The IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship is taking a well deserved hiatus from the grueling endurance race schedule to begin the sprint race portion of the season, today, on the legendary streets of Long Beach, California. The new GTP prototypes will get their first true race on a street course today, and the one and only street course on the calendar in 2023. On pole for today's race, the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 to be driven by Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque. The pole in GT Daytona Pro was snagged in yesterday evening's qualifying session by the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in the hands of Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, while in GT Daytona it was the #
A grand total of 28 cars will start the race today. Actually, drop that number down by two to 26. We have of course lost due to qualifying accidents, both the #80 AO Racing T Rex Porsche 911 GT3R of PJ Hyett and Sebastian Priaulx which was involved in that massive accident in qualifying yesterday along with the #93 Racer's Edge Motorsports with WTR Acura NSX GT3 of Ashton Harrison and Mario Farnbacher. Hyett and Harrison were the two drivers involved in the incident. This track is 1.968 miles and of course, we will be racing today for 100 minutes and 100 minutes only. Fast and frantic is what this motor race will be.
This could be a truly spicy flavor. Have a glass of water ready for this one. It is a gorgeous day, approaching 70 degrees in southern California. Not as many classes as we normally see because of the condensed nature of the race and the track. GTP, GTD Pro and GTD regular as we welcome Leigh Diffey, Calvin Fish, Marty Snider, and Dave Burns, to call the action. Cadillac have won five consecutive races at Long Beach and did so in the DPi era. Can they do so today? Acura wants it to be different. Acura has a front row lockout. 18 GT3 cars, from GTD Pro and GTD regular of course. Jack Hawksworth has the pole and Marco Sorensen is on the pole in GT Daytona.
This is Marco Sorensen's first time racing on the streets of Long Beach. The keys to winning here at long beach, get one pit stop and make it perfect. Out lap risk and reward, and argy bargy between the cars and these unforgiving concrete barriers. Tire temperature is a bear with the heavier GTP car and these new more durable tires. This is going to be a street fight! BMW had their best qualifying effort this weekend in their return to prototype racing here in the states. Nick Yelloly cannot hear his team on the radio. Uh oh. Get the signboard. One stop is the strategy. If there is miscommunication on timing, look out.
We are going to green this time by. Safety car lights out. Green flag! Away we go! Filipe Albuquerque takes the lead and now, here comes Nick Yelloly tags Sebastien Bourdais and he spins off the road and so does Tom Blomqvist! The tricky thing about these cars is the braking, the electronic braking. Nick Tandy has moved to second place already. Yelloly is next followed by the other BMW of Augusto Farfus and the second Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr. We are under yellow. Blomqvist and Bourdais are going to go a lap down already.
Blomqvist was stranded after his spin. Cold tires with the brake by wire system catching the drivers out. What a bear! What an absolute grizzly bear! Renger van der Zande cannot believe his eyes! Mike Shank, same thing. With Tom Blomqvist stranded too, he cannot believe it. So, where will the race go from here? We'll find out soon enough. We continue under Full Course Yellow. Sebastien Bourdais called on the radio and said the #60 pushed him into the marbles and he had no brakes. Blomqvist racing with Bourdais and one of the BMW's. Bourdais locks up and everyone was very concerned about this start.
Nick Tandy was a jolly lucky bloke to poke his nose through. Renger van der Zande, last year's winner, tells us that Sebastien Bourdais got in the marbles and the #60 did not leave him too much room. For safety, the car stalled. Chip Ganassi Racing is not sure they can get back out unless they get back to the pit lane. The engine's brain has told the car to shut off and will need a flat tow to the pit lane. You have the hand clutch, the MGU (Motor Generator Unit), and the other electronics. A year ago, Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande came back from early trouble to win the motor race.
