
spin. He was on the brakes into the
turn, and… screech! He just rotated the
car on the whirligig and then kept on trucking, albeit slowly. That was a long pit stop. Not good, mate. Not good.
That was not a full fuel load for the #88 team. Dane Camero leads Filipe Albuquerque now by
25 seconds. Will Dane Cameron pit? We’re going to find out momentarily. We continue following the progress of the
leader as Dane Cameron is making his way through traffic and for the most part,
he has a clear road ahead of him now. Great
overhead shots, from a drone most likely, here at Laguna Seca Raceway. Working GT Daytona traffic through The
Corkscrew. He has cleared it. So, you haven’t missed much.
Trent Hindman has made a pit stop for the first time in the
#16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R handing the automobile to Patrick
Long. Long, a native Californian, who
was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway presiding over a festival for classic
air-cooled Porsche’s. Zacharie Robichon,
the Canadian, is also in the lane in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R,
and he is going to hand over to Laurens Vanthoor, the vastly experienced
Belgian who is and has been a Porsche factory driver. Pfaff and their traditional plaid liveried
car, wants to have points.
Laurens Vanthoor has won here at Laguna Seca in GTLM
before. They are surely relying on
strategy to do well. Dane Cameron still
has to hit the pit lane and we have an hour and 45 minutes left on the board,
so we are nearly an hour into the motor race.
He is coasting from the crest of the hill for 400-500 yards, and that habit
is helping his fuel mileage. Will they
do it on a two-stop strategy? This is
fascinating stuff. He is five minutes
over as the DPi cars can run about 45 minutes on a tank. We see the fuel ranges widen in the other
classes in terms of minutes and laps.
Here’s the breakdown, the table of the numbers.
DPi 32-35 laps
= 41-45 minutes of fuel with a 30 second fuel fill in the lane.
LMP2: 34-37 laps = 45-49
minutes of fuel with a 34 second fuel fill in the lane.
GTLM: 46-49 laps = 63-65 minutes of fuel with a 34 second
fuel fill in the lane.
GTD: 44-47 laps = 63-67 minutes of fuel with a 40 second
fuel fill in the lane.
It should also be considered that the pit lane delta to
transfer through is 25 seconds. Cameron
is five minutes over the time limit on fuel, with his coasting technique. If they can do that for two more stints, they
will only need two more fuel stints, and a two-stop race. Also, into the pits, we now have the #14
Vasser Sullivan Lexus in GT Daytona. Pardon
me. Three stops. Into the lane now, is Dane Cameron and he hands
the car over to Olivier Pla.
Despite the warm weather here at Laguna Seca, the Acura #60
might just be in the sweet spot right now. Cameron was on fumes coming into the
lane and they have done a full fuel fill.
Checking the info, according to NBC Sports’ Calvin Fish, MSR are looking
to do two stops while other DPi teams will be on a three-stop strategy. At the sharp end of the field now, since the
#60 will be recycling back in, Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor
Racing Acura now leads, with Pipo Derani second aboard the #31 Whelen
Engineering Action Express Cadillac, and in third place, the #01 Chip Ganassi
Racing Cadillac in the hands of Kevin Magnussen.
Meanwhile, in GT Daytona, Madison Snow leads the field
aboard the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 ahead by almost 40
seconds over the Bill Auberlen driven #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. Snow heads for the pit lane for service, as
there’s more pavement in the pit lane now.
Bryan Sellers is going to take over the Lamborghini. This team won in class at Laguna Seca back in
2019. The notebooks don’t help as much
from year to year on this track because the pavement is so abrasive. Paul Miller Racing, they have thrown the
kitchen sink at getting this car in the sweet spot.
Split strategy for Corvette Racing that some may say is due
to team rivalry. #4 is in the lane
first. Realistically, both cars at
Corvette Racing just must find a way to stay ahead of the #79 WeatherTech
Racing Porsche. They know that Porsche
is very quick. Cooper MacNeil sharing
that car with Aussie Matty Campbell this weekend. The #79 car has two wins to their credit in
GTLM in 2021, at Sebring and last time we raced, at Road America. So, everyone has pitted at least once as
Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Acura resumes in the lead of this motor race.
