Qualifying for the 50th Long Beach Grand Prix ended with BMW emerging as the pole sitter after securing a 1-2 finish ahead of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. BMW led the Porsche pair behind and into the first turn of the race and would hold until the first round of stops. However by the mid point in the race the Porsches had already built up a sizable lead and thus the BMWs had to settle for a P3 and P5 despite a front row lock out at the start.
Porsche Penske make it three in a row after winning at Daytona, Sebring and now Long Beach. Felipe Nasr brought the car home in dominant fashion and was not tested on the final lap of the race. The feat has only been accomplished once before in the history of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship. The No.07 Porsche Penske widened the gap in the championship race now 123 points clear of the teams sister car.
GTD
The No. 177 AO Racing Porsche “Rexy” won on a one off entry aside from their normal outfit with the No. 77 GTD Pro car. Despite not being a season entry for GTD the team pulled out the win in the short 100 minute sprint around the streets of Long Beach. The team made a very good decision for us not to change tires and be aggressive on the fuel side,” said Laurens Vanthoor, driver. “That was our only chance as the Lexus, as we saw the first stint, had a lot of speed. It’s not easy to overtake here so we had to try and take track position.
We managed that but then the fun part starts, trying to stay ahead on older tires (and) especially when the yellow came out I was able to save some fuel. In the beginning I wasn’t very sure. But after 10-15 laps, I could see he was not able to come very close, so I knew if I did everything right and not make any mistakes everything will be all right. And at the end that’s how it turned out.”
Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Results