Bourdais is stranded and cannot get back in the race. I think it is game over for the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing team and now, we are set to go back to racing with just over ten minutes on the board. Albuquerque leads from Tandy and Yelloly. Tandy has a head of steam but cannot get by. Let's get a lap of racing under our belts. Yelloly is racing for the first time at Long Beach and the same is true with Brazilian Augusto Farfus. Connor De Philippi s the only driver who has been here. Phillip Eng likes this place and some drivers have run the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix which is a similar street course.
Filipe Albuquerque is not pushing the bye bye button. Tandy and Yelloly are right on his six. Strategy call at Action Express for an early pit stop to top up on petrol, and swap to Pipo Derani, topping the car up with field to leapfrog the field. This is our team, led by Tim Keane, Gary Nelson, Bob Johnson and more great team members. Tim Keane said that they are banking on a different strategy and they are down and away. Fuel only for the last pit stop and Derani is still on the lead lap but he will have push immediately.
If there is a yellow, Derani will be caught up in GTD traffic. He is going to push hard with Albuquerque, Tnady, Yelloly, and Farfus bearing down on him. Tom Blomqvist has gone down a lap and he now must attack the other GTP cars and get back in the game. Jack Hawksworth leads GTD Pro for Vasser Sullivan Racing and Lexus, the RC F GT3 with the front mounted V8 motor. He has a comfortable lead over the Porsche of Patrick Pilet. Madison Snow is chasing Marco Sorensen for GT Daytona. Aston Martin Vantage vs. BMW M4 GT3.
Paul Miller Racing going for a hat trick. Blomqvist pushing hard trying to get back on the lead lap as Albuquerque leads Tandy at the top of the shop. It is fast and frantic so far as we watch the GTD Pro and GTD battle. Equal spec GT3 cars just separated by driver grading. This GTD scrap is massive and now, Whelen Engineer/Action Express has something to say. Alexander Sims says he has done these really short stints and says Pipo Derani has had great pace. It depends on yellows and what other people in GTP do. The fast outlap was key for Action Express and they hope to get going.
Support the group effort on the strategy. How can we win this race? Filipe Albuquerque must be in energy conservation mode and does not want to get too far out front. If the #31 boys get caught in traffic, they will have to be cautious but they can do it. This team has the strategy brain trust to figure it out as Brendon Iribe gouges his way past Chandler Hull. Here comes the GTP traffic. GT3 cars please move. Derani can use these GT3 cars as a pick. Filipe Albuquerque is monstering Pipo Derani to try and put the Whelen Cadillac a lap down.
Nick Tandy is keeping pace in the Porsche, the #6 Porsche, being absolutely hammered by Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8. These Michelin's come in and last forever through a stint. Some teams are biding their time. Wayne Taylor and Michael Andretti looking on. Single tire sets might work depending on the Full Course Yellow situation. In IndyCar qualifying, Kyle Kirkwood scored the pole. Yours truly will watch the IndyCar event tomorrow after the World Endurance race from Portimao in Portugal.
A big weekend of motor racing this weekend but the focus here of course is on sports cars 110%. Traffic jam in the GT Daytona class in the hairpin. That is the slowest, narrowest part of the circuit. Brendon Iribe got turned in the #70 Inception Racing McLaren along with Chandler Hull in the #97 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3 he shares with Bill Auberlen. Brendon Iribe radioed the team and said, "that was not my fault." There was some shemozzle between the McLaren and the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 in qualifying yesterday.
Porsche have one car in good shape and one not. Felipe Nasr not having a good time with braking with these brake by wire systems. Nasr sharing with Matt Campbell. If you don't have confidence under braking, you will not have a good lap time. Felipe Nasr ran hybrid in Formula 1 and Nick Tandy running for Porsche in the previous LMP1 hybrid boosted era. Antonio "The King of Spain" Garcia and teammate Jordan Taylor, they don't have all out pace. Trouble it may be for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura as P[ipo Derani is trying hard to run away from Filipe Albuquerque to avoid going a lap down.