Dane Cameron says that he had a long stint on qualifying
tires. They can roll the dice and throw
caution to the wind via fuel saving. How
do you save fuel at Laguna Seca? Cameron
says that the long, flowing turns help with fuel saving, lfiting and coasting,
and finding a rhythm. Everything adds
up. You have to trust your drivers, but
as an engineer, you have to really know your numbers and mathematics. At a track like Laguna Seca, you can roll and
coast through turns while at a track like Road America, even though it is a
high-speed circuit, there’s a lot of corners there, where you have to come to a
complete stop going in the corner, and then accelerate again on exit. Here, you can flow through the turns in a
smoother manner.
Bill Auberlen is giving the #96 Turner Motorsports BMW M6
GT3 a nice ride. He is nearly six
seconds ahead of Patrick Long in the Porsche, the #16 for Wright
Motorsports. Laurens Vanthoor in third
is 11 seconds, or 11 and a half seconds, down the road. The #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac has
made two stops in the race so far and had a drama filled stop the second
time. Loic Duval spun entering the pit
lane and may have gotten a shot of power he wasn’t expecting while the pit lane
speed limiter was on. Duval, and co-driver
Tristan Vautier, are now a lap down to the rest of the DPi field.
Loic Duval is a former Le Mans winner and he is a champion
of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
He is one of three drivers in today’s race signed up for the Peugeot
Hypercar program that will debut next year.
It is Loic Duval, Mikkel Jensen, and Kevin Magnussen. They are all moving over to full-time drives
with Peugeot in WEC next year. They won
the 12 Hours of Sebring and finished fourth in the sprint race at Watkins Glen
back in July. Pipo Derani brings the #31
Whelen Engineering Action Express Cadillac to the lane, for the second pit stop
of the day.
He is going to hand the car over to Felipe Nasr. Scrubbed tires again for the #31. Nobody in the DPi ranks has yet used a set of
fresh, sticker Michelin tires. Don’t
spin the wheels on the air jacks. Felipe
Nasr is down and away while the #55 Mazda is also in the lane and will see
Oliver Jarvis step in for the next stint, replacing Harry Tincknell. This team had issues with the radio earlier
in the race today. #55 is also using
scrubbed tires. Their radio issues are
now fixed. But they don’t have the rear
end grip on that car that they want by any means.
A full fuel load with an hour and a half to go, needing one
more stop. Acura #10 now pits from the
lead of the motor race. Scrubbed tires,
again, look, and a full fuel load. The
#31 Cadillac did have wheel spin. What
will the marshals’ call be on that? It
looks like the marshals looked n a couple different directions to see if there
was awheel spin on the Cadillac, as now, scrubbed tires for the #10 Acura as
well, plus fuel. A crew member moves an
air hose out of the way. The rule on
wheel spin is black and white. There is
no gray area.
Back onboard with the #10 Acura, plunging through The
Corkscrew. Now into the pit lane, the
#01 Ganassi Racing Cadillac. So, they
are one of the later DPi cars to hit the pit lane. Tires and fuel as well as a driver
change. So, Renger van der Zande should
be taking over from Kevin Magnussen. What
do Steve Jobs, Prince, Elon Musk, and Laguna Seca Raceway have in common? Well, in ’07, Apple introduced the first
iPhone, Prince entertained at the Super Bowl halftime show, Elon Musk displayed
his first Tesla electric car at auto shows all over the country, and 2007 was
also the most recent repaving of the track surface here at Laguna Seca, 14
years ago.
There are no fixed timetables for a track surface life. The level of roughness in macro and micro
(big and small bumps), is critical. The
top layer has begun wearing away and this gradually exposes rougher, more
abrasive pavement underneath. This
aggregate underlayer can cause greater, more pronounced degradation in the
tires. When the track surface was new,
and fresh, a soft compound tire was called for.
As it began aging, a medium compound was utilized. Everyone in the field now uses a harder
compound to combat tire degradation from the roughness of the surface that
exists now in 2021.
So, there you see, how the surface of a racetrack can evolve
over time. Fascinating stuff it is
indeed. Just under two and a quarter
miles, in length. 2.238 miles with 11
corners. The elevation change in total
on this circuit is 180 feet. We have 19
drivers who have won races here at Laguna Seca, in the field today. The first race run here was on November 8th,
1957, won by Pete Lovely. The Corkscrew
has an 18% grade. The legal amount on a
road for a drop off, a gradient, is six percent. On an alternate strategy, Olivier Pla is now
the race leader with a nearly ten second lead over Ricky Taylor.
