Cadillac, Lexus take IMSA wins at Long Beach | Highlands News-Sun

LONG BEACH â€” It may have been the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, but the day was all about Cadillac. The manufacturer saw its teams run 1-2 on the Long Beach street course and claim victory, as the 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series. R edged the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Race entry by .564 seconds to take the pole position.

“We have had a lot of problems and things are not going well,” said Sebastien Bourdais, who shared the No. 01 car with Renger van der Zande. â€œOur last win was at Laguna Seca last year, so it’s almost a full year. I’m very happy for Cadillac, for Chip Ganassi Racing and for the guys. They work hard and it feels like we deserve more than that most of the time. We hope this is the beginning of a new cycle for us.â

Two Porsche Penske Motorsport entries took third and fourth, with the Proton Competition 5 Mustang Sampling Porsche 963 rounding out the top five.

“We are happy that it is Cadillac 1-2,” said Pipo Derani, who shared the wheel of No. 31 Cadillac by Jack Aitken. â€œWe wish it was the other way around but we did the best we could. We will take the points and keep moving forward.â

Vasser Sullivan’s decision to split his two driver pairs and run two cars in the GTD class paid off big, as the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3 took the class win. Parker Thompson and Ben Barnicoat got off to a good start, with Thompson setting the GTD class record during qualifying. The team was in control for most of the race and helped make up for a poor 15th place finish in the No. 12 car of Vasser Sullivan, winning by 1.449 seconds over the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW.

The two Lexus entries started at the front, but an early penalty hit the car at the back of the field. Drivers Jack Hawksworth and Frankie Montecalvo made up some ground, but contact with 33 minutes remaining spelled the end of the day for the car.

The No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 finished third, while the No. 57 Windard Racing Mercedes-AMG was seventh after winning the first two races of the season. Winward Racing still leads the team championship race 987-802 over the Turner Motorsport entry.

The No. 13 AWA Corvette Z06 GT3.R put in a solid car to finish sixth in the 17-car GTD field. This is the team’s best finish so far this season and came after the team started 15th on the grid. .

â€œThe race went very well depending on where we started,â€ said Orey Fidani, who shares the car with Matt Bell. â€œThe car was big and easy to drive. We went up to sixth, and we’ll take that. I am very happy with the finish from where we started.â

After only GTP and GTD races in Long Beach, the GTD Pro cars will return to the MOTUL Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca May 10-12. The race will also see the return of the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series in North America.