Albuquerque's lead has ballooned over Nick Tandy. Alan Brynjolfsson blocks the way and Albuquerque is pressing Derani hard. Derani must dig deep and keep Albuquerque behind as we see Nick Yelloly monstering Nick Tandy in the battle of the German racers, the Porsche 963 vs. the BMW M Hybrid V8. The Nick and Nick show? Well, well, well. In GT Daytona, we are going to see pit action in a wee while. The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus has the lead in GTD Pro while a few cars back in the GTD #12 Lexus in the hands of Frankie Montecalvo. Mercedes #79 in the lane and so is the Aston Martin. That is the Marco Sorensen driven #27 car sharing with Roman De Angelis.
De Angelkis will get into the car. Fueling up and changing tires. Driver change, tire change, and fuel fill will be in the same time window. It is crowded in the lane. Oh boy. Someone may have nudged a wheel from the #78 U.S. Racetronic Lamborghini Huracan GT3. That is the car of Loris Spinelli and Misha Goikhberg. Now then, Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas in the sister Heart of Racing Aston in the lane. Riberas, the Spaniard, takes over from Ross Gunn.
Paul Miller Racing, the #1 BMW M4 GT3 is in the lane as well. Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, and that whole team want the hat trick. Roman De Angelis is going for the pass. Sellers throws the block! De Angelis is going to try again, look. Sellers up on the wheel. De Angelis cannot get by and now, Snow is going to motor away. Smoke pouring from the left rear of the #96 Turner Motorsports Liqui Moly BMW M4 GT3. Robby Foley could have a flat tire. Sellers vs. De Angelis, the scrap continues. This is the first round of the GT Daytona Sprint Cup championships after Daytona and Sebring.
Albuquerque still chasing down Derani. Albuquerque is frustrated. Derani has to be defensive. Tandy is chasing hard. Albuquerque needs to hit the lane. If he comes by, to the lane, he could have cold tires. Tandy and Yell9oly pass and they are trying to chase down Albuquerque as Derani is hanging on for dear life to stay on the lead lap but he has lapped traffic. Albuquerque in the lane. Ricky Taylor to get into the car. Nick Tandy in the lead of the motor race. This is intense.
Jack Hawksworth to hit the lane in GTD Pro as we see Klaus Bachler being hammered by Jordan Taylor in the Corvette. Porsche vs. Corvette Racing, Pfaff Motorsports Porsche. Ben Barnicoat takes over the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. A delay on the driver change in the #10 pit! Wow! Unbelievable! The #6 Porsche is in the lane as the #9 Porsche tags Ricky Taylor. Yelloly and Farfus in the lead. Porsche wants to do the overcut by one lap and they did. Matthieu Jaminet takes over car #6. What kind of in lap does the #25 BMW have?
Yelloly stays out. Where will Matthieu Jaminet be? He is way ahead! He is past the fountain. This is the overcut. Oh boy! This is so close! #10 just wriggled big style! Ricky Taylor's Michelin tires are still cold. No tires for the #6 Porsche boys at Penske. #7 to the lane, Felipe Nasr in the second Porsche 963 to hand off to Dane Cameron. Ricky Taylor has to build speed and get the temperature back into the tires. This is an unbelievable motor race! There is action everywhere! Pipo Derani is chasing down Matt Campbell. Lots chopping and changing. Derani now up to third place past Connor De Philippi.
Don't burn off the tires. Derani dives inside and will need a splash and a dash. Wrong. Whoops. Matt Campbell I mean. Dane Cameron is driving for Porsche tomorrow in World Endurance in Portugal, a race you will read about. Let's get back to this one. Ben Barnicoat leads Klaus Bachler by six and a half seconds in GT Daytona Pro. Filipe Albuquerque caught a neutral coming out of the pit lane. Excuse me. Ricky Taylor did. We have less than 50 minutes to go. We have past the halfway mark. Jack Hawksworth says his first stint went according to plan. Jaminet leading for Porsche over Derani for Cadillac and Action Express.