Felipe Nasr has the #31 Whelen Cadillac for Action Express
in third overall with Renger van der Zande and Oliver Jarvis completing the top
five, and only the top five cars are now on the lead lap. Olivier Pla leads Ricky Taylor by ten seconds
and Felipe Nasr is next up in third place who is looking to eat into the lead
in the points for the #10 car. Some of
the drivers who have moved up well from their starting places include four GT
Daytona drivers. Ross Gunn has moved up
eight places, Andy Lally up four, Laurens Vanthoor and Katherine Legge both up
two, and Olivier Pla has gained one place in DPi.
The trouble with Laguna Seca (the dry lagoon), is the sand
on the outside of the road and the fact that the sand gets on the track and
causes friction on the tires as the grip changes every corner of every lap and
feeling out the grip is a key deal to being a great driver. We watch the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F
GT3 in the GT Daytona class, running sixth.
They have not had the 2021 season they wanted. Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz have run
extremely well in some places. Zach
Veach is giving the sister car a good drive too.
This is a track where the Lexus boys realize they are a bit
on the back foot. Olivier Pla still
leads the motor race on a long stint strategy with one less pit stop in the
mix. Olivier Pla has an eight plus
second lead at the present time. Another
GT Daytona battle rages on between two Porsche’s. Wright Motorsports vs. Pfaff
Motorsports. Patrick Long vs. Laurens
Vanthoor I believe. Down through The
Corkscrew and Rainey Curve they go. They
negotiate the final turn and the battle continues on in earnest. This is fun to watch!
Oliver Jarvis runs fifth overall right now, 34 seconds
behind the lead. Mazda is ending this
program at the end of the year. There’s
lots of driver movement in a gap year for 2022 until we get to LMDh in
2023. Mazda of course will not race in LMDh
and have elected instead to focus on their MX-5 Cup spec racing program. Yikes!
Internecine scrapping in the Corvette camp! They split the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine
Racing Audi R8! Jeff Westphal moves
aside allowing the battle between Antonio Garcia and Nick Tandy to steam
through. Tandy is hungry for a win and
is upset about not having one. So he
isn’t going to make it easy for Antonio Garcia by any stretch.
He wants a slice of the victory cake. They move past the #44 Magnus Racing Acura
with Andy Lally at the wheel of it.
Meanwhile, third spot still is held by Felipe Nasr in the #31 Whelen
Engineering Action Express Cadillac. Pipo
Derani says that the tire degradation is a huge issue at Laguna Seca with all
the sand. They have a touch less downforce
than the Acura’s do. They are running
very well but overtaking is very difficult with a loss of downforce. Traffic and pit stops are critical, thinking
of how the championship is going to work.
At Long Beach in the next race, the Cadillac should
shine. It will be a tight fight between
Cadillac and Acura. They are trying to
win this race today and every race from here on has major championship
implications. Action Express have moved
up to second place in points courtesy of consistent finishes. They were fourth in points after Mid-Ohio and
had a second place there and at Belle Isle.
The Six Hours of Watkins Glen yielded a top five placing. Then, they won the sprint race at The Glen,
the Watkins Glen 240, and at Road America, which has brought them within 41
points of the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura.
AXR is executing. The Cadillac
does not produce the same levels of downforce the Acura does. But they are pressing hard and really going
for it. We are looking at these
potential points swings after today’s race is done and dusted.
DPi: 100 points
LMP2: 70 points
GTLM: 50 points
GTD: 170 points
If the #10 Acura finishes third, they could still lose the
points lead, theoretically, if either the #55 Mazda or the #31 Cadillac win the
race today. #10 is second, #31 is third,
#55 is fifth. Ricky Taylor is now
running 6.6 seconds behind Olivier Pla. Filipe
Albuquerque says every race is a race that must be won. Even the championship leaders, they cannot
settle back and take it easy.
Complacency does not work in racing.
