Ace tire strategy gives CGR Cadillac IMSA the win at Long Beach

The drivers and teams seemed to be in general agreement that it would not be possible – that no one could go the entire race on one set of tires as Porsche Penske Motorsports did last year to win at Long Beach. Cadillac Racing Crew No. 01 had different ideas.

Helped by three full-time cautions in the 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, the No. 01 crew only added fuel when Sebastien Bourdais handed the Cadillac V-Series.R to Renger van der Zande with just over an hour remaining in the race. . Through a pair of restarts and a pileup at the hairpin, van der Zande defeated Jack Aitken in the Whelen Cadillac Racing No. 31 V-Series.R to win the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It was the 66th IMSA victory for Chip Ganassi Racing, the 20th for van der Zande and the 12th for Bourdais.

The No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus led the entire race from pole to claim the GT Daytona victory.

Polesitter Pipo Derani found the gap at the start while Bourdais took second from his second row starting position. Derani controlled the race at the front for the first half, and through the first caution of the entire course was issued when Brendan Iribe put the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 into the wall coming out of turn 5 and back into the path of Adam Adelson’s Wright. Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, taking both cars out of the race.

Most of the GTP runners focused on the 30m sprint, giving them enough energy to make it to the finish line. Bourdais was the last of the bunch, after all the other cars took four tires or left side tires. Choosing not to take tires with Bourdais out and van der Zande in moved the No. 01 ahead of the No. 31, a track position they would never relinquish.

“When we woke up this morning, it was very cold,” explained van der Zande. “And the sun came up at some point and it started to get hot, so we left it to the last minute to decide. I think that’s the best you can do in racing. If you plan to start or where to go at the start, it doesn’t happen the same way. So in case this, as well, and with the tires it’s a matter of making a decision on the spot. They made the right choice for sure.”

Of course, that meant that at the end of the race, van der Zande had more old tires under him than Aitken had since the No. 31 took left-side tires. Aitken said he could see van der Zande struggling, but Long Beach is a tough place to pass under any circumstances, and the grip difference wasn’t big enough.

“It was a few – especially easy to look up, which on a road track I think is often the end of the race. So taking it is easy. When I got into the car I knew I had to let the tires live. So keep control of the race and don’t push too much, don’t drive those tires so I have the rubber left at the end of the race, it was the key for me how I managed the tires and it worked out that way. And the traffic was very hairy at one point because Lamborghini and Aston Martin were fighting … I think it was the Turn of 8, and we almost crashed right there. I think those yellows always help with tire damage, so it was good,” van der Zande added.

The BMW M RLL team had high hopes for a good finish after Nick Yelloly qualified No. 25 M Hybrid V8 per second, only 0.009 from the Derani pole. But it was one bad luck after another for Yelloly and De Phillippi, starting and being passed by Nick Tandy in No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 10 minutes in the race for third place. It went downhill from there. The No. 25 was out of contention as the second caution came out when Lous Deletraz put the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Acura into the wall in Turn 1, ending up losing another spot in the pit stop.

Chasing Nasr, De Phillippi tagged him from behind heading into Turn 9. The No. 25 suffered more nose damage in a pileup at the hairpin, initiated by Loris Spinelli in the Race 78 Forte and USRT Lamborghini Huracan making contact with Mathieu Jaminet’s No. 6 PPM 963 and spinning Porsche. After the nose change, De Phillippi buried the car in the tires at Turn 6, bringing out the third and final caution of the full-length race with 16 minutes remaining.

The problems of the No. 25 BMW, along with the help of Jaminet’s spin, lifted the No. 7 PPM to 963, giving third place to Nasr and Dane Cameron. As a result, Cameron and Nasr took the sole lead of the points they shared with the WTRandretti No. 40 team with 1082 points. Bourdais and van der Zande moved into second place with 974, and Aitken and Derani are third, ahead of Jordan Taylor and Delétraz, with 955 points.

Jaminet and Tandy’s No. 6 Porsche was fourth, followed by No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 of Mike Rockenfeller and Gianmaria Bruni.

Vasser Sullivan Lexus arrived in Long Beach with another ace up their sleeve – the second GTD entry. Jake Galstad/Lumen

With GTD PRO headed to Detroit next month, Vasser Sullivan Racing took the opportunity to do as it has done before and run a second car in GTD. Dividing two common drivers into No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3, Frankie Montecalvo and Parker Thompson, and paired with GTD PRO drivers, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat, respectively, the team doubled its positions. They shut out the front row, Thompson claiming his second penalty of the season.

The No. 12 Montecalvo and Hawksworth had a poor race, with Montecalvo receiving a car penalty for changing lanes at the start. Later, Hawksworth made contact with a wall, breaking the suspension and stopping the car. For the No. 89, though, the ride was smooth, with Thompson taking his second WeatherTech Championship win (the first came as an endurance booster at the Sahlen Glen Six Hours in 2023), and Barnicoat taking his second straight Beach. win after he and Hawksworth won GTD PRO last year.

“It’s tough when you know execution is the only thing between you and winning the race,” Thompson said. “There were many experts who qualified, so I was against a tough field at the start but I controlled the race from the start, jumped well, entered Turn 1, handled the restart and saved our Lexus. The RC F made sure that Mr. Platinum himself by my side could bring it home. So it was great that 89 … the message behind that was the first time Lexus came to America, so it’s nice to get a win for them back in Long Beach.”

Some of the front-runners in GTD found themselves in trouble, such as Spencer Pumpelly in his Heart of Racing debut being flagged out of fourth place by Anders Fjordbach in Turn 6. The No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage Evo Pumpelly shared with Roman De. Angelis was running well up to that point.

The No. 34 Victory Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 had a strong race in the hands of Albert Costa Balboa, which continued with Manny Franco, but both drivers had minor contact incidents that left the car struggling at the end. And the winner of the first two races, Winward Racing, lost any hope of victory when they were given the chance to lead the crew over the wall.

In the end, it was a three-way battle between the cars that had started well to return to the field for second. No. The 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 emerged in a good position after the pit stop, with Robby Foley placing the Patrick Gallagher-powered car in second place.

Korthoff/Preston Motorsports got off to a rough start to their weekend, with Mikael Grenier crashing the No. 32 Mercedes AMG into the wall in the first practice session and missing the second. With little practice, Grenier qualified the car in sixth and kept the car clean before handing over to Mike Skeen in fourth. Skeen took advantage of Pumpelly’s problems to reach third and continued to chase Foley, but was unable to pass.

However, the pace of the race would go to the drivers who finished fourth. The 66 Gradient Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 Racing skipped qualifying by changing engines and starting at the back. Sheena Monk moved up a few places to 11th. After the pit stop, Stevan McAleer, in his first stint as Monk’s full-time partner, moved the car from 12th to fourth, and was right on Skeen’s tail at the checker.

Competition No. The 55 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 of Giammarco Levorato and Corey Lewis finished fifth, followed by Orey Fidany and Matthew Bell in the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Russell Ward and Philip Ellis remain the GTD points lead for Winward despite finishing seventh with 987 points. Gallagher and Foley moved up to second with 802 and Thompson is third in points with 792 as the series draws to a close at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 10-12.

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