Vasser Sullivan Lexus ran third at Daytona, second at Sebring and could win today at Long Beach and we'll know in just a tad over 45 minutes. This motor race is a true sprint and going down at a tremendous clip! The first two races of the year are the two longest, the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring. Energy conservation and tire strategy are key. Teams qualify and race with only two stints of the long duration Michelin GTP tires. Any mistakes will impact your strategy and Michelin are doing a fabulous job as a partner for IMSA. In the meantime, Pipo Derani has been off sequence and he is chasing down Matthieu Jaminet.
He will need a second pit stop and you know he wants to go for it. Penske and Action Express, neither of these teams have elected to take tires. Jaminet ekes a gap out over Derani. Nick Tandy in the sister Porsche, he and Nick Yelloly managed to get past the earlier incident between the #01 and #60. Matthieu Jaminet is doing all he can. Madison Snow says that the strategy worked for Paul Miller Racing in GT Daytona and Bryan Sellers is ahead of Roman De Angelis. Jordan Taylor has passed Klaus Bachler. In replay, he is roughing up Klaus Bachler who could not protect the line.
Ben Barnicoat is ten seconds up the road leading GTD Pro for Lexus. Jordan Taylor did very well in his first NASCAR Cup start at Circuit of the Americas a few weeks ago in the Gen 7 NASCAR Cup car. Nick Yelloly has found pace at a track he has never raced at before. Traffic management is the deal. Now then, Pipo Derani continues chasing Matthieu Jaminet. 38 minutes to go. This race is flying by as we said earlier. Again, a true sprint. At BMW, they took fresh tires compared to the Porsche camp.
40 minutes remaining. Penske IndyCar star Scott McLaughlin will join us in a wee while. A driver who has had success in Australian Supercars and IndyCar and has recently also found his feet in sports cars. Scott McLaughlin of course won LMP2 with Tower Motorsports at Sebring. We welcome him to the broadcast booth. He had an amazing experience winning Sebring especially in the darkness. It is now time to push. Pipo Derani is chasing Matthieu Jaminet and is doing his best to make up 3.7 seconds. The street course here at Long Beach gets grippier and faster with every session between the IndyCars and the sports cars. The grip moves and you can take a good chunk of curb during the race compared to Free Practice 1 for instance.
Commit to the blind corners over the curbs and under braking. If you don't take enough curb you are slow but if you hit it too hard you crunch the car. Derani beginning to close up on Matthieu Jaminet a wee bit. Matt Campbell has now moved to second as Derani pits. We see Connor De Philippi and Ricky Taylor in this as well. Will the strategy for Action Express work? Will we see a four, five way fight for the win? It is getting tasty as we speak. This is very, very interesting stuff indeed. 28 minutes remaining in this motor race. Cadillac has had a successful history here. This race has never been rained on and has been around since 1975 when Formula 1 raced here. Brian Redman won here in '75 in Formula 5000.
The Formula 1 cars raced here from 1976-1983. Brian Redman did a video tribute to Jacky Ickx who was honored by the Road Racing Driver's Club along with Derek Bell and Mario Andretti. He and Bell won Le Mans together many times. Katherine Legge is currently ninth in class in GT Daytona sharing the car with Sheena Monk. She has won Long Beach in Formula Atlantic. Katherine Legge will be a part of the Indianapolis 500 in May. She raced Champ Cars and has now been racing a bunch in sports cars as well. Legge will run with Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
In GT Daytona, the lead battle is a second and a half between Bryan Sellers and Roman De Angelis. Time is of the essence. 24 minutes to go. Marco Sorensen has had his first race at Long Beach and he is new at street course racing. He is satisfied with his first drive and has no idea how they were leapfrogged by the BMW boys. Roman De Angelis knows what to do. Points will be critical. The order seems to be chopping and changing in GTP. Penske run 1-2. Matthieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell. Pipo Derani has fallen behind a bit and so have the two BMW's.