You are on a knife edge every corner of every lap of this motor race,
threshold braking into the corners. The
prototype cars do not have ABS and the GT Daytona cars do, while neither do the
GTLM machines. Laurens Vanthoor is
reeling in Bill Auberlen having passed Patrick Long.
The #52 LMP2 leading PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca is in
the pit lane and Mikkel Jensen, the Dane, will stay in the automobile for
another stint. Tires and fuel for this
car. Trouble for the left rear wheel nut
and thankfully a cross threaded wheel nut did not affect their pit stop
greatly. The mechanic always has a spare
wheel nut handy. Olivier Pla leads
overall while Ryan Dalziel is the LMP2 leader at this stage, aboard the #18 Era
Motorsport Oreca. The battle also rages
on in GTLM between the two factory Corvette C8.R’s.
Tandy might try to get past Garcia here. We shall see as the two mid-engined
Corvette’s are nose to tail headed up the Rahal straightaway. Now, pit stop time for the #96 Turner
Motorsports BMW M6 GT3. Tires and fuel
for this automobile it appears, in the Liqui Moly lubricants colors. We have nearly reached the one-hour remaining
mark in this race. Bill Auberlen still
in the car, and that could have been the final stop for fuel and tires. Auberlen is the first of the leaders in GTD
to pit. Maybe some of the other GTD cars
will run a bit longer, and therefore, his tires might be knackered towards the
end of the race.
Now in the lane, the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini of
Bryan Sellers who briefly held the class lead.
Scrubbed/scuffed tires going onto the Lamborghini. They have a new fueler who is also the crew
chief on the team. The #23 Heart of
Racing Aston Martin is in as well. Ross
Gunn staying in the car. A fuel load of
petrol for those boys. They are topped
up with 63 minutes now on the board. So,
the hour to go mark is at hand. The #88
Hardpoint Porsche is in the lane for tires with Katherine Legge at the
controls. No rain today, but marine
layer fog early in the morning is common.
They went with sticker tires for the Aston Martin and
scuffed tires on the #1 Lamborghini.
Ross Gunn, 24 years old, from England.
Alex Riberas never had a chance to race in the sister car. He raced with The Heart of Racing Aston
Martin team at the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
I was there. I saw him race. Since then, he has finally come back and he
went way down to New Zealand to do some racing there but was trapped in New
Zealand during the initial stages of the pandemic. He was racing with The Heart of Racing in New
Zealand for the best part of the year in 2020.
Ian James and Alex Riberas worked together at Alex Job Racing in
2016. They will race at Long Beach and
VIR (Virginia International Raceway), with the second car. Since the #1 Lamborghini and #9 Porsche have
both done the overcut on their pit strategy, Bill Auberlen is now running in
third spot.
Vanthoor is two and a half seconds up the road and now
Auberlen is pushing trying to move around Bryan Sellers. Pit stop time now too for the #79 WeatherTech
Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GT Le Mans.
Cooper MacNeil sharing with Matty Campbell of course. Four tires and fuel and of course the front
mounted fuel tank and filler on the Porsche 911. That’s classic. Bill Auberlen has warmer tires and in replay
we see him giving him some argy bargy and a love tap between Auberlen and
Long. They had some consternation and
bad blood between those two blokes.
We ought to mention Gabriel Aubry in the #8 Tower
Motorsports Oreca 07 Gibson in LMP2. The
Frenchman, sharing that car with Canadian John Farano this weekend. They run second in LMP2. Aubry has a lot of speed and is a talented
driver. Mikkel Jensen, Gabriel Aubry,
Ryan Dalziel, and Tristan Nunez, the top four.
Nunez is an ex-Mazda factory driver.
This is the penultimate event for LMP2 before we see the LMP2 cars race
again at the season finale at Petit Le Mans.
LMP2 cars will not race at Long Beach or VIR. Olivier Pla’s lead over Ricky Taylor in the
overall stands at eight seconds and Felipe Nasr remains in third a further
almost 20 seconds off the lead.
We’re inside an hour to go and MSR are not set up for a pit
stop at all. The #10 team at Wayne
Taylor Racing and the #31 Action Express Cadillac teams must wonder, and be
scratching their heads saying, “how on earth are the #60 boys getting this fuel
mileage?” Pla’s fuel stop will be much
longer than what the other cars need. Will
their strategy work out? We are looking
at final pit stops soon. One of the GTD
Lexus RC F GT3’s is in. That is the #12,
the Frankie Montecalvo and Zach Veach car.