This race is alive at the front. Connor De Philippi makes a massive move on Matt Campbell and goes to the escape road! Yikes! Taylor is now catching Campbell. He is less than four seconds behind Jaminet. Oh my goess. Campbell is beginning to slide around. Taylor wriggles on old tires and now, Campbell goes back by. If the Porsche's get bogged down, the Acura could come back. But do not do anything silly with the GT Daytona traffic. The Mercedes AMG GT3's of Phil Ellis and Mikael Grenier ahead. Matt Campbell washes Ricky Taylor out wide. Taylor alongisde down Seaside Way! Contact with the Porsche! Matt Campbell hanging on by is fingernails.
Taylor is getting impatient. This race has only seen one yellow. Campbell being caught by Taylor and Jaminet is whistling off into the distance. Just 16 minutes to go. It is crunch time. Taylor is right on Campbell's six and here comes Connor De Philippi! De Philippi and Eng are beginning to push with Pipo Derani in sixth spot. Campbell and Jaminet run 1-2. 12 minutes to go, or less. Porsche team boss Jonathan Diguid is running a German based team from Mooresville, North Carolina, and he has a flat in Germany as well. De Philippi all over Taylor.
Ricky Taylor is going for it and here comes Connor De Philippi! De Philippi almost hits the fence! Yikes! This is a four way fight. Matt Campbell has damage and has been holding on, hanging tough. Taylor is going to try it again and has dropped Connor De Philippi. Taylors dives for second. Katherine Legge tags the wall but will be OK. No worries there. It is crunch time now. Definitely crunch time. Porsche #6 leads with just six minutes to go. The GTD ranks are close too.
Ben Barnicoat leads Jordan Taylor and Klaus Bachler. Bryan Sellers leads Roman De Angelis in GT Daytona. Bachler monstering Taylor and meantime, Ricky Taylor is catching Matthieu Jaminet hand over fist. Jaminet now leads by three and a half seconds. Jaminet gets stymied by traffic and now, Ricky Taylor is closing up and fast! Burning through the traffic with just a handful of laps to go. The clock has almost expired. Taylor has to pull the pin.
Jaminet is slithering through the apex. This is mano e mano. Acura and Porsche. This is going to be down to the wire. Jaminet has clean air. Focus forward and go for it. This is a pressure cooker. Porsche? Acura? We will see two more laps to go. Taylor on the power. Jaminet defensive. No white flag. Four miles. Taylor sends it and smashes the wall! De Philippi is now pressing Jaminet hard! I don't know if we will see yellow. Ricky Taylor does not have reverse. Yellow. That's going to allow Jaminet to coast to victory it appears.
One lap to go and Penske Porsche are going to win making it three winners in three races. Jeepers creepers! Have you ever? No, I've never! Ricky Taylor is absolutely devastated. The brake by wire on the GTP cars is a real bear. It is so tough to get it right. Final lap of the race. In 2007, Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard won here at Long Beach in the Porsche RS Spyder LMP2. Nick Tandy and Matthieu Jaminet take the Porsche 963 to their first GTP win! Wow! Porsche back in victory lane. In GTD Pro, Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth win. BMW takes GT Daytona with Paul Miller Racing in the hands of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow.
Overall/GTP: #6 Tandy/Jaminet Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963
GT Daytona Pro: #14 Barnicoat/Hawksworth Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3
GT Daytona: #1 Sellers/Snow Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3
That's it from the streets of Long Beach, California. Next up for the WeatherTech Championship, in a month, also in California, we will be at the Monterey Peninsula and Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, for yet another sprint. The Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N on Mother's Day. We'll see you then. So long for now, from Long Beach. We'll see you tomorrow for FIA WEC from Portimao in Portugal, for the 6 Hours. Get some rest and be up bright and early with us for that one. From Long Beach, bye bye.
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