Ah. Right on the nose, the #60
MSR Acura is in the pit lane, now. Four
tires, fuel, and a driver change it is.
So, Dane Cameron steps back into the car replacing Olivier Pla.
It was a perfect stop and four scrubbed tires as well as a
full fuel load. They are doing three
maximum fuel loads and Olivier Pla was doing an even better fuel saving job
than Dane Cameron was. Can #60 beat
their rivals in the other Acura, the #10?
We are now indeed watching the #10 machine. We see other cars come through. Here comes the #31 Whelen Action Express
Cadillac, Felipe Nasr at the wheel of it.
They are still pushing very hard.
There is no giving up in that team.
They are followed in hot pursuit by the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac
as well, Renger van der Zande at the controls.
Speaking of Cadillac, another pit stop (presumably the final one), for
the #5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Mustang Sampling entry.
Tires, fuel, and a top up of the drink bottle it looks
like. Road cars at Cadillac now have a
system of electronics that are like doing heel and toe on the accelerator and
brake, blipping downshifts on an old school race car, an electronic limited
slip differential. #31 in the pit lane,
a standard stop for Action Express.
Scrubbed tires going onto the car for Felipe Nasr. They have to be as close as possible to the
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura should they have a shot at the championship in
2021 and you know they are going to be right on there, and push like crazy.
Corvette #4 into the pits. Foru tires and fuel and a driver change for this team. There are different strategies between GTLM and DPi teams. Sticker tires for the GTLM cars and Nick Tandy is down and a way. A scrubbed tire is not as quick in the beginning but has longevity compared to a sticker Michelin. Whoa! Nick Tandy is off the road, look, right toward pit out! I don’t think he will be penalized, but he knows Antonio Garcia is coming in a hurry. There likely will not be a penalty for that, and he wanted to appease the marshals to avoid being penalized.
It is game on now. The
sticker tires had no grip and had just come out of the molds. Garcia and Tandy are going to get a bit held
up by the Porsche #16 of Patrick Long.
Scrubbed tires for the #55 Mazda and a full fuel load as Oliver Jarvis
has not yet been able to reap rewards in this motor race. Ricky Taylor is now in the lane, 21 seconds
in hand over Renger van der Zande. The
race can be won or lost in the lane. A
quick aero adjustment, and the car is down and away. That little adjustment has cost the #10 team
time and Olivier Pla is pouncing.
Meyer Shank Racing’s strategy is working. 55 minutes for Cameron’s first stint. 49 minutes for Pla’s initial stint. He will have to really save fuel to get to
the end with 42 minutes on the board yet.
Renger van der Zande is the last DPi machine to pit. Olivier Pla cycles back into the lead of the
motor race. Now to the lane, the LMP2
leading #52 PR1/Mathiasen Wynn’s lubricants car. Tires, fuel, and a driver change. It appears Ben Keating will likely finish out
this race. The speed trap on the front
straightaway shows the speed of each car as it is atop the WeatherTech sponsor
billboard bridge. Meanwhile, the #3
Corvette is still pushing the sister car in GTLM.
Up to The Corkscrew, and then… all the way down, down, down,
down, down. Olivier Pla leads Ricky
Taylor by a margin of ten seconds with less than 40 minutes to go. Can Ricky Taylor and Felipe Nasr run down
Olivier Pla? That’s the question on
everybody’s minds. Pla’s lead over
Taylor is 10.8 seconds. The Frenchman,
from Toulouse, is having to really press hard.
He must improve on the fuel mileage that he got on the last stint. His lap times match Ricky Taylor, who has
lots more fuel to burn. He has the gap
and the track position. Ricky Taylor is
good to go full rich.
Ricky Taylor is just now beginning to eat into Pla’s
lead. Filipe Albuquerque says that the
MSR team is gambling and saving fuel.
The #10 car is the big deal, and the #10 has to cover the #31 and the
#55. Wayne Taylor Racing are thinking
big picture and going for the championship.
In the meantime, the #01 of Renger van der Zande, he is pressurizing
Felipe Nasr. Nasr and van der Zande
clear one of the Lexus cars. That is the
#14 of Jack Hawksworth, sixth in GT Daytona.
Zach Veach is a lap down on the GTD field in the sister #12 Lexus. Laurens Vanthoor in the #9 Pfaff Motorsports
Porsche leads the class and does so by nearly three seconds over Bryan Sellers
in the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.
Bill Auberlen, third in class is also close behind with
Turner Motorsports, and their strategist Don Salama making the calls. The #9 and #1 are still in the fight for the
GT Daytona championship. Ricky Taylor is
now 4.9 seconds away from Olivier Pla. Will
Taylor catch Pla and force him to run his race car out of petrol? We’ll see.
The leaders work their way through the GT Daytona traffic, precisely and
diligently. Wow! We have just seen a pass for the lead! Ricky Taylor has found an opportunity and
taken it, to pass Olivier Pla! The #11
Steven Thomas and Tristan Nunez Win Autosport LMP2 car was in the way, and Taylor
uses it as a pick, to pass Pla for the lead!
If you are going to fuel save, you have to do it through the stint. But Pla could not fuel save and run the pace he could. 18-19 seconds behind is the battle of the Cadillac’s with Felipe Nasr for Action Express and Renger van der Zande for Ganassi Racing. These two are evenly matched. The consistent lap times (and we have not talked much about lap time in this race) among the DPi cars, is in the 1:18-1:20 bracket. Renger van der Zande is keeping the heat on Felipe Nasr. There will be only two races to go after this one for the DPi cars, at Long Beach on the famous street circuit that used to host the United States West Formula 1 Grand Prix back in the 1970s, and then, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in November.
Laurens Vanthoor still controls the class lead in GT Daytona
over Bryan Sellers’ Lamborghini. If they
can bring it home, they will win three races, Pfaff Motorsports. Patrick Long has gone around Bill
Auberlen. Bryan Sellers and company had
said they were not worried about the championship. They are in it. Maybe that was PR speak they were using,
intentionally underestimating their abilities.
Vanthoor leads Sellers by four and a half seconds. Ross Gunn is now only 21 seconds behind Bill Auberlen. So, he could be on Auberlen’s six very
soon. The #23 car was penalized in
qualifying of course.
They had points negated after qualifying and before the
race. Nick Tandy has gapped Antonio
Garcia by two and a half seconds in GT Le Mans.
Tandy wants that first championship race win. They must make inroads in the GTLM points
battle with their sister car. We learned
later after their exhibition run at Belle Isle in Detroit, last June, Corvette
Racing were testing ABS systems on the car for their probable entry next year
in the GT Daytona Pro class which replaces GT Le Mans going forward as GT3
comes to the fore in production-based sports car racing, particularly in IMSA.
Next year, GT Le Mans goes away. The Corvette will shift into a GT Daytona mode
with ABS brakes. Laurens Vanthoor and
Zacharie Robichon have had a hard time trying to find a compromise on their
setups. Therefore, Laurens Vanthoor was
given the longer finishing stint and Zacharie Robichon took the shorter first stint. Bill Auberlen in the meatime, has fading
tires, and mushy brakes. This is all
I’ve got. Struggle home to the end of
the motor race. Robichon had to play the
team game in qualifying without making compromises. New tires and the professional driver is
strapped into the car. Ricky Taylor now
leads Olivier Pla by a tad over eight seconds, 8.3 to be precise.
This move was based on pure pace as Olivier Pla ought to
slow down with 16 minutes left on the clock.
We are getting down to the nitty gritty here, folks. To quote former racing driver and play by
play man, Irishman Derek Daly, “this is good stuff here.” The clock is ticking. #10, they are executing and getting major
results even though they have not won since Mid-Ohio in May. The Cadillac teams have not had the races
they wanted. It is horses for courses
and the Acura boys have seemed to have the horse for this course.
That said, Felipe Nasr is rapidly closing in on Olivier Pla. The Brazilian is only five seconds behind the
Frenchman now. Yikes! Make it two seconds! Nasr is flying and Pla is going to have to
turn up the wick. A fuel save strategy must
be a complete run. Pla, Nasr, and van
der Zande are right together. Plunging
down the hull into Rainey curve. These
cars are incredibly rapid. Nasr might
just get around Olivier Pla. Laguna Seca
has not been a good track for the Cadillac’s historically. But the #31 will be happy with a possible
second place. Cadillac’s sweet spots
will be at Long Beach and at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in the final two
races of the season.
Renger van der Zande now must negotiate his way past both
Olivier Pla and Felipe Nasr if he wants to get to the sharp end. Nasr in the meantime, is holding off these
two hungry wolves behind him. Ah. Renger van der Zande shoots right past Olivier
Pla. Now he will try and go after Felipe
Nasr. Serenely in the lead, Ricky Taylor
is motoring. He does have a lapped Acura
NSX GT3 ahead, and clears the damaged Gradient Racing entry, the #66 NSX GT3 of
Till Bechtolsheimer from England and American Marc Miller.
Ricky Taylor’s lead over Felipe Nasr is now 19 and a half
seconds. Acura are going for their third
straight win but not a third straight 1-2 finish. The #60 car of Olivier Pla continues saving
fuel. He works his way past Bill
Auberlen, fourth in GT Daytona. Felipe
Nasr must keep his foot to the floor to keep Renger van der Zande behind
him. Pla lost track position all in one
lap. The #60 car qualified in second
spot. It didn’t seem they needed an
extreme strategy, and they have rolled the dice but it might not pay off for
them today.
That was at Road America last time. Check that.
Today, they tried their best and they are looking for a win. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have been
on rails today. Meanwhile, Renger van
der Zande is chasing down Felipe Nasr. Renger
van der Zande and the #01 team are fourth in the championship. The #31 cannot give up points they
desperately need. Nasr wiggles through
turn five. Maybe his tires are
knackered. In 2017, Renger van der Zande
at the wheel of an LMP2 car, passing Dane Cameron (who at that time drove with
Action Express), and van der Zande, who was driving for Spirit of Daytona
Racing, made the move very late.
That was a win for Renger van der Zande and Belgian Marc
Goossens. Now, van der Zande is right to
the flank of Felipe Nasr! Outside, and
now back to the inside goes van der Zande!
He is trying the over under on Nasr!
You know that Nasr won’t let him get away with this! Contact out of the corner! More contact!
Nasr has two wheels off in the sand!
He holds it together but van der Zande goes by. Nasr will not roll over and play dead. The #1 Paul Miller Racing GTD Lamborghini is
the meat in a Cadillac sandwich. Renger
van der Zande is going to eke out a bit of a gap.
Renger van der Zande of course drove for Wayne Taylor in
2020 when that team was still racing a Cadillac. White flag next time by. Taylor leads by 20 seconds, and he will have
a 100 point gap over the #31 car. White
flag. One more time around Laguna Seca
Raceway. Dipping into turn six, and
headed up the Rahal straight and back down through The Cokscrew, and there’s a
wreck in The Corkscrew with two LMP2 cars!
Yikes! Ricky Taylor slammed on
the brakes, but now, three in a row for Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque, and
Wayne Taylor Racing.
This is their first win at Laguna Seca in eight years, since
2013. Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen will
win for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports in LMP2.
Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner win in GT Le Mans. They have made their first 2021 win happen,
their 119th overall win for Corvette and their eighth at Laguna
Seca. Pfaff Motorsports and Porsche will
win GT Daytona with Laurens Vanthoor and Zacharie Robichon.
Overall/DPi: #10 Taylor/Albuquerque Acura ARX-05 DPi
LMP2:
#52 Keating/Jensen Oreca
07
GT Le
Mans: #4 Milner/Tandy Chevrolet
Corvette C8.R
GT
Daytona: #9 Vanthoor/Robichon Porsche
911 GT3R
That’s a wrap from Laguna Seca! Time is of the essence. Three races remaining in the season, two only
for DPi, and LMP2, while GTLM and GTD have three races. The next event is in two weeks on the streets
of Long Beach, California, at the former home of the United States Formula 1
Grand Prix West, back in the 1970s and current home for IndyCar and IMSA. We will see DPi, GTLM, and GTD cars race at
Long Beach. Excited for that event, and
it will be the first race there in two years.
So long everyone. See
you at Long Beach for an hour and 40 minute street fight.
